April 2006 -- A word to the wise: Watch how you reference the “U.S. Open” around Leslie C. “Les” Longshore.
If you’re talking about the Open during the years that it was not open to professionals – only amateur tennis players – be prepared for a little history lesson from this USPTA Master Professional and former amateur contender.
Longshore, who writes in beautifully scripted calligraphy, will not hesitate to pen a letter reminding a tennis broadcaster or columnist that the nation’s premier tennis tournament was not named the U.S. Open until the advent of the open era in 1968. The tournament that had long been held at West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, N.Y., was called the U.S. National Championships, or simply “Forest Hills.”
Some may regard misuse of the “Open” moniker as a matter of semantics, but this former English and Latin professor has long made it his mission to educate the public about the era of amateur tennis and the history of the tournament that began 125 years ago as the U.S. National Singles Championship for men.
“I spent 10 years of my life fighting for open tennis,” said Longshore, who appealed to the United States Lawn Tennis Association and wrote letters to tennis magazines and sports writers. “I wanted tennis to be more widely publicized and recognized,” he said.
He maintains that “tennis could have been a bigger sport” years earlier if, as in golf, professionals had been allowed to compete in the major tournaments.
With the introduction of the open era, “people saw the advantage and tennis thrived,” Longshore said. The U.S. Open, won in 1968 by Arthur Ashe and Virginia Wade, started drawing big crowds and increasingly bigger prize money. During the amateur era, players officially received only expense money and room and board.
Longshore said that those who were banned from amateur tournaments – players who earned professional contracts and went on tour – were actually the best in the world.
He points to Jack Kramer and Richard A. “Pancho” Gonzalez, who won the U.S. Pro singles a record eight times before finally getting to play the inaugural U.S. Open at age 40. Gonzalez beat second-seeded Tony Roche to reach the quarterfinals.
“Young people don’t know about the history of tennis and the great professionals who didn’t get to compete in their prime years,” he said.
“I’m old enough – I saw Bill Tilden and Ellsworth Vines play exhibition matches in the 1930s,” the 81-year-old Longshore said. “If they had been able to play the big tournaments, the whole history of tennis would have been different.
“It still disturbs me when tennis announcers talk of Bill Tilden and Vic Seixas playing in the ‘Open’ in the 1920s and 1950s (respectively),” he said. “Not many people know these things or they don’t care, but I lived through it.”
This amateur-era player even faced Seixas on the court, as well as Tony Trabert. He also played an exhibition match with Fred Perry.
Although he maintains that he was not a top player, only “a good Southern player,” this Birmingham, Ala., resident received a ranking as high as 35 in the 1950s, when he competed at Forest Hills eight times. He once made it to the round of 16 at the National Championships.
This former USPTA national president and founding president of the Southern Division shared his message about life before the open era when he was inducted into the division’s Hall of Fame in May 2005.
His wife, Ann, said those attending the Southern Division Hall of Fame induction were so stirred by his comments that they started beating on the table.
Longshore, who joined what was then the Professional Lawn Tennis Association in 1963, served as national president in 1974. He was on the national board when he was assigned member No. 3.
His daughter, Lisa Longshore McManus, is also a teaching pro in the Atlanta area and a 22-year member of USPTA.
Longshore believes that younger teaching pros need to know about the pre-open chapter of tennis history; touring pros weren’t the only ones with restrictions in those days.
“Teaching pros couldn’t play a single tournament – not even a city tournament – if they wanted to keep teaching,” he said. “I would like to have done some teaching along with playing. I (finally) elected to be a teaching pro (at the Birmingham Country Club) in the early ’60s, knowing I would not be able to play tournaments.”
Longshore had coached college tennis, which a teaching pro could do and still play tournaments, at Samford University in Birmingham and Clemson University in Clemson, S.C.
Longshore, who has a master’s degree in English, also taught college English and Latin for many years. In addition to Clemson, he taught at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Growing up in Anniston, Ala., his favorite sport was so popular that “everybody played tennis.”
“Tennis is a great game,” Longshore said. “You get out on the court and everyone plays by the same rules. It’s perfect for sociability; it’s the sport of a lifetime.”
Although he is now retired from teaching and playing tournaments, this active octogenarian still enjoys hitting at a club in Birmingham.
Longshore has another means of staying fit as well. He has run 37 marathons, logging more than 40,000 miles – on foot – over the past 33 years. He completed the Los Angeles marathon last year. He said some medical problems last fall kept him from running a marathon this year, but he is planning to go for his 38th in 2007.
“I slowed down at 80,” he said with a laugh.
Longshore’s convictions, as one can tell, are still as strong as his constitution. He lives by old-school tennis ethics, advocating traditional court attire, sportsmanlike conduct, and tournament play (as opposed to what he describes as a trend toward league play).
“I need to stay alive,” he said, “to remind people about the old days.”
