Hello from Crimson Tide Tennis!
Back in action again after a well-earned weekend off for the guys (our only one of the regular season this Spring). We are on the road this weekend and have traveled south down the interstate to the historic capital city of Alabama – Montgomery. We are here to participate in the 70th playing of the Blue Gray National Tennis Classic. A 16-team tournament (8 men, 8 women) consisting of three matches over two days, the Blue Gray has deep roots and plenty of tradition. Some of the finest tennis players in the world have come to Montgomery along with their college programs to battle in between and beyond the baselines. There have been seven Grand Slam singles finalists (Wimbledon, U.S. Open, French Open and Australian Open) and over thirty Grand Slam double champions that can trace their careers back to the Blue Gray. How did Alabama’s capital come to host one of the most prestigious college tournaments in the country? The answer lies in Montgomery’s “Mr. Tennis”– Jack Bushman.
In 1949, Mr. Bushman, a Montgomery resident, was the President of the Southern Lawn Tennis Association. He wanted to tie-in a world class tournament to the prestigious Blue Gray football classic. He envisioned starting an event similar to the Sugar Bowl junior tennis tournament that was played in conjunction with the Sugar Bowl football game. He decided, however, that the tournament should feature top college players rather than juniors. A captain of his team at LSU, Mr. Bushman had many exciting memories of his experience competing in Baton Rouge and this heavily factored into his decision about the future Blue Gray Championships.
For the first 30 years, the tournament was an individual contest rather than the present day team competition and was held at the Montgomery Country Club. In 1969, the site was moved to Huntingdon College for a few years until it was moved to the present locations of Lagoon Park and O’Conner Tennis Centers. During this time of individual competition, many top college players in the country came to Montgomery to compete and would later go onto become some of the top professional players in the world. A brief list of names included Stan Smith, Tony Trabert, Barry McKay, Chuck McKinley, Charlie Pasarell, Tim and Tom Gullickson, Kevin Curren, Steve Denton and Vince Van Patten.
The tournament continued to bring in top players such as exhibition matches by Pancho Gonzalez, Frankie Parker, Jack Kramer and Bobby Riggs. In 1983, Mr. Bushman went to the NCAA Championships and approached top college coaches about the possibility of changing the event to a team competition. The coaches liked the idea as it would prepare their players for the season ending NCAA team championships. As a result the tournament was reborn as a team event and has seen storied programs such as USC, Notre Dame, Harvard, Florida, Michigan and Georgia, to name a few, compete in the event along with in-state rivals Auburn and Alabama.
Perhaps the most unique feature of the Blue Gray is the southern hospitality it offers. More than 70 families across Montgomery open up their homes and house the players throughout the tournament. A definite benefit and favorite feature of the event among players as this experience has given way to life long friendships between the competitors and host families. We are blessed and grateful to have our guys stay in the homes of the Chapmans, Lawsons, Robertsons, Seales and Selmans this year. It has been so fun to return to celebrate a weekend of great competition and fellowship together with these outstanding and very giving people.
This year’s 8-team field includes Alabama, Arizona State, Arizona, Auburn, Boise State, Fresno State, Princeton and Rice. The Tide face the Owls of Rice on Friday at 9am and then return in the afternoon to start our second match, playing only the doubles. In that dual we will face either Princeton or Arizona. On Saturday morning we will return to play the singles portion of the second match and then play another full dual after lunch. All in all a challenging event and one we are ready to face. If you’re in town or just want to make the short trip to Montgomery we’d love to see you hootin’ and hollerin’ for Bama. If you can’t make it to the Blue Gray, be sure to keep track of the Tide via live scoring by clicking here http://www.bluegraytennis.com/scores/
After the weekend our program will then move onto Stage 4 of our season (with Blue Gray serving as Stage 3)…the SEC! We host Vanderbilt and Kentucky in the first weekend of conference play next Friday, March 2 at 6pm against the Commodores and Sunday, March 4 against the Wildcats. The Crimson Racket Club will have their first of two grill outs on Friday while we will celebrate Kids Day on Sunday with Big Al, free pizza for boys and girls, a bounce house and free squishes for the first 75 kids in attendance. Let’s pack the house!
First things first…Friday morning vs. Rice and more exciting memories created just like Mr. Bushman wanted. #ThatsBlueGray
Roll Tide,
George