Beerchaser Notable Coach Kirk Anderson – Part II

Welcome back to Thebeerchaser. This is a long post. If you are receiving it through an e-mail, please visit the blog by clicking on the title at the top to see all photos and the narrative isn’t clipped or shortened. (# External photo attribution at the end of the post #1-#2.)

And don’t forget to check the end of this post to see some very interesting stuff about Kirk’s presence in the Royal Box at Wimbledon in 2024.

In the first of the two Beerchaser posts, I filled you in on the amazing Tennis Hall-of-Fame career of my neighbor, Kirk Anderson and his wonderful wife, Carol.

In this post, I’ll focus on their visit to Wimbledon in 2024 where Kirk was a guest in the Royal Box for the Men’s Single Finals, some additional career highlights and Kirk’s observations about the sport and its celebrities.

When we left Kirk in the last post, he and Carol had just moved back to Michigan in 1980, after the climate at Princeville Resort in Kauai “rained out” his ability to make a living as a teaching pro on outdoor courts.

Five years as the Tennis Director at Holland Tennis Club were followed by another move – this time to Springfield, Ohio working for the US Tennis Association – this time for another five year stint.

A job offer in 1992, by Penn Racquet Sports in Atlanta, Georgia where he was Regional Promotions Manager became a two-year stay. The good news was that the Atlanta schools were excellent and children, Shane and Vaughn adapted well. The bad news: “I was low man on the totem pole and had to travel to a territory which covered twenty-five states.”

Then a move to a Houston, Texas in 1994, which Kirk described as “A bad job in a bad city,” – Director of Education for the US Professional Tennis Association. (#1)

Editorial Note: I concur about the city and have only been to Houston once. I’m biased, however, since I met my wife of 46 years at a planning commission meeting and it’s one of the only major cities in the US without zoning regulations.

A metro area of 7.8 million people – fifth most populous in the US with no zoning in the City means a piece of land is not assigned any official land‑use category, which can lead to a hodgepodge and incompatible uses in an area.

It may not have been his favorite job, but they liked what he’d done during his career – he was admitted to the 1996 USPTA Midwest Division of the Hall of Fame – the first of five awards with similar designations as shown below:

A little context here: The US Tennis Association is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. It’s a not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members.

The US Professional Tennis Association is a leading organization for tennis professionals in the U.S. It was founded in 1927 and has evolved to meet the diverse needs of the tennis industry. The USPTA provides resources, education, and certification for tennis instructors and coaches.

This excerpt from the 2023 USPTA banquet acceptance speech Kirk made at 2023 USPTA Tim Heckler Hall of Fame banquet is edifying. (Careful, the video above may make you tear up….)

“I’ve taught at parks, camps, schools, resorts and clubs. I’ve worked with Special Olympians, prisoners and even our Wounded Warriors…I’ve had the privilege of teaching and presenting around the world and have never received anything but kindness, respect and encouragement from my students and fellow professionals…

I had the best job in the world and have the best friends and family on the planet. I’m truly the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

And Carol, after her teaching career, also got involved in tennis:

“I was fortunate to come across a developing job that was also in the tennis industry and could work at home with flexible hours. Kirk and I sometimes had common meetings and conferences, so we had ‘vacations’ together.

As a mother with children active in school sports and wife of a traveling speaker/instructor and , I was able to use this new technology of email, cell phones, conference calls, websites and electronic newsletters in my job.”

I asked Kirk, given the thousands of tennis pros, what brought him the national and international recognition from his peers. He gave a number of reasons:

“I was lucky. I always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. I also enjoyed helping people. My teaching methods were different and I was the underdog, but pretty confident and hungry. I was not highly ranked as a player, but loved teaching and my philosophy for forty years was being on the cutting edge.”

Fortunately, they got to leave Houston after two years because the USTA in White Plains, New York kept calling. They offered him the job as Director of Coaching Education without an interview. The family lived in Connecticut and he commuted to New York. (#2)

Most of the tennis executives wanted the focus to be on kids but Kirk emphasized the concurrent need to create a quick intro to tennis for adults and make them proficient without prolonged practicing:

“They locked twenty of us in a room and said, ‘Come up with a name and develop the program.’ We met two times per week for a month and came up with ‘Play Tennis America.'” Kirk became the National Manager of the “Play Tennis America” program. (PTA)

Was PTA Successful?

“PTA originated in response to declining interest in tennis in the United States. Initiated by the United States Tennis Association (USTA) in 1997 as part of a broader strategy to revitalize the sport, the program aimed to attract new players by offering free introductory lessons to adults in various cities across the country, making tennis more accessible and appealing.

“PTA significantly boosted tennis participation across various demographics. This initiative aimed to make tennis more accessible and appealing, particularly to youth and underserved communities...Studies indicate that early engagement in tennis can lead to lifelong participation, contributing to better health outcomes“ (AI)

The success of that program and Kirk’s leadership led to that job lasting for twenty years with Kirk traveling the globe making presentations.

One of the most enjoyable was for the 2012 July Summer Olympics in conjunction with Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move Program” with meetings in New York, London and Washington DC. (3#)

Kirk still expresses his admiration for the former First Lady. Perhaps that’s because he was also invited to participate in the Annual White House Easter Egg Roll and activities on the White House Tennis Court for three years. (I didn’t ask him if that included pick-up basketball with the President….)

London and Wimbledon

From 2003 to 2015, Kirk served on an International Tennis Federation Tennis Participation Task Force of sixteen people which met in London twice each year. They coordinated some of these meetings with Wimbledon.

It was during the trips to London that he became great friends with Sandi Proctor and her husband, Steve. Sandi is former PE teacher turned tennis coach and Manager of the Bromley Tennis Centre who in 2023 became President of the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA). It’s the national governing body for tennis in Great Britain. (#4)

She’s the one who invited Carol and Kirk to England for Wimbledon in 2024 – Kirk to sit in the Royal Box for the Men’s Single Final and Carol and daughter, Shane, to sit in the Royal Box for the Mixed Doubles Final.

The LTA also governs Padel – a relatively new sport, it’s a fast-paced racket sport that combines elements of tennis and squash, usually played in doubles on an enclosed court about one-third the size of a standard tennis court. It’s been around since 1969, but didn’t really hit Europe until the mid-1970’s. (#5)

Kirk told me that Sandi issued the invite to the Men’s Singles Final with strings attached – he had to attend the Champions’ Dinner and cocktail hour.

You can see he had an unforgettable view and was seated with tennis greats including Rod Laver, Chris Evert, Stan Smith, Slobodan Damjanovic, Andre Agassi, Ken Roswell, Lleyton Hewitt and Jan Kodes.

Besides Catherine, Princess of Wales and members of the Royal Family family including younger sister, Pippa and daughter, Princess Charlotte, Tom Cruise also was a guest.

“Just Call Me Tony”

“The Wimbledon Champions’ Dinner, formerly known as the Champions’ Ball, is an event organized after the end of each edition of the Wimbledon Championships and it consists of a dinner and a dance between the Men’s and Women’s singles winners.

In recent years, the Champions’ Dinner has been hosted at The Lawn, a hospitality venue located on the grounds of The Wimbledon Club, across from the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. It gathers players, their families, and distinguished guests to celebrate the tournament’s champions.”

Sandi Procter and partner pose alongside the Gentlemen’s Singles Trophy and Venus Rosewater Dish at the Champions Dinner held at Raffles London at The OWO Hotel at The Championships 2024. Held at The All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon. Day 14 Sunday 14/07/2024. Credit: AELTC/Felix Diemer. (#6)

At the cocktail hour, Kirk mingled with Rod Laver, Stan Smith and Andre Agassi. He was also introduced to another guest from the Royal Box – Sir Anthony Radakin – who was appointed Britain’s Chief of the Defence Staff on 30 November 2021 and served through the fall of 2025. (#7)

It’s the professional head of the British Armed Forces and he was the most senior uniformed military adviser to the Secretary of State for Defence and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

“It was announced in February 2024 that Radakin would stay in post as Chief of the Defence Staff until autumn 2025 after proving to be a key player in helping Ukraine in its fight against Russia.^[49]“

When he met Sir Radakin, the Admiral smiled and said, “Just call me ‘Tony.'” In our interview, Kirk chuckled and said to me, “Up until that time, the most famous people to call me by my first name were Arthur Ashe and Billy Jean King!”

Battling Inertia and Tradition

Kirk continued to write his books – sixteen of which were published before he retired, (“I always put my stuff in writing. Nobody else wanted to write things down,”). The last one published in 2023, after he retired – Tennis Beyond Lessons was the most acclaimed and the testimonials for this paperback volume are shown in my previous blog post.

Kirk spent most of the rest of his career focused on trying to make tennis more fun and “playable” for kids and adults who were not skilled athletes – an obsession of sorts. He made many speeches in the US and abroad.

Part of this effort resulted in the Red, Orange, Green and Yellow Program (ROGY) officially introduced by the USTA in 2010. The ROGY system is a progression method that uses different ball types, court sizes, and net heights to help players build skills step-by-step,

While most working on the program felt it should be directed stricltly at kids, Kirk kept insisting, “No, we’re missing the boat. This will attract and maintain adult players.”

“He was a driving force behind getting the United States Tennis Association to adopt the Red, Orange, and Green Pathway and getting other coaches to implement it in their children’s lessons.” USPTA Hall of Fame

Although it never gained the traction he had hoped because of inertia, tradition and economic factors, slowly his argument hit home. Although ROGY was created for junior development, its framework became widely used for adult beginners, especially in the Yellow Ball stage, and some programs explicitly combine adult and junior players under the ROGY model.

Think how long it took tennis to evolve from just white attire – essentially still the standard at Wimbledon.

“The rule that tennis players must wear all white started during the Victorian era with influence from cricket attire and lawn dresses, driven by a desire to keep players cool and minimize improper sweat stains. As one historian explained, ‘The white symbolizes purity and virtue, reflecting the self-perceptions of the class from which tennis derived most of its players.’”

And try to convince manufacturers to change to smaller and lighter-weight (less expensive) rackets and balls. (Kirk worked on the specs for the USTA.) Many tennis officials asserted that adults would never play with this modified equipment and smaller courts (60 x 27 feet for orange ball with a three foot net compared to a standard tennis double court of 78 x 36 feet and 3.6 foot net. (The red ball court is essentially cross court at 36 x 18.)

Pickleball refuted this premise when it exploded. (It came to school physical education programs in the mid-70’s and USA Pickleball was founded in 1984.) ROGY also had the advantage of not generating the noise that often makes pickleball a scourge in neighborhoods.

A Move to Oregon

Kirk and Carol moved to Oregon in 2017 to be closer to daughter, Shane, and their two grandkids. He continued working for the USTA Pacific Northwest and General Manager – Culture and Coach Development until his retirement in 2019,

Their friendship with Sandi Proctor continues and she recently stayed with them and did some touring of Oregon.

Kirk can’t play or coach any more, but consistent with his diverse talents, now paints images on small cards and mats and frames art, both of which are attractively displayed in their house.

The residents of our street love having Kirk and Carol as their neighbors and it certainly goes beyond the fact that they grow great strawberries and vegetables in their backyard. (#8)