MID-TAC Tournament proves historically Black tennis organizations are thriving
By RICHIE HALL
sports@readthereporter.com
CARMEL – A July 4 tradition continued this past weekend on the courts of the Carmel Racquet Club.
For over 35 years, the club has been one of the host sites of the MID-TAC Annual Championship Tournament. This year, MID-TAC celebrated its 100th year with an extended tournament, a banquet and other special events, and of course, many competitive and fun tennis matches.
The Carmel Racquet Club is one of three sites for the MID-TAC tournament. The seniors (55 and over) play at CRC in order to use the facility’s clay courts, although some early matches were moved indoors because of weather. But on Tuesday, the players were back on the clay, and they treated the spectators to some great competition.
In fact, there were around 30 spectators watching Tuesday’s senior finals. Margaret Dorsey, the president of MID-TAC, said that’s a result of the camaraderie that develops among the MID-TAC players.
“When we sit and watch, we actually come to do that,” said Dorsey. “That is part of the weekend. We know that there are certain teams, we’re going to see them execute and they pretty much are going to end up in the finals.”
This year’s MID-TAC tournament had 101 junior players and 162 adults participate. The adults who were not playing in senior competition played their matches at Tarkington Park, while the juniors played at West Indy Racquet Club. The players also celebrated at a banquet on Sunday night at the Marriott Indianapolis North Hotel, which served as the host hotel for the tournament.
Community ties
MID-TAC’s full name is Midwestern Tennis Association, and it is the Midwest section of the American Tennis Association (ATA). The ATA was founded in 1916 by representatives from over a dozen Black tennis clubs. At the time, Black players were barred from competing in United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) tournaments.
MID-TAC has ties to community organizations in 10 states across the Midwest, including the Capitol City Tennis Club in Indianapolis. The CCTC has hosted the MID-TAC tournament every year since 1979, with Carmel Racquet Club serving as one of the sites for over 35 years.
Dorsey is in her 13th year as president of MID-TAC. She was always curious about the organization’s history – “Well, how old are they really,” she said. “I know we come here every year.”
When she became president Dorsey, gave an assignment to all of the member clubs: “Could you do research on your club and tell us how long have you been in existence and how long have you been coming to MID-TAC?” she asked. Through that process, “we discovered that we were older than we thought we were.”
“Under my administration, everybody was completely informed at the same time as to who brought us into being,” said Dorsey. That person was “Mother” Mary Ann Seames, a pioneer in Black tennis. Seames is part of an exhibit on the International Tennis Hall of Fame website. Seames was giving tennis lessons to Black children as early as 1906.
Click here to see the exhibit.
“Nobody really understood that role that she had,” said Dorsey. “And now we’re going to get a chance to celebrate it even more completely, because everybody’s learning that same information collectively.”
Dorsey enlisted the help of Tony Burrows, a genealogist, to help research the archives to find out more information about the beginning of MID-TAC. (That history can be found on MID-TAC’s website at midtac.jrjox.com/current-history.) They found a 1926 article from the Chicago Defender, an African American National Newspaper, that mentioned the “3rd Annual Western Tennis Championship” that took place in Chicago. Another Defender article, from 1935, said MID-TAC’s beginnings were in Wilberforce, Ohio.
Robert Velasco (left) was playing in his first-ever MID-TAC tournament, while James Walker has been playing in the tournament since 1955. (Reporter photo by Richie Hall)
Walking history
Some of the players competing in the MID-TAC tournament could be considered walking history lessons about the organization. A good example is James Walker of Jackson, Tenn. Walker has been playing in the MID-TAC tournament since 1955, when he started as a junior player. He’s now 79 years old and still playing at a high level.
Walker is still teaching at a high level, as the teaching pro at Jackson Park and Recreation.
“I’ve been through the USTA program,” said Jackson. “I got my teaching certificate through the USTA. I think I was about 27 years old when I started. So I’ve been in tennis for a long time.”
Walker said he has made many friends at the tournament from all over the country, ranging from places such as Chicago, Nashville and Florida.
“They come from a lot of different states,” said Walker. “It’s a big tournament.”
At the other end of the spectrum is Bob Velasco, 78, of Forest Park, Ill. He said this was the first MID-TAC tournament he had ever played in.
“I haven’t played tennis for quite a while, so I’m just getting back into it,” said Velasco. “And I know a lot of people who come to this. Matter of fact, we were here just watching, kind of as a vacation. I decided to go ahead and play since I hadn’t played for a while and want to get back into the game.”
Velasco said he would “definitely” play at the MID-TAC again, “because I know a lot of the players here. It’s very convenient to run into old friends.”
“Tennis is a family”
The matches at the MID-TAC tournament are competitive, but the sense of friendship among the players at the senior level transcends the scores. Just a few minutes after playing a doubles match, with each other, four women – Denise A. Davis (from New Jersey), Mary Richardson-Webb (Chicago), Tina Dandridge (Chicago) and Sytera Lynn Sanders (Arizona) – sat down with the Reporter to talk about their experiences.
“It’s very almost family-oriented,” said Richardson-Webb. “It’s very, very nice to get people from all over and everybody just seems to always mesh, in my opinion, very well.”
Dandridge agreed about the social aspect of the tournament, calling it an “outlet, at least for me being an older player. And I’ve always had good relationships with everybody I’ve played tennis with, whether it’s here or people I don’t know.”
Dandridge said, “Tennis is a family. You don’t have to know anybody. We just commune, break bread, play and have fun, win or lose.”
Sanders noted the diversity in players – “all different level skills,” she said. “They come from all parts of the world and come together” for fellowship, playing tennis and getting to know each other. “That’s how some people find partners and it’s just a fun thing to do.”
“Ditto in terms of what all the other ladies have just mentioned,” said Davis. “It’s family-orientated. And you meet people from all over, and I’ve gained more of a respect for the game itself and the individuals that I have actually been competing against. Like the other ladies have said, it’s family. It’s a big family.”
While tennis brings the players together, the MID-TAC experience goes beyond the courts. The event began last Friday with a welcome party. On Saturday, the event hosted “Friends and Family Evening In The Park” at Tarkington Park, where a cook from Chicago served barbecued chicken, spaghetti, salad and baked beans.
On Sunday, MID-TAC hosted the banquet at the Marriott North, which included the 100th Year Celebration Program. The program featured special guests, “who were all previous administrators for MID-TAC,” said Dorsey. The guests were awarded plaques, “and we had a great time,” said Dorsey. Then on Monday, there was a cocktail party with a silent auction, and Tuesday featured pizza and wings.
“Our motto is ‘MID-TAC is the premier tournament for juniors and the preferred tournament for adults,’” said Dorsey. “Because we don’t give you rankings. You don’t get points. You come because you love to play. You love the competition and you know it’s going to be a great weekend.”
Dorsey also had nice words for Carmel Racquet Club, which welcomed the MID-TAC players with signs throughout the facility.
“We have a splendid, excellent relationship with Carmel,” said Dorsey. “Greg Griffey and his staff have always treated us just royally. We can say we need a couple of courts and he’ll make it happen. Anything that we need, it’s just a phone call away.”
It’s a relationship that will continue for many years to come. And expect to see more competitive tennis and family-style camaraderie as MID-TAC – and its tournament – enter their second centuries.
American Tennis Association has produced all-time great players
By RICHIE HALL
sports@readthereporter.com
The ATA hosted its first tournament in Baltimore in 1917 and it quickly became “one of the most anticipated social events of the year” in the Black community, according to the ATA’s website, yourata.org/history. In 1940, Don Budge, the first player to win a calendar-year Grand Slam, played that year’s ATA champion, Jimmy McDaniel, in a match at New York City’s Cosmopolitan Club, an ATA affiliate. That began the process of integration.
Budge played a doubles match with Dr. Reginald Weir, who would become the first Black player to compete in a USLTA event in 1948, at the U.S. Indoor Lawn Tennis Championship. Weir was a five-time ATA champion between 1931 and 1942.
An all-time great player that came out of the ATA was Althea Gibson, who won 10 ATA titles in a row between 1947 and 1956. Gibson became the first Black player to compete in the U.S. Nationals and claimed the first Grand Slam title for a Black player when she won the French Nationals in 1956. Gibson went on to win the U.S. Nationals and Wimbledon twice (1957-58), ranking No. 1 in the world both years, and is a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
The ATA also produced Arthur Ashe, who won three consecutive titles from 1960 to 1962. Ashe is the first Black man to win a Grand Slam title, winning the first-ever U.S. Open (the successor to the U.S. Nationals) in 1968. Ashe also won the Australian Open (1970) and Wimbledon (1975) and was elected to the Hall of Fame. Two other ATA champions, Zina Garrison (1979-80) and Lori McNeil (1981) would both go on to rank in the world top 10 during their careers. Garrison won three mixed doubles Grand Slams, a gold medal in doubles in the 1988 Summer Olympics and reached the 1990 Wimbledon final.