A love story: Remembering tennis great Tony Trabert and why he loved the Players Championship
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — When I read the news of tennis great Tony Trabert’s passing Thursday (via a tweet from colleague David Dusek below), I couldn’t help but think back to our one encounter and golf’s role in his life.
It was while researching the inaugural Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in 1982 for my book on Deane Beman and how the PGA Tour became a billion-dollar business that I acquired a copy of the original CBS broadcast of the tournament’s final round. Lo and behold there was Trabert, a five-time Grand Slam tennis winner and the lead analyst of CBS’s U.S. Open tennis coverage calling the action from the 14th hole tower.
I grew up watching golf on TV with my dad on weekends, but didn’t recall Trabert’s involvement in the game. He used to do 8 to 10 events a year at such tournaments as the Memorial, World Series of Golf and Westchester Classic. It kind of felt like if Nick Faldo popped in for CBS’s coverage of the Super Bowl this week. I decided to track Trabert down for his recollections, which wasn’t too difficult. His home phone number was listed.
I wrote stories with & for Tony Trabert when I started at Tennis Magazine in 1998. I was in awe of him, but he made me feel comfortable and was always a gentleman. Insisted on talking tennis over dinners in Ponte Vedra, then picking up the tab. My condolences to his family. #RIP https://t.co/XNT15SGgat
— David Dusek (@Golfweek_Dusek) February 4, 2021
When I reached him, he gladly recounted how he visited the then-sleepy community of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, for the first time that year as a member of the CBS Sports broadcast team. (His tennis colleague Pat Summerall also was part of the team as was Vin Scully.) Trabert didn’t witness champion Jerry Pate pushing Beman and Pete Dye into the lake guarding the 18th hole after he won. Instead, Trabert had an even better story to share about how his life changed that week when he met a fetching red-headed local real estate agent.
“I met Vicki at a cocktail party,” Trabert said.
It was game, set, match made in heaven. Trabert soon moved to Ponte Vedra to court Vicki – I guess he knew someone in real estate to help with that! – and they married in 1984.
“She had three children from a previous marriage and didn’t want to move them out of school,” he told me at the time. “I made my living getting on airplanes so I moved here and Ponte Vedra has been our home ever since.”
Trabert had 106 match wins and 18 titles in the 1955 season, which remains one of the greatest single seasons in tennis history, but his greatest achievement may have been wooing Vicki. He came up aces.
Trabert was 90. You can read about his incredible tennis accomplishments and impact on the game here.
