Inductees | Southern Tennis Foundation

William

Jacobs

1988

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William Jacobs

South Carolina

William Jacobs, South Carolina, 1988

• Responsible for bringing the South out of the “Tennis Dark Ages” during the late 1930s.

• President of Presbyterian College where he became known as the “Founder of the Tennis Clinic” in 1936 when he hosted the first regional tennis clinic, a format adopted by the USLTA the following year as its model for the organization.

• Organized South Carolina’s first big time tennis exhibition in 1940 featuring Don Budge, Mary Hardwick, Bill Tilden, and Alice Marble.

• Appointed Bobby Riggs as a traveling public relations representative for Presbyterian College and hired Bill Lufler as clinic director and the school’s first full time tennis coach, and Presbyterian was ranked in the top 10 nationally during that era and gained the nickname of “Tennis Tech.”

• Served as President of the Southern Lawn Tennis Association and Vice President of the United States Lawn Tennis Association.

• Published the AMERICAN LAWN TENNIS MAGAZINE and authored several books on tennis, including “Tennis, Builder of Citizenship” in which he emphasized court demeanor and sportsmanship and proper stroke techniques.

• The Jacobs Bowl, the highest volunteer honor presented by USTA Southern, was established in his memory, and he was inducted into the South Carolina Tennis Hall of Fame in 1986

William Jacobs passed away in 1948

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Leslie

Jenkins

1987

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Leslie Jenkins

Dr. Leslie H. Jenkins was a Bryson City, NC native but ultimately called Knoxville, Tennessee his home. He earned this BS and PhD from the University of North Carolina and served in the US Army Air Force from 1943-48. His career was spent working as a nuclear physicist for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the headquarters site for the Manhattan Project during World War II.

While his contributions to the sport were abundant, he is best known for being the person who developed a sophisticated computer rankings system for tennis. And in 1975, he gave it to the United States Tennis Association (USTA). After testing the program, the USTA adopted it for calculating USTA national rankings. Dr. Jenkins and his wife, Jeanne, entered tournament results and produced (boot-legged) the USTA Computer Rankings on the ORNL computers.

In 1976, Marshall M Happer, then President of USTA Southern, convinced Jenkins that the USTA computer rankings system was a better ranking system than the ATP system (introduced by the ATP in 1973). The USTA System utilized a sophisticated algorithm developed after extensive testing by Jenkins that computed the strength of the fields of each tournament based on the values of the players entered and then awarded points based on the actual strength of the fields of each tournament based on the values of the players entered and then award points based on the actual strength of the field and values of the players defeated. At that time there was no $25,000 prize money threshold for tournaments to be considered as the strength of the players in the field, not the prize money, determined the values assigned to the wins in each tournaments. As the value of players defeated changed during the year, the points awarded for those wins were scaled upwards or downwards. By contrast, the ATP Computer Rankings System awarded ranking points based on the amount of prize money without regard to the actual quality of the players in the tournament.

In December 1976, Stan Malless, President of the USTA proposed the adoptions of the new USTA Computer Rankings Systems instead of the ATP Computer Rankings System. The Men’s International Pro Tennis Council (MIPTC) eventually adopted the ATP system (vote was 5-4). While the USTA Computer Rankings system may very well have been a fairer and more accurate rankings system, it had two fatal flaws: (i) It was not developed by the players and (ii) Players could not understand the algorithms and add up their points. While the Men’s pro circuit did not adopt Jenkins’s system, the women’s professional tour used his system for several years all run gratis by Les and Jeanne Jenkins on the Oak Ridge computers.

Leslie H. Jenkins, PhD, North Carolina, and Tennessee, 1987

1965- 1971 Southern Tennis Association, Delegate at Large,
!972-73, President of Southern Tennis Association, and sectional Delegate at Large to USTA
1975 gave the USTA the new USTA Computer Rankings Systems that he wrote
1985-1988 two terms Secretary, USTA
1987, Inducted into Southern Tennis Patrons Hall of Fame
1989-91 2^nd Vice President USTA
He served as referee for the USTA Men’s 55 and 65 Clay Court Championships. Jenkins was a member of several USTA Committees including the executive, nominating, seniors, and strategic planning. His other responsibilities included USTA rankings and Adult recreational leagues and served as USTA representative to the International Tennis Federation (ITF) on the IFT Rules Committee
Les Jenkins passed away in 2005.