Nancy Hoekstra

An educator and advocate for people with special needs, Nancy Hoekstra has been active with the USTA and Special Olympics since 1988. She works tirelessly creating adaptive programming, coaching from the local to the international level, serving as Special Olympics Tennis Technical Delegate at both the National Games and World...

Jack Sharpe

Jack, a Head Master Professional and nationally-recognized tennis coach, has been teaching tennis for the past 40+ years, the last 12 years at the Hinsdale Racquet Club. He has served on a number of U.S.T.A. Midwest Section Boards. During the 2014 ASICS Easter Bowl National Tournament in Indian Wells, California,...

Wally Piekarski

Wally was born in Chicago on March 22, 1929 and grew up in the Back-of-the-Yards neighborhood where he was always involved in some type of sport. He attended Tilden Technical H.S. where he scored a record 91 points in one basketball game. Wally attended the University of Mississippi on a...

James Stewart

James Stewart, from Chicago, served as president of the Western Tennis Association for nine years (1922-28). He was responsible for the development and growth of tennis in the Western section during the 1920s. That era brought great players to tournaments in Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis and Cincinnati. During his presidency, Western...

Helen Shockley

Helen Shockley won the National Girls’ 18 Singles Title in 1932 and was ranked number one in the United States in Girls’ 18s. She also won the Canadian National Junior Championship. A 1937 graduate of the Northwestern University School of Music, Shockley later became known as Chicago’s “First Lady of...

Marty Riessen

Marty Riessen, from Chicago, won 60 professional doubles titles and was a finalist in 40 other finals. He won seven Grand Slam mixed doubles and two Grand Slam men’s doubles championships and is the owner of nine career singles titles. Ten times Riessen was ranked in the top 10 in...

Frank Parker

Frank Parker, from Evanston, Ill., was the first Western player to win the National Singles Championship at Forest Hills in 1944 and again in 1945 while serving in the armed forces. He won the National Clay Court title five times, the National Indoor singles and doubles, the Western singles and...

George Lott

George Lott, from Chicago, was the first Western player to win the National Doubles title at Brookline in 1928 teaming with John Hennessey of Indianapolis. He won the U.S. doubles championship five times, the indoor doubles title two times, the clay court and Western doubles and the National Mixed Doubles...

Andrea Jaeger

Andrea Jaeger, Chicago native, won a total of 11 U.S. junior national titles including the 1979 U.S. Girls’ 18 Clay Courts when she was only 14. In 1980 she became the youngest player ever to be seeded at Wimbledon, a distinction she held for a decade. She was ranked in...

Seymour Greenberg

Seymour Greenberg as a junior, from Highland Park, IL., won the Western Boys’ 15 and Under title and was runner-up in the National 15s at Culver Military Academy. At Northwestern University he was the Big Ten Singles champion in 1940 and 1941 and the doubles champion from 1940 through 1942....