Pancho González

Champion professional tennis player Pancho Gonzales was born Richard Alonzo Gonzales in Los Angeles, California, on May 9, 1928. He began playing tennis at age 12, and--except for a few tips given to him by a friend in high school--never had a tennis lesson in his life. By age 15 he was the top-ranked player in the boys' division in California. He dropped out of high school to devote himself to tennis and, other than a two-year stint in the US Navy from 1945-47, played the game full-time. In 1947 he went on his first tour, and while he didn't win any major titles, he wound up being ranked 17th nationally. The next year he did better, winning a number of regional tournaments and taking the national clay-court title. In September of that year he won the prestigious lawn-tennis singles championship in Forest Hllls, NY. In 1949 he took titles on not only clay and grass courts, but also snagged the indoor singles and mixed-doubles titles, one of the very few players to have ever done so. He played on the US Davis Cup team that year, and shortly thereafter turned professional (between that time and his retirement from the game in 1961, he held the world championship title eight times). Renowned for his tremendously forceful playing, his agility and a dizzying array of return shots, he amassed a considerable public following, not only for his superb playing but for his affable, easy-going manner and his genuine appreciation of his fans, a marked difference from many of the sport's top players of the era, who tended to be somewhat aloof and seemingly dismissive of the sport's fans. After his retirement in 1961 he became coach of the US Davis Cup team and the resident pro at a resort in Nassau, Bahamas. In 1968 he returned to playing professionally on occasion, and in 1969, at 41 years of age, he played a marathon match (112 games) at Wimbledon against a much younger player. He won.