“Greatest thing in life: 
Winning a tennis match.
Second greatest thing in life: 
Losing a tennis match.”
~ Jimmy Connors

There was a time, many years ago, when tennis was my life. Well, sort of. In the fall of 1967, my St. Gabriel School classmate, Dan Graham, asked me if I would be interested in joining a recreational tennis team at Sunset Playground (29th & Lawton) in The City. I don’t recall having much experience playing tennis prior to this, but it sounded like fun. Once each week, I think it was on Wednesdays after school, Dan and I would spend a couple of hours on the Sunset tennis courts improving our game. There were about a dozen other kids our age, male and female, on the team. Our coach, whose name I do not recall, was a young, energetic woman who seemed to thoroughly enjoy coaching us.

As the season progressed, each player had the opportunity to improve their rank on the team ladder. Not surprisingly, I started near the bottom, but little by little, I worked my way up. The ultimate goal was to qualify for the 1968 City Championship Tennis Tournament, which would be held in May on the courts of the Golden Gate Park Tennis Center. 

By February, Dan and I were the top two players on the boys’ ladder. Only one of us would qualify for the championship tournament. On the girls’ ladder, one of the top players was Francesca Periotti. She, too, was hoping to earn the #1 spot by May.

When it came time for our coach to announce the names of those who would participate at Golden Gate Park, it was no surprise when Dan was named as the #1 boys’ player. What I did not realize at that time is that there was a category other than Boys’ Singles and Girls’ Singles. It was called Mixed Doubles. Francesca and I were selected to represent Sunset Playground in this division. 

It’s been almost 55 years since that tournament was held. I don’t recall much about how seedings were done, or how many rounds it took to qualify for the finals. In the end, however, Francesca and I found ourselves playing for the Mixed Doubles city championship.

I would like to say that I dominated the game with my powerful serves and aggressive play at the net, but that simply would not be true. The truth is that Francesca dominated the game with HER powerful serves and aggressive play at the net. My contribution to our effort was not making any big mistakes. In the end, we won the match. For our effort, we each received a simple medal acknowledging our victory.

I didn’t play much tennis in my high school years, but I picked it up again in college. I enjoyed getting together with friends at various courts in and around Santa Clara throughout my young adult years. I will always be grateful for the pure enjoyment I experienced playing tennis. I retired my racquet many years ago, but it still hangs on the wall of my garage as a reminder of what once was.