Georgia tennis: College tennis memories from days gone by
The Georgia tennis program is so grand, the Dan Magill Tennis Complex hosted the NCAA Tournament for several years. One of the greatest college tennis matches ever played, took place in Athens and didn’t feature any Georgia Bulldogs.
I attended the University of Georgia from 1976-79. Among my fondest memories were going to watch Georgia tennis matches. The legal age was 18, coolers of beer were welcome if not encouraged and we paid little, if any, attention to proper stuffed shirt tennis spectator decorum.
I could look it up and maybe confirm these details but won’t. It seems like there were few stands or bleachers but a lot of grassy banks to sit on.
Tireless Daniel Hamilton “Dan” Magill was the head tennis coach while wearing a bazillion different hats within the Georgia Bulldogs athletic department. Coach Magill would scold us rowdy fans one minute and wink at us the next. Then if we weren’t rowdy enough he might scold us all over again.
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Then came the Dan Magill Tennis Complex that made the whole area more professional, thus also making it an official NCAA facility. That spelled the end of beer coolers, but it also led to the greatest tennis match I have ever seen, in person or on TV.
Georgia had great tennis teams and players during my era. Georgia also hosted the NCAA championship tournament every year if memory serves, though I never understood our good fortune.
During my junior year, the NCAA Tournament promised great drama. Two players who could have gone straight to professional from high school played college ball with the goal of winning the National Championship and being one and done. John McEnroe played for Stanford, Elliott Telscher for UCLA.
Except there was a dark horse by the name of John Sadri from North Carolina State who threw a wrench in those gears. Sadri defeated Telscher in the semi-finals, leading to what is considered one of the greatest matches ever played: John McEnroe versus John Sadri in the 1978 NCAA Men’s Tennis Finals.
We had heard of Bill Tilden in ancient days and Roscoe Tanner in those current days as guys who served rockets, but Sadri was the sleeper of sleepers. I have never seen anything short of a bullet move so fast, and that would suggest that I can see bullets move, which I can’t.
But before the McEnroe vs. Sadri match, a little back story on the 1978 tournament. UGA did not even make the tournament, a rarity. In early round individual play with no line judges, freshman McEnroe would scream and rage on disputed calls against his own Stanford upper class teammates who stood almost zero chance to beat him. It was an astonishing riot to behold.
Stanford was the favorite to win it all, and they did. I think UCLA and Pepperdine were 2nd and 3rd place.
Now, on to McEnroe and Sadri. Not only did Sadri have a cannon serve, he had a dang good ground game too. They played marathon championship sets that I think made me miss three-consecutive days of accounting class I never wanted to attend in the first place. (Terry College students, do not do what I did. This is retrospective, not recommendation.)
I think I am still dehydrated from having only watched it. And I couldn’t even drink beer leading to that dehydration. I will never pretend to offer expert insight here, and today is no exception. Just Google “1978 John McEnroe John Sadri” to see both video and expert insight from others.