Nick Bollettieri, force of nature and tennis academy pioneer, dies at 91

One of the most distinct and enduring forces of nature in tennis history, Nick Bollettieri, died Sunday evening at age 91. Inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2014, Bollettieri had coached tennis for more than 60 years. Over the course of his career, he was front and center with ten players who at one point were ranked No. 1 in the world: Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Jim Courier, Monica Seles, Maria Sharapova, Martina Hingis, Jelena Jankovic, Marcelo Rios, Serena Williams and Venus Williams. He also worked with dozens more Top 100 pros, and likely thousands who played college tennis.

For more than 40 years, Ground Zero for this beehive of tennis activity was Bollettieri’s grand invention: tennis’ first year-round, live-in academy, opening for business in 1978. What began at a small Florida resort and set of motel rooms has since become the IMG Academy, a 600-acre campus offering world-class coaching in all of the major sports.

The Bollettieri method was like nothing tennis had ever seen. A revealing example came in 1977, when a 12-year-old boy from Buffalo named Jimmy Arias arrived to see Nick.

“I saw little Jimmy take this big swing and hit the daylights out of the ball,” said Bollettieri. “The minute I saw what a great shot it was, I told my team, ‘This is how we’re going to teach the forehand from now on.’”

Bollettieri would be the first to admit his approach was scarcely scientific, that while he could spot what made a stroke work or how to address a technical shortcoming, such details were secondary to his bigger mission.

I don’t want to be Perry Mason. I want to be Fred Perry. Nick Bollettieri

Most of all, Bollettieri was a motivator, proud of his ability to find the distinct point of entry in anyone who came under his watch. One of Bollettieri’s role models had been the legendary football coach, Vince Lombardi. Having led his Green Bay Packers to five NFL championships in seven years, Lombardi was a nationally revered figure when he and Bollettieri met in the late 1960s. Witnessing Bollettieri teach tennis to a group of youngsters, Lombardi issued a comment that would eventually trigger tremendous success: “You should be working with children.” To a certain degree, Lombardi’s advice planted the seed for Bollettieri’s eventual academy.

Bollettieri was also drawn to Lombardi’s taskmaster-like manner. Having himself been a paratrooper, Bollettieri relished playing the drill sergeant role. Legend are the tales of Bollettieri issuing harsh comments to his charges about everything from sloppy strokes to training habits to fitness. But, just as Lombardi balanced stick with carrot, so could Bollettieri swaddle a player with words of kindness.

“Tennis was so rigid for so long,” said Steve Contardi, a Bollettieri teaching colleague for more than 50 years. “Nick was the one who came along and brought the whole concept of ‘different strokes for different folks’ to life. At one level, it had to do with how various people might hit the ball and play differently. But at another, it was much deeper, connected to his incredible passion and desire to help people excel. Consider Nick the people’s psychologist.”

Nick Bollettieri was born on July 31, 1931 in Pelham, N.Y., a middle-class town just north of New York City. Young Nick loved sports and was eventually captain of his high school football team. When an uncle introduced Bollettieri to tennis, he at first blanched.

“Tennis then was a sport for sissies,” said Bollettieri. But he was quickly captivated, in time earning a letter at Spring Hill College, located in Mobile, Ala. Still, as a tennis player, Bollettieri’s career was short.

Upon graduating from Spring Hill in 1953, Bollettieri set his sights on becoming a fighter pilot and eventually served as a paratrooper.

“Soon enough, the day came for my first jump,” he recalled. “I was first in line and before going to the exit door, a young private asked me if I was nervous. ‘Private,’ I said, I’m so scared, I have a diaper on.’ But off I went, into the open sky.”

That big leap personified Bollettieri’s life. His military career over, Bollettieri enrolled in law school at the University of Miami. Concurrently, he gave tennis lessons for $3 an hour at Victory Park, a two-court venue located in North Miami Beach. So inexperienced was Bollettieri that he did not know how to teach the forehand grip. To remedy this, he and his wife, Phyllis, went to a nearby park to study the teaching techniques of a local instructor. The young Bollettieri also gained much advice about the game from the great British player, Fred Perry, who at the time was living in Florida.

Midway through that first semester of law school, Bollettieri dropped out. “I don’t want to be Perry Mason,” he said. “I want to be Fred Perry.”

To a great degree, Bollettieri’s coaching career can be broken into two distinct segments: B.A. (Before Academy) and A.A. (After Academy). Phase one lasted 20 years. The aptly named Victory Park was a launching pad for a journey that took Bollettieri all over the country. In 1959, he began the first of 18 winters at Dorado Beach, a high-class resort in Puerto Rico. While working there he met several members of the Rockefeller family. This in turn led to Bollettieri spending many summers teaching tennis at the Rockefeller family estate. Later, in the ’60s, Bollettieri was on the ground floor of Port Washington Tennis Academy, the Long Island-based facility that would eventually be the training ground for John McEnroe, Patrick McEnroe, Vitas Gerulaitis and Mary Carillo.

Of Bollettieri’s many students during this time, one stood out from the rest. Brian Gottfried was an eager, diligent nine-year-old from Ft. Lauderdale. Eager and diligent, Gottfried would spend six summers living, traveling and working with Bollettieri. Their journeys included many trips to national junior tournaments, where Gottfried competed versus an incredibly accomplished peer group that included such future Top 10 players Jimmy Connors, Roscoe Tanner, Dick Stockton, Sandy Mayer, Harold Solomon and Eddie Dibbs In time, Gottfried would enjoy a splendid pro career, winning 79 ATP titles and rising as high as No. 3 in the world in singles.

As the tennis boom got underway in the 1970s, Bollettieri was in the thick of the action. Heeding Lombardi’s advice, he began to run a tennis camp in Beaver Dam, Wis. Bollettieri also partnered with Arthur Ashe to create a number of tennis camps.

Then came his grand flowering. Tennis’ boom years had inspired many parents and players to immerse themselves in tennis. Seemingly from the instant it opened, Bollettieri’s academy became a hot spot for ambitious players. The first wave was primarily American. Early Bollettieri prodigies included future Top 20 players such as Arias, Aaron Krickstein, Paul Annacone, Carling Bassett, Kathleen Horvath and Anne White. Soon came another flock: Andre Agassi, Martin Blackman, Jim Courier, Mark Knowles, David Wheaton. And as the Bollettieri contingent made its mark on the world, the academy became a tennis United Nations of sorts for such future stars as Monica Seles, Tommy Haas, Maria Sharapova, Anna Kournikova, Jelena Jankovic—and dozens more.

But even beyond the notable world class players he’d aided, Bollettieri had left his mark on so many others who had gone on to successful careers in law, medicine, education and other fields. It could be said that a Bollettieri alumnus’ battle of the bar exam was won on the playing fields of Bradenton.

Bollettieri in action put the Energizer Bunny to shame. Regularly waking up at 4:00 a.m., he would typically start the day with a personal exercise regimen and soon make his way to the courts to spend 12 to 15 hours a day immersed with his students.

At tournaments all over the world, Bollettieri was a whirling dervish, engaged with players he was coaching, accessible to any and all media, keen to address his fellow coaches or, for that matter, anyone else who wish to hear his thoughts. Asked once why he continued to work so hard well into his 80s, Bollettieri made a joke that was literally at his own expense.

“Alimony, baby,” said this man who was married eight times.

He is survived by his wife Cindi, his birth children James Bollettieri (with ex-wife Phyllis), Danielle Bollettieri and Angelique Bollettieri (with ex-wife Jeri), NicoleKroenigBollettieri and Alexandra Bollettieri (with ex-wife Kellie); and his adopted children Giovanni Bollettieri and Giacomo Bollettieri (with wife Cindi), and Sean Bollettieri-Abdali; and his grandchildren Willa Bay Breunich,Addison Skye Breunich, HudsonKroenig, JamesonKroenig.