What a Racket

Tennis in the early 1970's, as remembered by a young camper in Wisconsin.

I spent three weeks at a summer tennis camp in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on the campus of Carthage College, back in the early 1970’s. This camp was run by a guy named Jake Stap, whose other contributions to the world of tennis included: his two daughters, Sue and Sandy, both of whom played competitive tennis, including playing in the U.S. Open, and perhaps Wimbledon (research results are a little thin, given that neither of them won the tournament - this is a good lesson for all of us: If a lasting legacy is important to you, coming in first is your best bet), and Jake was also the inventor of the “ball hopper,” a revolutionary wire basket, which allowed players to pick up tennis balls without bending over. By the way, I’m sure that Jake Stap was teased mercilessly as a young athlete, no doubt having spent time in locker rooms, about his name (think about it - substitute two different words which sound very much like, “Jake,” and “Stap,” which, when combined, constitute a critical personal protection device used by male athletes).

The early 1970’s were a heady time in the world of tennis, as younger players such as Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert were coming into their own, and beginning to dominate major tournaments. And, they effectively deployed the “two-handed backhand,” including Connors’ use of Wilson’s innovative steel-frame T2000 racket (pictured above), which was much lighter than the wooden rackets which had been in vogue for many decades, and which featured a larger “head” - the stringed part of the racket, which contains the “sweet spot” - you know, the part that hits the ball. The T2000, which was unveiled in 1963, was developed by Rene’ Lacoste, a French tennis player, whose nickname was, “The Crocodile,” and who later gained additional fame as a marketer of the iconic polo shirt featuring a crocodile logo (admit it, you have always thought that was an alligator, didn’t you?).

Now, the crocodile polo shirts, and later, the “polo-player” (produced by Ralph Lauren) polo shirts have always been very pricey - I gravitated to the more affordable, logo-free polo shirts. I know that Jack Nicklaus has marketed his “Golden Bear” polo shirts for years, and I believe I’ve seen shirts with a penguin logo (which I don’t believe was developed by baseball player, Ron Cey, whose nickname was “The Penguin.”). In this golden age of branding, there are likely hundreds of other logoed shirts out there, with which I am unfamiliar - I’m no Faith Popcorn, you know (Ed. note: Faith Popcorn has long claimed the title of Futurist, and used to be consulted on all things pop culture - we’ve included a reference here, simply because we dig her name). What logo would you place on a polo shirt, if given the opportunity? I’d go with the meerkat, because meerkats are cool - they’re always cast as the wise-cracking sidekick in animal-centric animation - this guy that would look awesome on a polo shirt, no?

I experimented, but did not include the two-handed backhand in my on-court repertoire; one of my fellow campers that summer who did adopt the two-handed backhand was Suzy Jaeger, who went on to play professional tennis, but her younger sister, Andrea, achieved greater success on the women’s tour, reaching the number two spot, behind only Martina Navratilova, before retiring at the advanced age of nineteen. There were plenty of T2000’s amongst the campers, and, by that time, likely some T3000’s, which, I don’t know, maybe had an even larger head, and was even lighter.

Around that time, Bobby Riggs was also performing his antics, attempting to beat (much younger) women on the court - Billie Jean King shut him up, at least for a bit. And, I believe we mimicked that traveling minstrel show at the camp - maybe Suzy was the Billie Jean stand-in - I simply don’t recall.

What I do remember quite well was our running a 440-yard dash every single day we were there (ah, the good-old days before runs became measured in meters!). These runs were timed and recorded, and if you didn’t beat your time from the previous day, you were required to run a second race. Returning campers likely knew this secret the first day of camp, but we “newbies” did not, preventing use of the time-tested, “sandbagging” strategy.

We also spent a lot of time in various drills, hitting an enormous number of tennis balls each day, which necessitated retrieving an enormous number of tennis balls each day - Hey! this would be a good spot for the ball-hopper! Nice synergy, Jake - nowadays that tactic would be recognized as a well-crafted, vertical marketing strategy.

Although Stap’s tennis camp provided much valuable instruction in the finer points of tennis, there are a few things which were not afforded to us, and which we had to learn on the streets (and, by streets, I mean those streets paved with clay), including:

• On-court rage against umpires (see: McEnroe, John).

• Striking fashion design (see: Williams, Venus).

• Sex objects on the court (see: Kournikouva, Anna, and Sharapova, Maria).

So, with apologies to Harold Ramis, who created Ghostbusters, my experience at Stap’s tennis camp in Wisconsin in the early 1970’s meant that. . .”Someone with my qualifications would have no trouble finding a top-flight job in either the food service or housekeeping industries.”