Dave and Pat play tennis
Posted Monday, March 21, 2011 10:56 AM

 

Dave and Pat Play Tennis
 
This story was told to me by Dave Dickson over fifty years ago. My memory may not be entirely accurate, but it’s not too far off. Maybe Pat can contribute if I see him at the 50th reunion.
Dave Dickson and Pat Forester were outstanding high school athletes. Pat was All-League in football and baseball and Dave was All-League in football, basketball and baseball as well as All-CIF in baseball. In the spring of 1960, professional tennis players Pancho Gonzalez, Ken Rosewall and Tony Trabert put on an assembly in the South Pas High School gym. Inspired by the 100 mile per hour serves, long volleys and deft returns, Dave and Pat decided to play some tennis.
I’m not sure the degree of prior experience the guys had with fuzzy balls and cat gut rackets, but according to Dave, they practiced all summer, and by August felt they were ready for some real competition. Forthwith, they purchased some better equipment and entered an 18 and under tournament.
The two friends were winners in the best sense of the word. They were both class guys. They ran against each other for student body president, but remained good friends, and eventually went off to Stanford University together. I doubt if either Dave or Pat had experienced much in the way of failure in their lives, maybe that’s just from my perspective.
In any case, off they went to play in the tournament. As unknowns, they were unseeded, and therefore started play against top seeds, something that they didn’t really understand despite their 4.0 grade averages. Predictably, both Dave and Pat were eliminated in their first matches of the tournament, the new shoes and rackets helping only a little. It was a very short morning, hardly worth the rather hefty entry fees they had both forked over for a lesson in humility.
“How’d you do?” Dave asked Pat as they walked toward the car.
“Not so hot,” he replied glumly.
“Score?”
“6-1, 6-0,” Pat replied. “But it wasn’t as close as the score would indicate. How about you?”
“6-1, 6-1. I played some black kid. I couldn’t even see his serve. I didn’t dare go to the net for fear of getting killed.”
Dave and Pat were both born in 1943, and so apparently, were Dennis Ralston and Arthur Ashe.

 

Pat is 6th from left to right, Dave is 9th.