By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
It was 30 years ago this week that I first saw, in person, the USC men’s tennis team.
It was at the 1988 NCAA Championships in Athens, Georgia – the first I would experience. That entire year while a freshman at UGA I heard all of the legendary stories and first-hand anecdotes of the famous 1987 NCAA semifinal match the previous year where eventual NCAA champs Georgia upset the No. 1-ranked and undefeated Trojans 5-4 in front of the jam-packed crowd at Henry Feild Stadium in what might have been the most famous college tennis match ever played.
Now 30 years later, it is perhaps a bit ironic to have published via New Chapter Media a book on the USC Trojan men’s tennis team, “Trojan Tennis: A History of the Storied Men’s Tennis Program at the University of Southern California” which is the first ever book on a college tennis program. The amazing stories of all the great Trojan players through the years, from Gene Mako to Alex Olmedo, Dennis Ralston and Rafael Osuna to Stan Smith, Bob Lutz, Rick Leach, Luke Jensen, Byron Black and Stevie Johnson among many others are all featured. The author Mark Young did an amazing job of putting all of this history into an fantastic historic book on the legendary Trojan Tennis tradition and on college tennis. I found particularly interesting hearing the other side of that infamous 1987 USC vs. Georgia match and how that devastating loss had such an effect on those players.
“Losing that match was the biggest disappointment of my entire life,” said 1987 USC team member Eric Amend in the “Trojan Tennis” book. “It continued to haunt me to two decades.”
Said Luke Jensen in the book of the loss, “There is no other one single moment in my life where I felt I let everyone down. I have lost Grand Slam finals and have emotionally healed from them, but not from the 1987 NCAA semifinal match with UGA. I think about this match more than any other that I have ever won or lost, and have lost more sleep because I didn’t do my job on a very hot and humid day in May in Athens, Georgia.”
Of course, four years later in 1991, USC finally won the first NCAA team title under Coach Dick Leach beating Georgia in Athens in the final in kind of a poetic “we’re even” type scenario.
In 1987, Coach Leach was desperate to finally break through and win his first NCAA title and his older son, Rick Leach, held off turning pro just to come back to help his dad win the national title. While Rick Leach was not able to get his dad over the hump in 1987, younger son Jon Leach was able to do so in 1991. The younger Leach, who graduated from high school early so he could join his dad’s team, nearly clinched the first NCAA title for his dad, holding two match points against Bobby Mariencheck at No. 4 singles before losing 1-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.
“I’m feeling on top of the world,” said Coach Leach after winning his first NCAA title in his 11th year as Trojan coach. “I’ve always been playing golf on Tuesdays of the NCAA finals and today, I got to come to the tennis matches. I haven’t felt this good since my son Rick won (men’s doubles) at Wimbledon last summer, and this was just as good. I’m very happy my youngest son, Jon, could be a part of this team and be here with me.”
Of course, USC is the most successful men’s tennis program in NCAA history winning 21 national team titles, including a four-peat from 2009 to 2010 led by current U.S. Davis Cupper and Olympic doubles bronze medalist Stevie Johnson.
Tennis Channel had a great interview with Young and USC coach Peter Smith on air Tuesday that you can see in the Tennis Channel link on the “Trojan Tennis” Twitter page here: https://twitter.com/USCTennisBook
Stan Smith and Stevie Johnson, two of the classiest guys ever in the sport of tennis and two of the greatest collegiate players ever, both contributed forewords to this book, which you can order here: https://www.amazon.com/…/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_Wah.AbXFJ4H2J via Amazon.com.
At some point as a University of Georgia graduate and walk-on tennis letterman, I’d love to be involved with a history of Georgia Tennis book or perhaps more specifically a book on the 1987 USC vs. Georgia match as almost everyone involved in that match has such amazing personal stories and recollections. Last year at the NCAAs in Athens, people still talk about the match as though it was yesterday…
