Dinkins Praises Ashe, Honors Junior Tennis League

Both the memory of Arthur Ashe, and the core ideals that defined his relatively short but greatly meaningful life, were on full display Thursday night as a thriving citywide tennis program celebrated four decades of providing free instruction, as well as educational support and guidance, to thousands of New York’s school children.

The awards event, held by the New York Junior Tennis League, a grassroots program founded in 1969 by the late gentlemanly icon that has grown into a generous and reliable institution, was held at Intermediate School 204 in Long Island City. The evening also served as a kickoff to NYJTL’s new season, which begins April 19 and runs until June 27 at 29 tennis facilities, parks and public schools across all five boroughs.

“The New York Junior Tennis League was founded by Arthur Ashe, Sheridan Snyder and Charles Pasarell,” former mayor David N. Dinkins told those in attendance, sharing praise for the 1968 U.S. Open champion with two other tennis evangelists. “They were skilled tennis players but their concern was for children.”

That concern, propelled by a collective belief that when taught properly and with sufficient time, was that tennis could also help inspire kids academically. This tenet also ensured that the league’s mission would always be more than just about playing the game itself.

One of NYJTL’s programs, for example, is called “High School Today, College Tomorrow,” which, according to its president, Jim O’Neill, is an educational initiative that joins tennis and school success to lift kids to greater heights. In addition to other assistance, the program, according to the league’s website, provides “funding for SAT and SHSAT prep courses, math and English tutoring… resume building, college visits, and more.”

Standing before roughly 200 parents, kids and educators in the school’s auditorium, Mr. O’Neill said that “once you’re in high school, and if you’re still playing with the New York Junior Tennis League, then we’re going to work to get you into college.” NYJTL has been so committed to the educational side of its two-pronged cause that for a second year it’s providing college scholarships to its most prized participants. “It all depends on you folks,” he said, “about how serious you want to get involved with tennis.”

Following Mr. O’Neill’s overview of the league’s history and mission, the room was engulfed by the well-practiced sounds of the Brooklyn Collegiate Mighty Lion Drum Line. The dark blue-clad middle school band streamed in, commanding the two parallel aisles to the stage before providing roughly 10 minutes of orchestrated drumbeats, cymbals and chimes. Cheers filled the room as the Mighty Lions filed out, concluding their performance.

Mr. Dinkins, a well-documented tennis lover, demonstrated a slower pace in movement and speech as compared to his political zenith during his mayoral days from 1990-93. But at 82, he credited tennis for keeping him active and on the court three times a week, at 7 AM.

In honoring the NYJTL for its work, New York’s 106th mayor presented the Changing Lives Award to Tory Kiam, a 15-year board member and tennis advocate, who recently relinquished the chairmanship.

Before attending Harvard and joining its varsity tennis team, Kiam, a native New Yorker, recounted a tale about briefly gaining notoriety while attending the Trinity School, sharing the same side of the court with a racket-wielding supernova.

“I never got to be a champion player. But at one brief moment I was possibly considered part of the best doubles team in the world, because I went to high school with a fellow named John McEnroe,” said Kiam. “In the old days back then, they said the best doubles team in the world was John McEnroe and whoever else he was playing with.”

Laughter filled the room.

When Ashe, who died in 1993 at the age of 49, became the first (and still only) African-American male to win a major singles title in 1968, he and his friends felt that the qualities needed to thrive on the court -- among them commitment, focus, perseverance and sportsmanship -- were also the same that were needed to succeed in school, and beyond. Those qualities served as the foundation of the NYJTL. Another defining goal listed on the league’s website is the need to reach out to “young people who otherwise would not have the opportunity to learn and play tennis.”

A look at Ashe’s early experiences, growing up as a boy in Richmond, Va., where he was born in 1943, sheds light on his creation of the NYJTL.

“Since racial segregation was the law there during his childhood and early youth, Ashe could not play in the usual junior tournaments,” writes Bud Collins, the long-time tennis authority, in his compendium Bud Collins’ Tennis Encyclopedia (1997, Visible Ink Press).

But quite a legacy has been created. Over the last 40 years, the league has become, according to president O’Neill, “the largest youth tennis program in the United States. Twelve thousand students are in our after-school programs and 120,000 kids are learning about tennis in their Phys. Ed. classes,” across the city.

During his remarks, Mr. O’Neill also pondered NYJTL’s future, one that may include a home of its own.

“I’m not supposed to say this tonight,” he said. “But we’re very hopeful that we’re going to hear very shortly that the league is going to build its own indoor major tennis facility in the Bronx.”

The night’s festivities began across the hallway in the gym, with dozens of kids whacking tennis balls over three self-supporting nets, erected side by side in close quarters. The New York Junior Tennis League has been setting up shop like this in open spaces and schoolyards throughout the city for decades, and during that time Arthur Ashe’s message has apparently found a grateful, growing and appreciative audience.

To learn more about the New York Junior Tennis League, visit
www.nyjtl.org

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Erik Lief is Editor in Chief of New York Family Sports.