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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCross & Crescent - Gardner MulloyCross & Crescent A Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity publication « Previous Page • Next Page » 94-Year-Old Tennis Great by Tad Lichtenauer • February 2008 • 2 Comments • ShareThis Ask 94-year-old Gardnar Mulloy (Miami -FL 1936) if he can still play a competitive game of tennis and he'll admit that he may have lost a step or two since his prime. "Instead of ruining after the ball, I shuffle now," he says. "I enjoy it. I play in tournaments in my age group and I can still win them because all I do is drop shot and lob (my opponents) and chase them around so I don't have to run." Mulloy still travels occasionally to play in senior pro celebrity tournaments to raise funds for various charitable organizations. He attributes much of his health and longevity to his commitment to eating just two meals a day, being a vegetarian, not smoking or drinking alcohol, daily exercise, and good night's sleep. Tennis Career At his prime, Mulloy was ranked in the top 10 singles nationally between 1939 and 1954, and he was No. 1 in 1952, the year he also was a U.S. Open finalist. In his prime, he was known for his complete game, including his volley and overheads skills, and his unique ability to master both singles and doubles. Mulloy and doubles partner Bill Talbert became one of the finest teams, winning the U.S. Open title four times (1942, 1945, 1946, 1948), as well as being finalists in 1950 and 1953. They also won the decisive point in the 1948 Davis Cup victory over to Australia. Mulloy also was on the U.S. Davis Cup team six other years, helping the team win the cup in 1946 and 1949, and serving as the winning player -captain in two other zone matches in 1952 and 1953. On the honor of being selected to play Davis Cup, Mulloy says: "Oh that's another ultimate. You're representing your country and not representing yourself....It's like a hero in a war." Winning Wimbledon -His most stunning win may have been the Wimbledon doubles in 1957, at age 43, when he partnered with Budge Patty and the unseeded team won Wimbledon, a tournament that Mulloy considers to be the most prestigious of them all. In his 1960 book, The Will to Win, Mulloy wrote about the tremendous relief of winning a Wimbledon championship after being a finalist six times. "Game. Set. Match. I cannot remember whether or not I actually heard the umpire say these words," he wrote. "There seemed to be a second of suspended time between the fact and the realization. Dimly I was aware of cheering crowds as I stood on the baseline, relaxed my limbs, flexed and unflexed my toes. My glasses were steamed and blurred from my exertions in the blazing June sun....Then it lit me. With Budge Patty I had at last won a title at Wimbledon and I was forty-three years old. That, I thought, would give them something to put in the record books." After they won the match, carpets were rolled out on the court and within moments Queen Elizabeth II of England approached them to congratulate them and present the trophy. "This was the moment of my life," he wrote. "For a tennis player the apex of achievement is a Wimbledon Championship; to win one and be presented with the trophy by the Queen is a twin event which takes a bit of beating." World War II 1 1941, Mulloy's tennis career took a brief hiatus when he was drafted to serve in the military during World War II. He joined the U.S. Navy, became a lieutenant, and was assigned as the commanding officer in charge of a landing ship tank, which included 13 officers and 154 men, assigned to the North African and European invasions. During one of his ship's many tense missions, he orchestrated a dangerous rescue of a stranded allied ship that was in peril and about to be smashed against some rocks. His act of heroism earned him the U.S. Navy Medal of Commendation. Of the 36 ships that sailed with his fleet at the start of the war, only five including Mulloy's, survived the enemy and the elements. During his four years of active duty, he experienced many tragedies and acts of heroism and he recounts many of them in his book. Upon his return home, Mulloy was promoted to lieutenant commander, and shortly thereafter was discharged from the military in 1945. Miami & Lambda Chi Born on November 22, 1913, in Washington, D.C., Mulloy has lived almost all of his life in Miami, Florida. He earned both a bachelor's degree and law degree from the University of Miami, and he also organized, coached, and played No. 1 singles on Miami's first tennis team. Originally given an athletic scholarship to play football, which he had played in high school along with tennis and baseball, Mulloy quickly had a change of heart. After taking several poundings as a member of the freshman football squad, he went to university President Dr. B.F. Ashe and asked if he could assemble a tennis team and change his scholarship to tennis. Ashe agreed, and Mulloy then asked and received six additional tennis scholarships so he could recruit and assemble a competitive team. From the day he formed the team, Mulloy was focused on winning the college championship, and in 1936 the team achieved that goal. The team traveled up and down the East Coast, beating all of the top college teams and claiming the national prize. "I became the manager, coach and No. 1 player," he says. "We scheduled matches against teams up in the East. We had the advantage because we are a sunshine state and we could practice all year round and they could only practice in the spring. We packed in a car and drove up there. We had the advantage because they weren't in shape and we were. Because of that we claimed the national championship." When the team returned to Miami, they were greeted by the college band and a welcoming committee led by the mayor. Thousands of peopled turned out to congratulate them. Tennis was now a successful sport at Miami even though there weren't any university tennis courts on which to practice. "We practiced on those loaned to us by the Biltmore Hotel a mile.away," Mulloy says. "I felt the trine was now precipitous to do something about this, so I again approached Dr. Ashe. We were a small struggling school in those days and to my question of why couldn't we have our own courts, he replied that the college was broke." That being the case, Mulloy decided to raise the money on his own. He held raffles, organized football pools, and wrung dollars and dimes out of friends, acquaintances and complete strangers...and the new courts were soon built. When Mulloy first attended Miami, he and some of the athletes formed an organization called the M Club, which eventually became the Lambda Chi Alpha chapter. "Suddenly, we were petitioned," he says. "Several fraternities went after the M Club because we had a pretty good organization to become a fraternity. And we liked Lambda Chi Alpha the best. We had several meetings and that's the one we voted on, or accepted their request, and that's how we became Lambda Chi Alpha." Mulloy was then a charter member of the chapter, and later as an alumnus he also helped form the Miami Area Alumni Association, often hosting receptions at his home. In 1964, he was presented with the Fraternity's Order of Achievement in honor of his tennis career. Second Book n 1972, Mulloy was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. He also was inducted into the Florida and Miami halls of fame, as well as several others. Nearly 50 years since writing his first book, Mulloy is now working on a second book in which lie plans to share more insider stories about his tennis days, as well as share a few additional war stories and some of the letters he has received from U.S. presidents and other foreign leaders. The book also will compare today's athlete with athletes from his era, with Mulloy's preference for his generation. The current title for the book is As it Was. Issue: February 2008 I Author: Tad Lichtenauer I Filed in: 2008 February. Feature « Previous P aQe • Next Page » Cross 8: Crescent is a Lambda Chi Alpha publication. Copyright © 2011 Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.crossa ndcrescent.com/2008/02/94-yea r-old-te nn is -great/