Pancho Gonzalez: Climbing

After dropping out of school, Richard spent two years in the Navy.

Now that he had left school, Richard was happy. Now he could spend all his time playing tennis. When he was not on the court, he was in Frank Poulain’s Tennis Shop talking about the sport. (To read Part 1 in this series, Click Here. To read Part 2, Click Here.)

Soon, though, Richard began to understand that he had eliminated himself from meaningful competition. Yet he still refused to go to school. With few choices, Richard enlisted in the United States Navy in the fall of 1945. He spent most of the next year and a half on a transport ship in the Pacific Ocean. He performed maintenance tasks such as scrubbing the ship’s deck.

Gonzalez did not like the Navy. It had too many rules and regulations. Worse still, he could not play tennis. So as soon as he was discharged in January 1947, Gonzalez returned to his home in Los Angeles and his second home at Exposition Park.

Mr. Gonzales told his eighteen-year-old son that he had three choices. He could go to school, get a job, or leave home. Gonzalez packed his clothes and…