Notes

Who is the best Tennis Player of All-Time? Federer, Sampras, Riggs? Aspen Hustle - Part One
The La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club has played a large part in our family's life over the years. My wife Sally, our son Mike and I used to live 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 genuine patron of tennis and tennis players William S. Kellogg, the Club was transformed from its original marina design into a hacienda style resort right on the sand. It sprawls across the beach front, quietly welcoming generations of families who come each summer for their vacations. And during the quiet months it remains its humble self, filled with locals who play on its 16 courts and who still take a seat 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 globe, but it has a certain something that many of the newer and bigger operations usually do not possess. Perhaps, it's soul. It is most likely the soul of the Kellogg family that continues to oversea the property. It may 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? Is it tan? The rooms are small, but are continually being upgraded. The grounds are kept immaculate with an infinite variety of palm trees swaying in the ocean breeze high above the court fences. And you can find roses, lots and lots of roses. Nothing significant has changed at the Club for a long time and probably that's why is it so special. My partner can verify that. She started playing here as a girl in junior tournaments, then in women's events and finally in national senior championships, winning titles along the way. She is one among the many champions who've played at the Club over time. 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 to begin with, and especially on this day time for the Club to lunch with old friends.

Old friends aren't just old, as in this case, but old as in friends for a long time. Jay Smith 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 today a scratch golfer. "He has everything," continues Jay. "His serve will not be as large 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 more often than not. She sits quietly and waits her turn, usually when things quiet down. Learning the game in later life, Sheri herself has turned into a keen observer of the overall game.

"Uh huh," agrees Sheri.

"I'd have to agree too," adds Mardi Stein, another of our table companions. She has played social tennis at the Club for a long time and like Sheri, what she lacks in skill she accocunts for 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 there are 8 critical skills to tennis greatness." Shel is really a fine player and tough competitor. He could be intelligent and mindful on / off the court so his opinion counts here. "Most champions possess 3 or 4 4 of the 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 think Federer has all of them. He is the best 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 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 and still plays a respectable game of doubles. His wife Carmen still turns heads when she enters an area. Her beauty isn't just skin deep. She actually is lovely in every way and shares a pastime with Sally in matters of a spiritual nature.

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

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

Sally tends to see things in another light, even if she actually is agreeing with everyone, as she was here. "Not start to see Additional hints moves round the court? He is absolutely one with the ball. He moves on another plane, like JORDAN did on the basketball court. He could be fluid. He is liquid. He could be airborne. He is the greatest tennis player ever. No one comes close!"

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

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

Now I had to describe myself. Diners at nearby tables were perking up their ears as our discussion became more heated. "For starters he was great - a world champion at the age of 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 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 created by Riggs. The Battle of the Sexes $100,000 Winner-Take-All match against Billie Jean King in 1973, uplifted the knowing 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 all over the world. Not even the 2008 Democratic and Republican Conventions reached 40 million and they were the biggest viewed in history Riggs efforts along with 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 man in his mid-50's who could still play at an extremely high level. Sally and I understand this from personal experience because he came to Aspen in 1976 to 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 most notable 20 on earth, 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 a chance to head to Aspen with a deed to 25 spectacular acres of land across the Roaring Fork River just south of town to develop a world-class tennis resort for a fresh York investor. The deal was exercised on a paper napkin once we had lunch at the center court restaurant due to the old Forest Hills Tennis Club where the U.S. Open was being held. Sally will be the head rackets pro and I'd 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 a local Aspen attorney, Andy Stern, for all of us to utilize to secure the necessary local government approvals before starting construction on the project, along with build an interest in the club for local and non-resident memberships. We would also have the 20 condos to market.

So that it was with great anticipation and a feeling of freedom that people 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 going back 40 miles up along a narrow alpine valley bordering the Roaring Fork River. Cascading water ran from the bigger elevations of Independence Pass and the Continental Divide into the river and down the valley. The fresh air and the possibility of wandering trout streams felt good to my soul. The aspen trees making use of their shimmering golden leaves welcomed us along our new path. "Sally, I understand I'm going to like this project. I understand it!"

As 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 just one more 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 biggest landmark in Basalt is an old cowboy bar called the Frying Pan Restaurant and Bar. Right from the 1800's, this 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 got to check this out."

We climbed the steps and peeked into the creels the men brought to carry their catches. "Looks like you've had an excellent day," I ventured.

"Always a good day here. Always an excellent day," was the response from an old weather-beaten local still casting into the Frying Pan near the porch. But better still was the response from the restaurant. Wafting from 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 close to the waterfall. But, if you are adventurous you can test several 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 possibility of wandering stream and lake banks and actually catching fish. Probably the most precious times in my youth were spent with my father doing that - hopping from rock to rock, casting, reeling in, moving along and casting again with the promise of a fish dinner at night and even while not watching how my feet got me in one rock to another.

"Could you give us a little background to this area? I asked. "Tell us 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. For hundreds of years 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 big 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 things, the boom didn't last. The cost of silver crashed and the populace which was nearly 12,000 dwindled to 800 people." He stopped to cast again.

"In the 30's, I believe it was, 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 get our troops ready to fight the Germans in the alpine regions of Europe. That was my unit and following the war a lot 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 came to be."

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

The canyon narrows the last few miles into Aspen, winding above the river, then opens up into the last high meadow before climbing almost straight up 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 making use of 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 a lot of the world's greatest musicians such as Itzhak Perlman.

Above the rooftops and the din, stood the most majestic of most 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 no wonder so many free-spirited celebrities like John Denver, Jack Nicholson, the Kennedys, Clint Eastwood and Merv Griffin made Aspen a regular stop or perhaps a second home.

So in the summertime of 1975 we moved into an old sod-roofed ranch house in the middle 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 close to the end of the construction phase that we decided that people needed a dramatic event to launch the membership program and to start the condominium sales.

We had everything. Our new mountainside complex boasted three indoor tennis courts, 12 outdoor courts, two squash courts, 16 racquetball courts, a complete indoor gymnasium, an inside pool and spa, plus a beautiful restaurant, lounge and bar. On top of this, it was staffed by top doctors. Although there were five other tennis clubs around, there was nothing like this in Aspen at that time. But we needed a large event never to only draw attention to the project, but also to draw focus on Sally, the initial female head pro of a significant tennis club in the U.S.

At a particular breakfast ending up in our Aspen attorney, Andy, our New York investor, Ben Goldstein, and a few 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 three years after Bobby had played and beaten Margaret Court in a "Battle of the Sexes" match, claiming that no professional woman player, regardless of how strong could beat a specialist man player, whatever his ranking. He proved it once. Then, of course, 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 as the glass ceiling of a cement tennis court was broken, because of Billie Jean.

We felt we could draw the attention we wanted through Bobby. Fortunately, he was available. The deal we worked out was simple. It guaranteed him $3,500, and also a chance to win the $1,000 winner-take-all challenge money. Naturally we had to add his airfare, room and board, but that was easy. We were a resort. We also asked that he make himself available for socializing with our locals. He was only too willing. We planned to invite everybody around to enjoy the event and the particular glam that he brought with him. Having never met Bobby Riggs, I must say i did not know very well what to anticipate, 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 event, not merely to defray our costs, but being an incentive to their customers. They ended up offering tickets at all of their branches throughout Colorado, for any new deposits of several thousand dollars or more.

Coloradans love any excuse to visit Aspen, so the event wouldn't normally only bring potential new members to our 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, so I didn't know what to expect. But, this event was beginning to ramp up -- big style!

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 among the leading artist/writers in the country. Together they will have licenesed her art on clothing, purses, books and also baby bibs. Their latest creation, Happy Musings, is a newspaper feature combining her charming art with a whimsical life thought syndicated by King Features. Happy Musings are actually 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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