Pancho Gonzalez:
Climbing

Doreen Gonzales

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 tennis rackets and headed for Poulain's shop. For the next couple of weeks he stayed there, sleeping on a sofa in the back of the store. Finally, Mr. Gonzales resigned himself to his son's determination to play tennis and let him move back home.

While Gonzalez had been floating around the Pacific, his old rival Herb Flam had been winning tennis tournaments all around the country, capturing the National Junior Championship twice.

With Richard overseas, Herbie Flam dominated junior tennis.

Experts believed Flam would place well in an upcoming men's tournament, the Southern California Championships. Jack Kramer was expected to win the tournament. Kramer, in fact, was the current U.S. champion.

As for Gonzalez, he had not even received an invitation to the California tournament. This was not surprising. Gonzalez had only been on the tennis scene for a short while before being suspended because of his poor school attendance. He had then served time in juvenile detention, and then joined the Navy. So it had been three years since he had been active in Southern California tennis.

Richard returned to competition and proved himself a top contender.

But now Gonzalez was back, and he was about to let the tennis world know it. He promptly sent in an entry form to the tournament, hoping to be accepted. When Perry Jones received Gonzalez's application, he did not want to let him enter. However, Gonzalez's supporters argued that since he was an adult, Jones could not keep him out. So Gonzalez entered the tournament.

As one of the best players in California, Flam was seeded in this Southern California Championship, but Gonzalez was not. However, in each of his matches Gonzalez worked his way a little closer to the final round. Gonzalez advanced until his name was placed opposite Flam's.

On the morning of this important match, Gonzalez filled his athletic bag with his freshly ironed T-shirt and a pair of tennis shorts. His mother wished him luck, and he walked out of the house feeling confident. It took Gonzalez three streetcars to get to the Los Angeles Tennis Club, but he arrived there in plenty of time.

Gonzalez looked over the spectators while he waited for his match to begin. He recognized a few movie stars. More important to Gonzalez, though, were the friends from Exposition Park who had come to cheer him on. Frank Poulain and Chuck Pate were among them.

The stands were filled for Gonzalez's contest with Flam. Some people had been watching Gonzalez in the early rounds and had come back to watch him play Flam. Many anticipated an exciting contest between these two, who were the best young players on the West Coast. And they were not disappointed.

When the first set ended, Flam had beaten Gonzalez, 10-8. But as the match wore on, Flam could not handle Gonzalez's lightning serve. Gonzalez took the second set, 8-6. When Gonzalez beat Flam, 6-4 in the third, he knocked the brightest West Coast hopeful out of the tournament.

Jack Kramer: still the man to beat.

Now Gonzalez advanced to play Jack Kramer. No one expected Gonzalez to win, and he did not. Kramer beat him, 6-2, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. In one sense, though, Gonzalez was victorious. During the contest, he aced Kramer six times. He even won a set from Kramer, something that only a few players had done all that year.

Gonzalez was happy with his performance. Although Kramer won the tournament, he felt he had proven himself to be a top contender in amateur tennis.

Even Perry Jones agreed. He immediately offered Gonzalez a chance to go play tournaments on the Eastern grass-court circuit. He invited Gonzalez on an expense-paid trip sponsored by the SCTA to compete against the country's best players. If Gonzalez did well, he would earn national attention. Excited and hopeful, Gonzalez packed his bags. He did not intend to waste this golden opportunity.

The tour did give Gonzalez good exposure and experience. Yet in one way it was disappointing. Gonzalez often felt like an outsider among his teammates from the Los Angeles Tennis Club. He later remembered that while the more experienced players ignored him, they seemed generous with their advice to other rookies. "I felt that I should have had more support from those guys," he once said. After all, Gonzalez reasoned, they were all representing Southern California.

Richard, second from left leaves to play the east coast circuit.

But Gonzalez had not wasted his time in the East. He had watched and listened carefully, learning what he could through observation and experience. For example, most of the tournaments in the East at that time were played on grass courts.

Gonzalez had never played on grass before. He quickly learned that a ball skids low across sod instead of bouncing up sharply like it does on concrete. So although the snubbing left Gonzalez feeling excluded, he played well. He also became more widely known on the national tennis scene.

Furthermore, Gonzalez made some important new friends. For instance, in New York he met Frank Shields, an American tennis champion from the 1930s. Shields would give Gonzalez crucial support in the months ahead.

In addition, Gonzalez turned Perry Jones into an admirer. Jones was impressed by Gonzalez's aggressive style on the court. He was also impressed by his integrity. Once Jones accidentally sent Gonzalez an expense check for ninety-eight dollars too much. Although no one would have known if Gonzalez had kept it, he promptly returned the overpayment. This simple act of honesty endeared Gonzalez to Jones for years to come.