Notes

Who is the Greatest Tennis Player of All-Time? Federer, Sampras, Riggs? Aspen Hustle - Part One
The La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club has played a big part in our family's life through the years. My wife Sally, our son Mike and I used to call home up the road until we forsook the beauty of the ocean for the lure of the golf courses in the desert. The Club was our home away from home -- to play a little tennis, visit with friends, walk the beach or have a glass of wine on the promenade, hoping to see a green flash at the sun's setting. Produced by a true patron of tennis and tennis players William S. Kellogg, the Club was transformed from its original marina design right into a hacienda style resort directly on the sand. It sprawls along the beachfront, quietly welcoming generations of families who come each summer because of their vacations. And through the quiet months it remains its humble self, filled with locals who play on its 16 courts and who still sit on the promenade following a set or two, hoping to see a green flash. The green flash occurs on rare occasions once the sun hits the horizon at the end of a very clear day.

The Beach and Tennis Club isn't the grandest of most resorts on the planet, but it includes a certain something that a lot of the newer and bigger operations do not possess. Perhaps, it's soul. It really is most likely the soul of the Kellogg family that continues to oversea the property. It could be the eons of paint that cover the adobe walls producing a color you can't quite identify. Is it salmon? Could it be orange? Could it be tan? The rooms are small, but are continually being upgraded. The grounds are kept immaculate having an infinite selection of palm trees swaying in the sea breeze high above the court fences. And you can find roses, lots and lots of roses. Nothing significant has changed at the Club for years and probably that's what makes it so special. My partner can attest to that. She started playing here as a young girl in junior tournaments, then in women's events and lastly in national senior championships, winning titles on the way. She is one among the many champions who have played at the Club through the years. Stoffen, Mako, Budge, Gonzales, Kramer, Bond, Ralston, Olmedo, Bundy-Cheney, Fleitz, Brough, Laver, Emerson, Smith, Lutz, Ramirez, Edberg, Osuna, Pasarell, Roddick, Conners, Segura and a million more.

So it is with great excitement that people have returned to the La Jolla area, correcting the mistake of experiencing left in the first place, and especially with this day time for the Club to lunch with old friends.

Old friends are not just old, as in cases like this, but old as in good friends for a long time. Jay Smith probably the most vociferous of the luncheon attendees greets us with his usual enthusiasm, "Marv, Sally, great to see you. Roger was fantastic yesterday, wasn't he?! The greatest player I've ever seen!" Jay speaks with some authority, a former teaching pro out of LA, a connoisseur of tennis for several years, a heady competitor himself and now a scratch golfer. "He's got everything," continues Jay. "His serve will not be as big as Roddick's, Pete's or Pancho's, but he's consistent and his placement is superb." His wife Sheri nods. She lets Jay do the majority of the talking most of the time. She sits quietly and waits her turn, usually when things quiet down. Learning the overall game in later life, Sheri herself has become a keen observer of the game.

"Uh huh," agrees Sheri.

"I'd have to agree too," adds Mardi Stein, another of our table companions. She's played social tennis at the Club for a long time and like Sheri, what she lacks in skill she makes up for in dress. Both of these are perhaps the best dressed players this side of Sharapova.

Mardi's husband Shel, who's usually as quiet as Sheri, breaks in, "I really believe you can find 8 critical skills to tennis greatness." Shel is a fine player and tough competitor. He could be intelligent and mindful on / off the court so his opinion counts here. "Most champions possess three or four 4 of these abilities in spades - a large serve, killer forehand, lethal backhand, aggressive volley, fantastic return, great court coverage, concentration and the capability to win critical points. I believe Federer has all of them. He is the greatest by default."

"I wouldn't disagree," says a voice from behind me. I turn to see that Jack and Carmen Stone have arrived to join the luncheon party. "He could be the very best I've ever seen," continues Jack, and Jack has seen a lot of tennis players over the years. He has been an associate of the Club for 50 years but still plays a respectable game of doubles. His wife Carmen still turns heads when she enters a room. Her beauty is not only skin deep. She actually is lovely atlanta divorce attorneys way and shares a pastime with Sally in matters of a spiritual nature.

Sally chips in, "He plays in the ethers."

"What? What exactly are you discussing?" demands Jay.

Sally has a tendency to see things in a different light, even if she actually is agreeing with everyone, as she was here. "Not see the way he moves round the court? He could be absolutely one with the ball. He progresses a different plane, like Michael Jordan did on the basketball court. He is fluid. He is liquid. He is airborne. He is the greatest tennis player of all time. No one comes close!"

Words began to fly, but finally I couldn't go on it anymore. "I strongly disagree!" I volunteered. The table conversation stopped. I continued, "I believe the greatest player is the person who has made the best impact on tennis up to now and that has been Bobby Riggs!"

"Riggs?!" yelled Jay. "He was a hustler. What did he ever do? What have I missed here?"

Now I had to explain myself. Diners at nearby tables were perking up their ears as our discussion became more heated. "To start with he was great - a global champion at age 21. He won the singles title at Wimbledon, 3 U.S. titles, played on the Davis Cup Team. He also won Wimbledon doubles and mixed doubles titles. He loved tennis and he too had all of the shots plus some trick ones not seen today. Yes, he was a hustler, but he was also a tennis promoter. Actually the single biggest tennis event, actually the single biggest athletic event, ever sold was made by Riggs. The Battle of the Sexes $100,000 Winner-Take-All match against Billie Jean King in 1973, uplifted the awareness of tennis to the amount of a major sport. There were 30,000, standing-room only at the Houston Astrodome with another 50 million TV viewers around the globe. Not even the 2008 Democratic and Republican Conventions reached 40 million and they were the largest viewed in history Riggs efforts alongside Billie Jean King's did more for women's lib than all of the efforts up to that point. That event helped women break the equal pay and equal everything barrier in many, many fields beyond tennis. Besides all that he was a guy in his mid-50's who could still play at a very higher level. Sally and I know this from personal experience because he found Aspen in 1976 to greatly help us open the perfect new tennis club called The Tennis Club.

Back in the mid 70's when Sally and I first got together she was ending her career as a touring Virginia Slims tennis pro, still ranked in the very best 20 on the globe, and I had just left a top marketing and promotional position with Hallmark Cards in Kansas City to pursue my entrepreneurial destiny. We were offered an opportunity to head to Aspen with a deed to 25 spectacular acres of land across the Roaring Fork River just south of town to build up a world-class tennis resort for a New York investor. The deal was exercised on a paper napkin as we had lunch at the center court restaurant on the grounds of the old Forest Hills Tennis Club where the U.S. Open had been held. Sally will be the head rackets pro and I would supervise construction of the brand new club and the sale of 20 luxury condominiums scheduled to be built on the club property.

After Sally played her last Slims tournament in Austin, Texas, we packed our bags and headed for Aspen. The investor had wisely hired an area Aspen attorney, Andy Stern, for us to work with to secure the necessary local government approvals prior to starting construction on the project, and also build a pastime in the club for local and non-resident memberships. We'd also have the 20 condos to sell.

So it was with great anticipation and a feeling of freedom that we made our way by car along Interstate 70 out of Denver through the low reaches of the Rockies toward our future.

We hit Glenwood Springs, then turned south on Highway 82 for the last 40 miles up along a narrow alpine valley bordering the Roaring Fork River. Cascading water ran from the higher elevations of Independence Pass and the Continental Divide in to the river and down the valley. The new air and the chance of wandering trout streams felt good to my soul. The aspen trees with their shimmering golden leaves welcomed us along our new path. "Sally, I understand I'm going to like this project. I understand it!"

Once we passed through Carbondale, still climbing, the ranches looked grander, the cattle looked bigger and the river looked clearer. Finally at an altitude of 7,500 feet we entered the tiny town of Basalt, where another whitewater river roared. This one, running east to west, called the Frying Pan, falls in to the Roaring Fork which runs south to north. The largest landmark in Basalt is an old cowboy bar called the Frying Pan Restaurant and Bar. Right out from the 1800's, it is a hangout for after work ranch hands. "Let's stop," I said, eyeing some fishermen laying their catch out on the porch of the restaurant. I've surely got to check this out."

We climbed the steps and peeked in to the creels the men taken to carry their catches. "Appears like you've had a good day," I ventured.

"Always a good day here. Always a good day," was the response from a vintage weather-beaten local still casting into the Frying Pan near the porch. But on top of that was the response from the restaurant. Wafting out of the doorway was the smell of fresh, pan-fried trout. The fisherman, who looked as if he had experienced these mountains since birth, continued to fill me in, "Rainbows. We mostly catch rainbows having an occasional brownie here and there from the deep pools near the waterfall. But, if you are adventurous you can test a few high mountain lakes where you may catch some golden trout - above 10,000 feet. Great eatin'."

My mouth was watering, not merely from the smells escaping from the nearby kitchen, but from the chance of wandering stream and lake banks and also catching fish. check here in my own youth were spent with my dad doing just that - hopping from rock to rock, casting, reeling in, moving along and casting again with the promise of a fish dinner in the evening and even while not watching how my feet got me in one rock to another.

"Would you give us just a little background to this area? I asked. "Reveal about Aspen."

That brought a smile to the old man's face. His hands continued doing the tasks of a fisherman without his thinking about it. "Well, it dates back to the Ute Indians. Since way back when they used to summer in the high meadows here, hunting elk. In the late 1800's silver was discovered and all hell broke loose as miners came and raided the area. A large mining camp on the Roaring Fork developed called Ute City. It's now Aspen, but even then it had everything - an opera house, hotels, banks. Actually they're still here today - the Hotel Jerome, the Wheeler Opera House, even the Ute City Bank. But like many good stuff, the boom didn't last. The price of silver crashed and the population that was nearly 12,000 dwindled to 800 people." He stopped to cast again.

"In the 30's, I really believe it had been, a wealthy Chicago industrialist named Walter Paepcke tried to build a ski resort, but World War II changed things. The region was turned into an exercise ground for the 10th Mountain Division to obtain our troops ready to fight the Germans in the alpine regions of Europe. That has been my unit and after the war a bunch of us returned here. We loved it and knew it was special. Some of the men, like me, became ranchers. Others like Friedl Pfeifer formed the Aspen Ski Corp. That's how Aspen had become."

We thanked our new friend and went inside to see if the trout tasted as good as it smelled.

The canyon narrows the previous few miles into Aspen, winding above the river, then opens up into the last high meadow before climbing almost directly to Independent Pass, the top of the Rocky Mountains having an altitude of over 12,000 feet. On that last high meadow sits the city of Aspen, now a complicated, refurbished Victorian village using its own airport capable of handling small private and corporate jets. Meticulously restored, the town glows from the faces of its charming multi-storied buildings and brick chalets with their arched windows and peaked roofs. The Aspen Music Festival was completely session when we arrived, with a huge selection of student, classical musicians inhabiting every nook. Every street corner and every open window above every store along Galena, Hyman and Main streets was enlivened making use of their magical music making. They rehearsed 24/7 to the delight of the locals and their instructors who included most of the world's greatest musicians such as Itzhak Perlman.

Above the rooftops and the din, stood probably the most majestic of all mountains, Aspen Mountain, called Ajax by the locals. It soared from the center of town up through the clouds to 11,000 feet. This is indeed a sublime place and no wonder so many free-spirited celebrities like John Denver, Jack Nicholson, the Kennedys, Clint Eastwood and Merv Griffin made Aspen a normal stop or a second home.

So in the summertime of 1975 we moved into an old sod-roofed ranch house in the center of those 25 acres with the Roaring Fork River rumbling nearby. For another year we worked hard and long to bring the proposed project to fruition. Nonetheless it was whenever we got near the end of the construction phase that people decided that we needed a dramatic event to launch the membership program also to start the condominium sales.

We had it all. Our new mountainside complex boasted three indoor tennis courts, 12 outdoor courts, two squash courts, 16 racquetball courts, a full indoor gymnasium, an inside swimming pool and spa, plus a beautiful restaurant, lounge and bar. Moreover, it was staffed by top health practitioners. Although there have been five other tennis clubs around, there was nothing like this in Aspen at that time. But we needed a big event never to only draw attention to the project, but also to draw attention to Sally, the initial female head pro of a major tennis club in the U.S.

At a special breakfast ending up in our Aspen attorney, Andy, our NY investor, Ben Goldstein, and some key Aspen local leaders, we proposed bringing Bobby Riggs to Aspen to play Sally in a winner-take-all exhibition tennis match. This is just 3 years after Bobby had played and beaten Margaret Court in a "Battle of the Sexes" match, claiming that no professional woman player, no matter how strong could beat a professional man player, regardless of what his ranking. He proved it once. Then, needless to say, a couple of months later with that same bravado he took on Billie Jean King. Over 50,000,000 people worldwide watched that eventful match on TV. Bobby was featured on the cover of Time magazine. History was made because the glass ceiling of a cement tennis court was broken, thanks to Billie Jean.

We felt we're able to draw the eye we wanted through Bobby. Fortunately, he was available. The deal we exercised was simple. It guaranteed him $3,500, and also a possiblity to win the $1,000 winner-take-all challenge money. Naturally we'd to include his airfare, room and board, but that has been easy. We were a resort. We also asked he make himself available for socializing with this locals. He was only too willing. We planned to invite everybody around to enjoy the function and this glam he brought with him. Having never met Bobby Riggs, I really did not know what to expect, so we tried hard to cover all VIP treatment bases.

Among the key supporters of our project was the president of the neighborhood branch of a statewide bank chain. He suggested that their bank chain co-sponsor the function, not only to defray our costs, but as an incentive to their customers. They ended up offering tickets at all their branches throughout Colorado, for just about any new deposits of several thousand dollars or more.

Coloradans love any excuse to visit Aspen, therefore the event wouldn't normally only bring potential new members to your club, but fill hotels, restaurants and the club stands. It will be a great promotion for everybody involved. The function was starting to grow and grow, taking on a life of its own. Again, I had never met Bobby Riggs, therefore i didn't know what to anticipate. But, this event was needs to ramp up -- big time!

Copyright 2008 Marv Huss

Marv Huss graduated from the University of Callifornia, Berkeley. Captain Huss served in the USMC as a fighter pilot in the South Pacific. After his military service he rose through the corporate ranks at Hallmark to corporate Director of Advertising, in charge of the Emmy-award-winning "Hallmark Hall of Fame" television series. Retiring from corporate life he helped create a world-class resort, The Aspen Club in Aspen, Colorado. In the 90's, Marv focused his marketing skills on his wife - considered one of the leading artist/writers in the united kingdom. Together they have licenesed her art on clothing, purses, books and also baby bibs. Their most recent creation, Happy Musings, is really a newspaper feature combining her charming art with a whimsical life thought syndicated by King Features. Happy Musings are now available as e-cards at [http://www.happymusings.com] or through http://www.sallyhuss.com Marv now lives and writes full-time in his home in La Jolla, California while overseeing his wife's artistic endeavors.
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