Pancho Gonzalez:
He Could Overcome Anything

Doreen Gonzales

As a young man, Richard Gonzalez learned he could overcome anything.

Young Richard Gonzalez was always very active. He went to the Los Angeles River often to skip rocks and catch frogs. He was handy, too. He liked to build toys and carve cars out of wood. He built stilts and pole vaults that he and his younger brothers and sisters played with. Whenever possible, Richard was outside.

"Prisoner" was Richard's favorite game. It required speed, and speed was something the seven-year-old boy had in abundance.

The object of Prisoner was to "capture" members of the opposing team. One day as the neighborhood kids played, Richard caught his brother Manuel. But Manuel broke loose and Richard threw a rock at him to stop him. The rock cut the back of Manuel's head, and Manuel ran home screaming as blood poured from the wound.

When Mr. Gonzales heard what Richard had done, he took his son to the garage and beat him with an electrical cord. Then he tied a string to each of Richard's thumbs and pulled his arms upward until they were straight over his head. He attached the strings to the ceiling of the garage and left Richard standing like that for three hours.

This kind of punishment would be considered abusive by today's standards. Mr. Gonzales, however, did not feel he was being abusive. He felt he was being strict. He believed he needed to use these methods to discipline a rebellious son. Furthermore, Richard was the oldest child and Mr. Gonzales insisted he be an example to the younger children.

For this reason, Richard suffered through many harsh punishments in his childhood. But Richard and his father had good times together, too. For instance, Mr. Gonzales taught his seven-year-old son how to shoot marbles.

Marbles is played by flicking a large marble at several smaller ones that have been placed inside a circle. The object is to knock more small marbles outside the circle than one's opponent does. Richard and Mr. Gonzales competed fiercely at marbles, both of them very serious about winning.

Richard's parents did not accept his decision to pursue tennis.

Richard practiced constantly and before long he was beating his father. Mr. Gonzales then enlarged the playing circle to make it more difficult for his son to win. Undaunted, Richard practiced more.

Richard played marbles at school, too. After a while there was no one left in his third grade class to conquer. So every recess Richard climbed over the fence that separated the younger pupils from the older ones. There he challenged the fourth, fifth, and sixth graders to marbles. He frequently won.

Seeking out more competition, Richard entered local marbles tournaments that were held at various Los Angeles parks. He and a friend often rode their homemade scooters to these contests.

While on their way to one, Richard accidentally pushed his scooter in front of a moving car. The car's door handle smashed into his face and ripped his left cheek open. An ambulance rushed Richard to the hospital. Two weeks later he was back in the neighborhood playing--only now he had a large scar on his left cheek in the shape of an "H."

This accident did not prevent Richard from attending more marbles tournaments. He even won the Los Angeles city marbles championship once. Besides the thrill of competition, Richard went to these tournaments to watch a black man who gave exhibitions there.

This man was an excellent marbles shooter with a jovial personality. What made him extraordinary was the fact that he had no arms. He shot marbles by lying on his side and using his toes. Watching the man shoot marbles convinced Richard that he "could overcome anything."

Young Richard was not only determined, he was bright. He was a quick learner and his grades were excellent. He liked school and never missed a day of elementary school. Richard even went to school when he was sick because he did not want to stay in bed. Due to his intelligence and excellent attendance, Richard was allowed to skip fourth grade. In 1937, he moved directly from third grade to fifth.

Richard with one of his first rackets.

In junior high, Richard joined his school football and basketball teams. He did well on both. Mrs. Gonzales, however, worried that her active son would get hurt. When he asked for a bike for Christmas, she gave him something she thought would be safer.

Mrs. Gonzales gave Richard a tennis racket she had purchased at a discount store for fifty-one cents. In addition to diverting her twelve-year-old son from rough activities, Mrs. Gonzales hoped the game would expose him to some of the finer things in life.

At the time, Los Angeles had one of the best private tennis facilities in the West, the Los Angeles Tennis Club. This club was a fancy place, complete with restaurant, bar, locker rooms, and professional players to give lessons.

Mr. and Mrs. Gonzales could not afford to give Richard lessons at the Los Angeles Tennis Club. And even if they could have, Richard would probably not have been admitted. His Mexican heritage most likely would have kept him out.

Actually, Mr. and Mrs. Gonzales could not afford tennis lessons anywhere. This did not stop Richard from learning the sport. Every day he walked to a nearby park to watch people play tennis. By watching and listening to others Richard learned the rules and the sometimes confusing scoring system.

Richard learned the scoring system and the rules through observation. He was not the only one. Most other Mexican-Americans and African-Americans had to learn the rules on their own, too.

Richard's family couldn't afford lessons at The Los Angeles Tennis Club.

This meant that only the most determined people of color would learn to play tennis. Richard clearly belonged in this category. Not long after his mother gave him his first racket, Richard realized he had fallen in love with tennis.

He was at the park whenever possible, and he was always looking for someone to challenge to a match. When no one was available, he played alone, practicing his serve.

Richard's tennis racket became his constant companion, and he took it everywhere he went--even to bed! Sometimes he prayed before going to sleep, asking God to help him become a great tennis player.

One day Richard began watching tennis practice at a nearby high school. He struck up a friendship there with a member of the school's team, Charles "Chuck" Pate. Pate called Richard "Pancho," a nickname that Richard did not mind coming from his friend.

Before long, Richard was helping Pate with his morning newspaper route. In exchange, Pate gave Richard tennis lessons.Richard supplemented Pate's instructions by studying good players' methods and styles and imitating them. As he did, he began developing a style that would mark his tennis game for the rest of his life.

Richard mastered the serve possibly because he practiced it alone.

One of the first skills Richard mastered was a hard serve. This may have been because it was the part of the game that Richard could practice alone. Through hard practice Richard developed a great serve. He rarely faulted on the first serve. A double fault by Richard was practically nonexistent.

Furthermore, Richard was quick. He could move across a tennis court faster than other players. His large size gave him an added advantage in covering ground. Richard would eventually grow to six-foot three-inches tall. As a youth, he had a good start. With a longer stride and longer reach than many young players, Richard could return shots other players could not even reach.

It did not take Richard long to wear out the nylon strings in his first racket. Within a month of receiving the gift, he was repairing it with pliers, nails, and new string. His handiwork extended the life of his first racket, enabling him to enter the city's public tennis tournament. Soon Richard was carrying a first place ribbon home to his proud mother.

Richard's father was not as excited. Mr. Gonzales believed that tennis was a sport for the idle rich. As far as he was concerned, tennis had no place in Richard's life. It would not help him succeed or earn money.

In one way, Mr. Gonzales was right. At the time, very few people earned a living by playing tennis. Those who did were the world's best players and most had wealthy sponsors.

Perhaps Richard's father was thinking of another obstacle--racism. Racism was something young Richard did not know much about. His life revolved around his home, neighborhood, and school. Since the people in these settings were mostly Mexican-American, Richard experienced no ethnic discrimination. In many ways, he grew up sheltered from racism.

Richard's parents rarely talked about discrimination against Mexicans.

Although Richard had little experience with prejudice against Mexican-Americans, it did exist. For example, some Los Angeles swimming pools only admitted Mexican-Americans on certain days, and entire neighborhoods barred Mexican-Americans from moving into them.

Yet Mr. and Mrs. Gonzales rarely spoke about racism with their children. Instead, they taught them to be proud of their heritage. One of Richard's brothers later remembered how his parents often told their children, "You're Mexican. You want to walk with your head high."

In fact, when Richard first became aware of discrimination, it puzzled him. He could not understand why someone would judge him because of his heritage. He asked his grandmother about the strange concept.

She told Richard that he had been lucky to escape discrimination in his life. But, she went on, someday it would appear. "Perhaps when you ask for a job," she said, "or the look in a policeman's eyes...the glances in the stores. It is worse in the heat of anger. When someone denounces you--calls you a Mexican and makes it sound ugly."

Richard's grandmother offered him some advice. She told him to remain calm whenever anyone insulted him. Then, she said, he should imagine that person in his or her underwear. This mental image would make Richard laugh and the hateful words would sting less. It would be years before Richard used her advice.

In the meantime, he continued playing tennis. One of his favorite places to play was Exposition Park. This public park had eight hard-surface tennis courts where many talented players, including Mexican-Americans and African-Americans, gathered.

Frank Poulin, who owned a tennis shop, was one of the first to see Richard's talent.

Next to the courts was a small tennis store called the Exposition Park Tennis Shop. It was run by Frank Poulain. Poulain soon noticed that Richard had a natural talent for the game. He was convinced that Richard had the makings of a champion. So Poulain helped him get equipment and encouraged him to practice and develop his skills.

Poulain was not the only one who saw talent in Richard. A sales representative from an athletic supply company saw him play and gave him two new rackets as free samples. Richard was thrilled with the gift and immediately tried out the rackets. In his excitement, he stayed out an hour past his curfew. When he arrived home that night Mr. Gonzales was furious. He beat Richard with a belt. Throughout the beating, Richard hugged his new rackets close to his chest to protect them.

"When I tell you to be home at a certain time you will be home! II his father raged. "If you think you are going to do what you please, you will be taught a lesson! You live in my house and you will do what I say! Tennis is for bums! You will not be a bum! Give me those!"

Before Richard could stop him, Mr. Gonzales had pried a racket loose and broke it over his knee. "Go ahead! II Richard screamed in defiance. "Break the other! I'll be back with two more!" The boy was true to his word. When the salesman heard what had happened, he gave Richard another racket to replace the broken one.

Early in high school Richard gave up all other sports to concentrate on tennis. This did not surprise the people who knew Richard. As one of his sisters would later remember, Richard always wanted to be the best at whatever he did.

From necessity, Richard rode his bicycle all over Los Angeles.

Tennis and Richard were a good match. Tennis was pure action. It had to be won by a strong, quick, and smart player all by himself. During his school lunch break, Richard often went out to practice tennis. One day he stayed outside the whole afternoon working on his various shots. That day's hooky playing was the beginning of a pattern.

Richard would ride all over the city on his bicycle. Soon Richard was spending more time on the tennis court than in the classroom. Then he was dodging truant officers that the school sent out to find him. As an adult, he once said that he covered more ground running from school officials than he did playing in a tennis tournament.

Not surprisingly, Richard's attendance habits did not sit well with his father. School, not tennis, Mr. Gonzales insisted, was the road to success. So Richard pursued his passion without his father's support. This included finding his own way to tournaments.

Usually he rode his bicycle. As an adult Richard Gonzalez recalled that this had been a terrific way to train. "I didn't have to worry about my legs being in shape," he said. ''I'd ride all over the city. I'd go 15 to 20 miles a day and not give it a thought."

While Richard bicycled from one public court to another, a talented youngster named Herb Flam was fine-tuning his own tennis game at the Los Angeles Tennis Club. Flam was from Beverly Hills, a wealthy area of Los Angeles, and had been taking lessons for years.

Herb Flam was the best junior in Southern California - until he played Richard.

Throughout 1942, Flam was considered the best young player in Southern California. In fact many people thought Flam just might be the top player in his age group in the country.

Flam and Richard met on the court for the first time in 1943. While many people knew Flam, few had heard of Richard Gonzalez. Even fewer expected the Mexican-American youth to win. But he did!

Richard continued winning local tournaments and beating Flam. By the end of 1943, the self-taught Mexican-American teenager from a working-class home was ranked the number one boy under fifteen years of age in Southern California.

Just as important as being ranked number one, though, was being noticed by Perry T. Jones. Jones's official job title was secretary and tournament manager of the Southern California Tennis Association (SCTA). But Jones was better known for finding and developing young tennis players in Southern California. He was so good at nurturing future champions that some people referred to the Association as the "Perry Jones tennis factory."

Jones had the power to make or break a young tennis player. He decided whether or not a certain youngster had enough talent to receive instruction and financial help from the Association.

Perry T. Jones: dictator of the Southern California tennis factory.

Jones made sure that promising youth received the finest coaching available at the tennis club, often learning from practice with world champions. The best young players were invited to important California tournaments. The very best were sent to tournaments all around the country at the Association's expense.

Until Richard's 1943 victories over Flam, Flam had been Jones's most promising future star. Now there was a new star rising. This star, however, would receive no help from the SCTA. Perry Jones told Richard that in order to play in SCTA tournaments, a boy had to go to school.

Richard was stubborn. He refused to attend school, so he was barred from Association tournaments. Without tennis tournaments to keep him challenged, he looked for other kinds of excitement.

Unfortunately, one was illegal. In 1943, Richard was convicted of burglary. As a result, Richard was sentenced to spend several months at a juvenile correctional facility. Now Richard's days were filled with classes and work. There were no tennis courts at the facility and no time to play anyway.

Upon his release in 1944, Richard remained banned from Association tournaments. Some people felt that Jones was enforcing his "no school, no competition" rule simply because Richard was Mexican-American. Jones denied this charge. He said that if Richard returned to school as a serious student, he would be welcomed back into tournaments. He added, "It isn't fair for Richard to practice tennis all day while the other youngsters are in school."

Jack Kramer: darling of the Association, future rival and employer.

Yet some young players did have shortened school schedules arranged for them by Mr. Jones and the SCTA. For example, one star, Jack Kramer, went to classes in the morning and spent each afternoon at the Los Angeles Tennis Club taking lessons and practicing with world champions. But no one had ever offered Richard this kind of an arrangement. Instead, he was left with a flat ultimatum--no school, no tennis.

Richard quit school anyway. He was only sixteen years old and had only completed tenth grade. His friends told him this was a bad idea. His mother pleaded with him to finish high school. Mr. Gonzales forbid him to drop out. Richard quit anyway.

He would regret this decision for the rest of his life. Even when tennis brought him wealth and fame, he still wished he had completed high school and college.

Mrs. Gonzales also regretted her son's decision. After Richard won his first national championship, one reporter asked her what she thought of her son's achievement. She answered that she would rather have seen him graduate from high school and college.

At age sixteen, though, playing tennis was the only thing Richard was interested in doing. Unfortunately, he was banned from the most important tournaments in the area. Such banishment would have brought an end to most teenagers' dreams of glory. Richard, however, was not like most young people.