Wednesday, June 29th, 1977

After all the rain, the clouds broke and it was a sunny, beautiful morning, but humid. Mr. B had a few of us come down early to help the grounds crew brush the courts and get them ready, there wasn’t much for us to do. The guy with the roller rolled the top courts and they looked good, but the bottom courts were too soft. Mr. B came down and said we may have to double up on the top courts and double up on the hard courts. So he sent a few of us up there to sweep and dry them. There were puddles everywhere but we got it done. X, John Day, Roger D. and I spent a half hour up there. Roger was telling us that he and Bobby were campers here for a few years before he was a counselor.

He told me that he knew Charlie Fenske quite well and said he had boundless energy. As a tennis coach, that was true as well. He ran Bobby and I into the ground last season. He had us work out with the basketball team, we did ladders, the leaper, weight room work outs and the dreaded jump rope…plus the mile and a half run around Bartz Field every night. We were not the best team in the Big Sky, but we were in the best shape. I first met Charlie at the tennis courts last summer. He had just found out that the AD had made him the tennis coach and he was looking for players. I had just finished my High School season and was playing tournaments and we chatted for a while at Reed Gym courts and Charlie asked if I wanted to try out for the team. He said that he would help me with financial aid and get me set up with the ACT and SAT. I was just excited to have a shot. Charlie and I walked to the financial aid office and he was a pro at the paperwork. He said that someday, that he expected me to help someone get into college as payment. I never forgot that (and I did). The athletic department gave Charlie two scholarships and he wanted me to play his recruit later that week.

The guy was from Northern New Jersey, he had long hair and amazing ground strokes, that guy was Bobby Dickinson and he wiped me off the courts 2 and 2 and he was very generous. He played with a lot of anger so we were never were close friends. We took the SAT together and I figured I would blow this guy away but we were both respectable in 1200’s. Bobby told me that his dad was a college professor, that should have automatically put him in the 1300 range, mine was a pipe fitter. Charlie basically told me that I would have to play to play and I had to challenge up to get on the team. I made the fall squad and won all of my matches, I was off to a good start in the spring but we had some tough road trips and we got discouraged and only won 4 or 5 matches. At the same time our spring season was going on, Charlie was on the road coaching the ISU Bengals, he had a grad assistant take over. The Bengals dominated, they were a well coached team and won the conference, then made an amazing run in the NCAA’s. The Bengals upset UCLA in the sweet 16 but lost to UNLV in the elite 8! Charlie and Head Coach Killingsworth were headed to the bigtime, they accepted jobs at Oklahoma State. I helped Charlie pack up and move, as we were packing his car he asked what I was going to do over the summer, I told him that my Dad wanted me to work construction with him, he asked me if I would like to go back east and work at a tennis camp. He lined me up with Mr. B and that’s the last I time I saw him, although he’s called Mr. B a few times to check up on me.

We got the kids going on the top courts with instruction and round the world, we had a bunch up at the hard courts as well by 11:00 Tom Sheridan moved the rest of the kids back to the bottom clay courts.

Mr. B has the campers all excited about the big tournament on Friday. He talked today about winning, how you have to be hungry to win and winners don’t make excuses. He told a great story about how BJK was automatic at 4-4. He said she knew she would prevail, it was like blood in the water. She went for the kill and because she was busy attacking and hitting her shots she didn’t have time to think about chocking. I’m sure Mr. B embellishes a bit, but this guy is a master story teller. The kids were dead silent, counselors too, I could see the wheels turning in the little heads. They were with BJK at Wimbledon as she closed in for the kill, it was one of those moments, inspiring moments that the kids and counselors will remember forever.

After that talk the day went fast, I stayed after 4 and hit with Xavier. I kept him deep in the court and then hit short angles, everything was working. I beat him 6-3, then we stayed a while and played Roger and Feinberg. They beat us 7-5 6-3, but we were in every point.
At Wimbledon this guy John McEnroe from Long Island is making a run through the tournament, hes playing Sandy Mayer from New Jersey who lives near Mr. B. Hopefully we can find a TV set and watch it. Its on HBO and on Friday the matches will be on NBC.

We were hungry at dinner and all ate like horses, they had the best dinner, Pizza, garlic bread and pasta! I am a happy guy, I just got in from field duty, we played Soccer, Riley and Hamilton were there, those guys can play.