Bill Cosgrove | Professor Emeritus of English | North Dakota State University | as it appeared in the Senior Tennis Club Newsletter

"Minnesota tennis can be quirly, capricious and unpredictable as the weather it's played in. For high school tennis in the spring, this can be especially true." There's the story of the player's eyeglasses that were completely covered over with driving snow and all that was visible were two white disks where his eyes should've been. Or the kick serve hit into so ferocious a cross wind that it bounced over the fence.

In spite of such handicaps, Minnesota has had players who were nationally ranked, wond national titles, played professionally against (and even beat) world-class tour players, and represented the U.S. on international teams. The state also has some of the most successful programs for inner city and summer park tennis in the nation. If tennis is really, as some have said, "a wealthy man's game," Minnesota has done a good deal since at least the 1970s to make it more inclusive and "bring it to the kids in the streets" after the rush to the suburbs in the 1950s.

In Jim Holden's 2008 book called Tennis in the Northland: A History of Boys' High School Tennis in Minnesota (1929-2003) you will find this information and a good deal more, including the occasional quirky rule change along the way. Coaches, boys single and doubles championship, "dark horse"teams, dynasty teams, and tennis families are some of the topics in the 10 chapters and seven appendixes of Holden's book, along with a "Foreward" by Steve Wilkinson.

Edina High School, for instance, has won the most team championshipts (25) through 2003 and no other school has even come close. You may wonder about the other schools that have won far fewer titles, or only one, but with far less students, money, equipment, practice facilities, available courts, private coaching, inc. Well, Holden gives us those too.

Among these other smaller schools with fewer amenities are what author Holden calls the "Dark Horse" teams of St. James and Greenway of Coleraine that won state team titles. An Iron Range twon of barely over 1,000, Coleraine took the state title in 1961 thereby pulling off "one of the most remarkable stories in the history of Minnesota boys' high school tennis." In doing so, it doubles team, cobbled together from their #1 and #2 singles players for the State Tournament, won the doubles title over two large Minneapolis schools, Roosevelt and North, and then Austin in the finals. The League's "quirly scoring system" at the time may fairly be said to hae had something to do with the win, but the doubles team still had to come from behind in two of their matches. Adding to the personal drama of their story, one of these two doubles players died tragically young at age 22 (the other, incidentally, is today a member of STPC).

Blake with 12 state team championships is second, after Edina, but 10 of those titles are in Class A for smaller schools. Does that affect in some way its accomplishment? In the cases of both Edina and Blake, their total numbers would be reduced if wins before the beginning of the so-called "True Team" era in 1973 (in which the method of scoring was changed) were not counted.

In individual play, Ken Boyum, a "public parks product," won state titles in both singles and doubles in 1942 and 1943 making him the "only Minnesota player to twice claim titles in both events." With the rules change in 1950 forbidding such double entries, what does that do to this record?

Other singles standouts among many include Dave Healy ("first three-time Minnesota singles champion"), Chuck Darley ("the greatest high school player in Minnesota history"); and David Wheaton (the greatest male professional player from the state") having been a Wimbledon semi-finalist, U.S. Davis cup member, and ranked 12th in the world.

As for coaches, Holden, a retired Hall of Fame coach himself, includes an entire chapter devoted to 28 recent inductees into the Minnesota Hall of Fame as well as a chapter for over 48 "prominent" coaches since 1929 from throughout the state. And as with all the entries, he gives plenty of biographical details as well as tennis and coaching accomplishments.

Holden's book has much to recommend it in addition to its abundance of statistics and information about Minnesota tennis. It's filled with human-interest stories about players and coaches and the Minnesota towns they are from. Multiple interviews and first hand accounts, 100s of pictures, and thorough research yield interesting background and contextualizing narratives on every page. From the teaching majors of high school coaches (surprisingly many in history and English) to the tennis upbringing of players (public courts vs. private country clubs), Holden gives us full, rounded portraits of a host of tennis players in Minnesota, many of whom I would guess you will know. The book itself is large format and professionally printed on quality paper with quality cloth binding and attractive covers and dust jacket. Althgether a high quality and attractive publication.

Finally, in addition to the short cultural histories of each decade, Holden includes excerpts from the plays of Shakespeare, who, as far as I know, was not a tennis player. "'Tis true 'tis pity 'tis 'tis true." Would that he were. Tennis and Shakespeare "twinn'd" togethere - priceless.