Andre Agassi has left a lasting legacy beyond the tennis court

It’s been more than 35 years since Ronald Reagan stated, during his first inaugural address, “Those who say that we’re in a time when there are no heroes, they just don’t know where to look.” We discovered heroes in every state, starting with the determined 69-year-old who won a match at an ITF Pro Circuit event earlier this year in the Alabama town of Pelham, and culminating with the coach who has overcome multiple sclerosis to build a winning program at the University of Wyoming. Their compelling stories of courage, perseverance and achievement demonstrate that the message delivered by our 40th President rings as true today as it did then.

“It’s what life is, it’s what the journey requires,” Andre Agassi has said of his three-decade evolution from the long-haired holy terror of ‘80s tennis to the clean-shaven sage of the Las Vegas strip. “There were a lot of moments I didn’t understand, I was confused by, scared by. A lot of times I wanted to hide from facing it. But I’m still in process.”

It has been 30 years since that process began for Agassi. In the summer of 1986, as a free-spirited 16-year-old, he burst onto the pro tour with both ground strokes blazing. Fans, especially young female fans, were quick to notice his frosted locks and denim shorts; opponents, especially his more famous older opponents, were equally quick to notice what he could do with the newfangled Prince racquet in his right hand.

“Nobody has hit the ball that hard at me,” John McEnroe sad after facing Agassi for the first time.

But it was an observation that Ivan Lendl made about the teen the following year that has been remembered longer, because it cut a little deeper into the Agassi persona—right down to the bone, in fact.

“A haircut and a forehand,” Lendl wrote in his scouting report on Agassi.

And that was all he wrote. Lendl understood, even before Agassi told us that “image is everything” three years later, that the young Andre was heavy on flash and light on substance.

Agassi has spent his adult life trying, and ultimately succeeding, to shake that reputation. But it should hardly have come as a surprise that Agassi lacked depth at 16. One thing he was no longer doing by that time was going to school.

“Not only did I leave [Nick Bollettieri’s] Bradenton Academy in the ninth grade,” Agassi likes to say with a laugh, “but eighth grade was the best three years of my life.”

Joking aside, Agassi did get a valuable education on the courts of Bradenton, one that has informed his approach to his post-playing life. As much as he has talked about his love-hate relationship with tennis, the sport taught him, as it teaches all of its players, the value of personal responsibility. In tennis, you either do it yourself or you don’t do it at all.

So when Agassi saw a news report in the 1990s about a charter-school program that stressed accountability, he felt a sense of recognition. He had been searching for the most effective way to use the charitable foundation he had begun in 1994, and education was a place where he felt he could make a difference.

“I thought the model itself made more sense,” Agassi said of the charter-school concept. “We can hold students accountable, teachers accountable, parents accountable … It all sort of connected with everything I’ve learned on the tennis court.

“The only way to create systemic change is to educate, to give the tools to the kids themselves.”

The Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy opened in Las Vegas in 2001; it began with grades 3 to 5, gradually expanded to K through 12 and graduated its first high-school class in 2009. When Agassi speaks, his words have some of the abstract flavor of the autodidact.

“It’s about understanding the intersection you’re in” has been one of his pet phrases. But what has separated his charity from those of most other athletes is how committed he has been to the concrete, unglamorous work of educational reform in his home state, and how deeply he dives into the political nitty-gritty necessary to make that reform a reality.

“Andre’s name carries a lot of weight in Nevada,” says Julie Pippenger, who has been with the Agassi Foundation for 19 years and now serves as its chief operating officer. “We’ve learned that change in education doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a long process, but we’ve seen results.”

Agassi has lobbied and testified before state officials about educational issues. Most important to the foundation was helping change a law that allowed the school to enroll a higher percentage of underprivileged children. Now, 85 percent of Agassi Prep students qualify for the state’s free lunch program.

“Those are the kids we got into this to help,” Pippenger says.

In the years since Agassi Prep opened, Nevada has gone from the 42nd-weakest state in public education to the 22nd.

With his commitment and professionalism, Agassi has set an example for other tennis players. Andy Roddick, Gustavo Kuerten and Roger Federer all say that, because of Agassi, they got more deeply involved—at a younger age—with their own charities.

“With Andre, you can see how powerful it can be when [athletes] create a foundation at the height of their success,” Trevor Nielson, president of the Global Philanthropy Group, told USA Today. “He’s built a network. He had credibility. He’s used his assets beyond just his money. Nobody has had an impact like Agassi.”

In recent years, Agassi has begun to widen that impact beyond his charitable work. In January, he announced that he was investing in an interactive, phonetics-based technology called Square Panda that helps kids learn to read more quickly.

By now, Agassi says he hears pitches for educational products virtually every week. This ninth-grade dropout, who once bolted class for the courts as quickly as he could, has turned himself into an expert in the field of learning. In the process, Agassi has become one of the few professional athletes who has expanded his name and his brand after retiring from his sport.

“I don’t think that passion for helping kids will ever go away with him,” Pippenger says.

As for Lendl’s initial take, 30 years later, Agassi’s hair is long gone, and the forehand isn’t as scary anymore. But his commitment to learning has brought the 46-year-old full circle: He’s all substance, and no flash.