Dick Skeen

Dick Skeen
Full name Richard Edgar Skeen
Country (sports)  United States
Born March 15, 1906
Dallas, Texas
Died June 24, 1990(1990-06-24) (aged 84)[1]
Medford, Oregon
Turned pro 1935 (amateur tour from 1930)[2]
Retired 1946
Plays Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Singles
Highest ranking No. 7 (1941, Karoly Mazak)[3]
Professional majors
US Pro F (1941)

Richard Edgar Skeen (March 15, 1906 – June 24, 1990) was an American professional tennis player and teacher. He was runner-up to Fred Perry in the Men's Singles in the 1941 U.S. Pro Tennis Championships, reaching as high as World No. 7 in Karoly Mazak's combined amateur-pro rankings for 1941.[3] He was also ranked the World No. 2 pro by Ray Bowers for the year (and No. 4 in his amateur-pro combined rankings).[4] Skeen reached the semifinals of other tournaments on four occasions that year.

Biography

Dick Skeen was born in Dallas, Texas in 1906 and died in Medford, Oregon in 1990 at age 84. He wrote a tennis book at the request of Dale Jensen, entitled Tennis Champions are Made, not Born in 1976. He taught three World Champions (Jack Kramer, Louise Brough, and Pauline Betz) and forty National Champions, including Billy Talbert, George Richards, Gussie Moran, Kathleen Harter, Carole Caldwell, Dave Ranney, Mike Caro, Julius Heldman, Ted Olewine, Eleanor Harbula, Jimmy Wade, Connie Jaster, and Barbara Winslow. Many of his players furthered their careers at the Los Angeles Tennis Club (LATC) under the guidance of Perry T. Jones, President of the Southern California Tennis Association. Skeen was ranked No. 1 in the National Senior 65-and-over in 1972, after a 28-year layoff (1973 USTA Year Book).

In 1918, Dick arrived in Southern California with his family and learned to play tennis on three courts in Hollywood. In 1931, he turned professional and began his tennis teaching career in Pasadena. He became a ledendary tennis teacher, according to Bill Tilden and Jack Kramer. Dick was known for his classic stroke production and his emphasis on the backhand chop, not the slice. After Pasadena, he taught at the Riveria Country Club, the Balboa Bay Club, designed the Newport Beach Tennis Club, founded the Blossom Hill Tennis Club in Los Gatos, and ended his teaching career in Medford, Oregon. While at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach in 1960, he met and taught Dale Jensen, who considered him a tennis teaching genius. This was the beginning of a lifelong Tennis and business relationship until Dick died in Medford.

While on the Professional Tour from 1935 until 1946, Dick played and defeated these top world-class players: Bill Tilden, Don Budge, Ellsworth Vines, Fred Perry, Bobby Riggs, Karel Kozeluh, Vinnie Richards, Frank Kovacs, Welby Van Horn, Bruce Barnes, Wayne Sabin, and Lester Stoefen. He believed that Frank Kovacs had the best backhand he played against.

Dick Skeen also was a tennis teacher to many Hollywood Movie Stars, including Errol Flynn, Bing Crosby, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Fred Astaire, Kirk Douglas, Ginger Rogers, Doris Day, Joseph Cotten, Merle Oberon, Johnny Weissmuller, Norma Shearer, Hugh O'Brian, Dolores del Rio, Robert Stack, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. and Cornel Wilde.

Sources

  • Jack Kramer, The Game, My 40 Years in Tennis (1979)
  • Bill Tilden, How to Play Better Tennis (1950)
  • Dick Skeen, Tennis Players are Made, not Born (1976)
  • Los Angeles Tennis Club

References

  1. ↑ Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014. Social Security Administration.
  2. ↑ Tennis Archives
  3. 1 2 Mazak, Karoly (2010). The Concise History of Tennis, p. 69.
  4. ↑ Bowers, Ray (2006). "Forgotten Victories: A History of Pro Tennis 1926-1945, Chapter XI: AMERICA, 1940-1941", Tennis Server: Between the Lines, October 1, 2006.
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