Remember When Indian Wells Hosted NCAA Tennis?

By Randy Walker

@TennisPublisher

Indian Wells is a name synonymous with top professional tennis as it is the site of annual BNP Paribas Open, one of the biggest and most prestigious in the sport. However, did you know that Indian Wells also once hosted the biggest and most prestigious college tennis tournament, the NCAAs?

It was back in 1990 that Indian Wells hosted the NCAA men’s tennis championships, although at the old Hyatt Grand Champions Resort, as well as LaQuinta and the Stouffers Hotel. The tournament was moved to Indian Wells in response to some criticism from some college coaches, led by University of Southern California coach Dick Leach, that the University of Georgia hosting the NCAAs on their courts gave the Bulldog team an unfair advantage. The Trojans, ironically, ended up playing – and beating Georgia – in the team tournament quarterfinals in California, but Stanford University, led by freshman Jonanthan Stark and Jared Palmer, won the team title beating Tennessee in the final. In the singles final, Steve Bryan of Texas beat Jason Netter of UCLA. Doug Eisenman and Matt Lucena of Cal-Berkeley won the doubles title.

I was a rookie reporter with the University of Georgia’s student newspaper The Red & Black that year, my junior year, and was able to travel to Indian Wells to cover the tournament. It was my first-ever trip to California and I recently found the column that I wrote summarizing the atmosphere and vibes at the event called “The Tennis Was Good, Bad And Not So Ugly In California” which is presented below…

Objective reporting is an attribute you must have to be a journalist. That’s why I walked through the gate of the Hyatt Grand Champions resort in Indian Wells, California, with an open mind as I began taking notes for my critique of the NCAA tennis tournament outside of Athens for the first time in 14 years. What I discovered in the 10-day event was the NCAAs at Indian Wells had a little bit of good, a little bit of bad, and certainly none of the ugly.

The Good:  During the first day of the tournament Cal-Irvine’s coach Greg Patton put a thought in my head when he said “My mom saw us play in the NCAA’s for the first time.” People in California finally got a chance to see and NCAA tennis. Jason Netter’s family got to see their favorite UCLA Bruin play perhaps his best tournament making the singles final. Boosters, family and friends of other West Coast schools got a chance to see their teams played for the national title and got a look at the best players from the East. The facility at the Grand Champions resort is ranked among the world’s best and tournament officials proved that they could run the NCAAs as well as the professional tournaments they host like the Newsweek Grand Champions Cup.

“This tournament was so well organized and so well run here in Indian Wells,” Stanford Coach Dick Gould said. “The tournaments staff deserve a tremendous amount of credit.”

The entire facility was plush with grass, flowers, date and palm trees, fountains, and truly captured the beauty of the California desert. While Athens exhibit the quaintness and peacefulness of the Georgia Piedmont Indian Wells was paradise in every sense of the word.

“Playing the NCAAs in Athens is like going to the mountains for rustic vacation,” Patton said. “Indian Wells like going to Tahiti.”

The Bad:  Indian Wells didn’t get anywhere near the crowd support that Athens accomplished during the past 13 years. Attendance averaged around 1,000 daily and the approximately 2,200 fans who came out to watch the singles final looked minuscule and bad for college tennis in the 10,000-seat stadium

Many players, coaches, and journalist like myself also felt little if any tradition or atmosphere of college tennis at the new venue. “The atmosphere at Georgia is great,” Texas Coach Dave Snyder said. “You kind of look and see the scoreboard and word gets around and there’s a little buzz in the air when something happens.”

I didn’t discover that Stanford freshman Jared Palmer had upset top-seeded Todd Martin of Northwestern on the Stadium Court until near the end of the day. I heard no roar of the crowd and felt no buzz. The only thing that got around was the dirt flying off the desert when the wind picked up in the afternoon. The wind and sand that would roll in off the mountains in the late afternoon off and made played very difficult. One player said Indian Wells was great because you didn’t need to bring any lunch money because you ate dirt all day.

But the most common complaint of coaches and players remained the lack of atmosphere, the type found at Henry Feild Stadium. “ I enjoy Athens. There was a lot of tradition there,” Cal-Irvine’s Trevor Kroenemann said. “They were going try and build some tradition here (Indian Wells), but I don’t know if that’s going to work out or not. If I had my choice, I go back to Athens.”

“Georgia built the tournament into probably one of the greatest amateur spectator events in the world of sports,” Gould said. “It was a thrill to be able to win in that environment as well as a tremendous challenge.”

The team tournament was held at three sites – the Hyatt, the courts at the Stouffer’s hotel across the street and at the LaQuinta club 15 minutes down the road. The best view at the Stouffers was definitely through the windscreen or maybe on top of an adjacent palm tree. I never went to La Quinta because it was too inconvenient.

The Certainly Not Ugly: My mind was numb by the indescribable surroundings and environment encircling the tournaments site. The San Jacinto and Santa Rosa mountains rose above the bleachers and banners, providing an extraordinary backdrop for the extraordinary tennis played during the week at the beautiful desert resort.

In retrospect, the NCAAs went well in California, and the Grand Champion resort deserves more chances to host the event, but a year-by-year rotation with Georgia would be the fair solution. And that’s objectively speaking.