My Tennis Story

The Early Days in Pikeville

by

Dr. Kermit R. Crew, PhD PTR Tennis Pro

Introduction

        I started playing tennis in the 3rd grade. I was 9 years old (1961). I’ll never forget the summer day the package containing the tennis racquets my mother ordered via collecting S& H Greens stamps arrived at our house. My sisters and I were gathered around the kitchen table. My mother pulled out a green racket and gave it to my sister, Frankie. She then she pulled out a red racket and gave it to my sister, Betty. I was waiting for my racket that never came. I didn’t want to hurt my mom’s feelings so I followed Betty to her room and asked her why I didn’t get a racket. She replied- “I don’t think boys play tennis.” So therefore I became the ball boy that summer.

        Our mom took us to the tennis courts every Saturday and Sunday where I would watch them play and picked up balls. Eventually, Betty discovered boys and didn’t want to go to the courts anymore so I therefore inherited her red racket. I had this racket until I graduated from high school. Upon my first Saturday as a freshman at Western Kentucky University (1970), I retired the old red racket and bought a metal racquet which was new on the market. It was a bright and shiny T-2000 that Jimmy Connors was using. It cost $20.00 which was a lot of money back then.

Tennis in Pikeville - The Early Days

        We moved to Pikeville when I was in 6th grade (1962).  I was a scrawny little kid. I could run fast, but that was about it. I was too small to play football and too short to play basketball (we all know in Kentucky they grow ‘em big and tall especially in Appalachia). We lived near the Pikeville College Gymnasium and in the back of the gym was a very old clay tennis court. I came home from school every day picked up my red wooden racket and played tennis by myself on that court. On that court I was in the French Open, Wimbledon, and tennis star of my own fantasies as a young boy. I can’t remember the year (I think it was sometime during my junior high school era) that Pikeville College Athletic Director Paul Butcher, was responsible for bringing the brand new paved tennis courts that were then built directly beside the gymnasium. This is where the Pikeville College tennis team would play and practice.

The New Tennis Courts – Life Changing

 

        I was happy to get off of the old clay court behind the gym (still miss it to this day) and get on a “real tennis court”. But Hey, these brand new courts were for the college players, I soon discovered.

        I ran home every day from school picked up my wooden red racket and went to the college tennis courts. I was the scrawny little kid with old red wooden tennis racket and 3 bald tennis balls [(Pikeville had no tennis balls for sale back then- you had to catch somebody going to the Lexington Mall (150 miles away) and give them the money to buy a can of tennis balls which had to last all summer. By the 3rd week they had no felt and were literally bald.]

        I was the scrawny little kid in Junior High hanging out at the college courts trying to get a pick-up game with college players that came early to their practice.

       I was usually shewed away and went home with discouragement relegated to hitting a tennis ball up the side of the house or bouncing a ball on my racket trying to invent new tricks and games. I would practice relentlessly hoping one day I would be good enough to do some “real hitting” with a college tennis player.

How I met Kenny Huffman

        I was the scrawny little kid with the old red wooden racket one day looking through the  chain link fence at the Pikeville College Tennis Courts at the players who arrived early for practice. Suddenly. this really nice college guy took pity on me and walked up to the fence and asked me if I wanted to hit some before his practice started. His name was Kenny Huffman.

         I couldn’t believe my ears – It was like heaven to me and Kenny was like St. Peter opening up the Golden Gates to tennis heaven. I was then on holy ground - on a college tennis court hitting a few balls with a college tennis player.

        I remember trying to choke back tears of happiness as I walked on the court. We didn’t hit very long, but it seemed like an eternity. Kenny started hitting the ball easy to me at first. He then found out that I really could play fairly decent (above my apparent age and stature) so the balls started coming harder. I had a decent serve (you can practice serving by yourself as was the case most of the time back then).

        There are a few moments in one’s life when you vividly remember genuine kindness when the rest of the world was dishing out disappointment.

Late 60s - Tennis Taking Off in America and in Pikeville

        In the mid to late 60’s tennis was taking off in America and also in Pikeville and I actually developed some tennis friends my own age. My first tennis buddy was Marshal Weems. He was Cat Weems’, the lead singer of the renowned local rock band. “The Continental 5”, youngest brother. Arthur Ashe was the first African American tennis player and was admired by Marshall. My tennis hero was Rod Laver. Up and comers were on the scene back then such as Jimmy Connors, Stan Smith etc.

        Steve Loomis moved to Pikeville our Junior year in 1969 and lived in a house right across from the college tennis courts. His dad was a Biology professor at Pikeville College. Steve and I breathed and ate tennis every day! And I do mean every day, as in Monday thru Friday after school. All day, and I do mean all day, Saturday and after church on Sunday.

        Tennis was exploding in Pikeville and soon the college courts were packed every evening because AD, Butcher opened them up for play on evenings and weekends to the general public. I remember station wagons full of tennis players coming in from surrounding areas.

Sue and Kenny on the Courts Together.

        I remember Sue and Kenny on the courts together as part of the evening tennis crowd. Sue Butcher, (her father was AD, Paul Butcher) was instrumental in organizing the first tennis tournament in which I played. It was the summer of 1969.

My first tennis tournament.

        It was July 1969. I was 17 years old. I was excited to get to play in a real tennis tournament as I had been watching them on tv. I think it may have been Pikeville’s first tennis tournament or one of the very earliest. It was double elimination. I won the first round, but got beat in the second round by Steve Loomis’ big brother that came home that summer from college. Kenny won it of course - to no surprise.

        I graduated from Pikeville High School in May of 1970. My dad got me a summer job on a survey construction crew in Ohio to pay for my college tuition and expenses that were coming in the fall. The high school graduation ceremony was at night and held at Pikeville College. I left with my dad before dawn the next morning for work. My parents moved from Pikeville to Hillsboro, Ohio in late summer of this same year.

Receiving the Tragic News.

       It was my sophomore year at Western when I learned of Kenny’s passing. It was a shock because I hadn’t been back to Pikeville and was not aware of his illness.  I distinctly remember a popular song playing at the very moment of learning of his death- “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” by Bob Dillon.

        I suddenly was comforted by this song as I knew Kenny was in heaven and someone up there opened heaven’s door for him like he opened the gates to tennis heaven’s door for me as the scrawny kid with the red wooden racket looking through a chain link fence many years ago. Every time I hear that song – I can’t help but think of Kenny on the golden courts beside the Pikeville College gymnasium.

 

 

  

  

Kenny Huffman Tennis Classic

Since 1973