For our sixth annual Heroes Issue, we’ve selected passages from the last 50 years of Tennis Magazine and TENNIS.com—starting in 1969 and ending in 2018—to highlight 50 worthy heroes. Each passage acknowledges the person as they were then; each subsequent story catches up with the person, or highlights their impact, as they are now. It is best summed up with a quote from the great Arthur Ashe, that was featured on the cover of the November/December issue of this magazine in 2015: “True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.”
“I could barely think about singles,” Bob Bryan said on the day he captured the singles and doubles titles at the NCAAs to go along with the team title he won with the Cardinal. “Doubles means so much to us because we’re twins and we’ve been playing together our whole life.” - Todd Holcomb / August 1998
Bob and Mike Bryan were not allowed to beat up on each other as kids. Their parents, Kathy and Wayne, never allowed them to face each other in junior tournaments, forcing them to take turns defaulting a final if they were scheduled to play each other. When they went to play tennis at Stanford, the school didn’t allow students to pick their roommates, and the brothers were housed on opposite ends of the campus. So Bob got an air mattress and slept on the floor of Mike’s room.
The result is an inseparable pairing—and a historic team. Bob and Mike have won 116 doubles titles together, including 16 majors, and have finished as year-end doubles No. 1s 10 times.
The talented twins, now 40, have also distinguished themselves off the court. The Bryan Bros. Band—Bob on keyboard, Mike on drums and guitar—has performed at charity functions for years. The duo also started the Bryan Bros. Foundation, which is dedicated to improving the lives of children in their home community of Ventura County, CA, as well as nationwide. They have done everything from funding travel bags and clothes for needy children; to giving support to Andre Agassi’s Las Vegas charter school; to inviting young players to watch them compete in Davis Cup matches. In 2017, the Foundation teamed up with Jack Nicklaus to host a tennis and golf event in Palm Beach, FL that raised more than $1.1 million dollars.
“We really are a perfect match,” says Mike.