Ron Balsam was like a brother to half tennis players in Rockford and father to other half
Ron Balsam did not play tennis as a kid. He was a track star, good enough at Rockford West to earn a Big Ten scholarship from Iowa, where he ran the mile relay as a freshman.
He got into tennis when he transferred to Rockford University as a sophomore. He became a four-sport star in his home-town college, running track and cross country, diving on the swim team and playing tennis.
And for the next 60 years, Ron Balsam became one of the most important tennis figures in Rockford history. He died Sunday morning at age 81 after a 14-year fight with cancer.
“He’s Mr. Tennis for Rockford,” said Rockford Christian tennis coach Rob Buelte. “He’s like a brother to half the tennis players in town who are older and like a father to the other half. He’s just a special guy.”
Balsam coached for years at Rockford West, where his greatest player was a temperamental star who once quit the game at age 14, saying “in the future, what will (tennis) get me?”
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Well, Mark Saunders not only rejoined Balsam's team at West, he wound up making tennis his life. Saunders was CEO of the United States Tennis Association Midwest Section for 26 years before retiring last year.
“Ron was a great advocate for our sport,” Saunders said Tuesday, “not only in Rockford, but in the Midwest. He was a great coach, a great mentor and a good friend.”
Former RVC coach Steve Vee said Balsam was the first person to form USTA leagues in Rockford. Those leagues have gone away in recent years, but under Balsam’s tutelage, they were so popular for awhile they replaced tournaments in town.
“Tennis used to always be just tournaments. You would be there the whole weekend,” Vee said. “As soon as the USTA came out with those 3.5 and 4.0 (level) leagues, he organized a team. We played together a lot of years. League tennis basically did away with tournament tennis. Everybody preferred that.”
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Vee and former West, Jefferson and East tennis coach Ray Kelley played together on one of Balsam’s 4.0 teams that qualified for nationals.
“Ron did all the legwork, all the scheduling and helped you get USTA certification and ranking numbers,” said Kelley, who still keeps his hand in coaching tennis as a volunteer assistant at Auburn. “All I had to do when I joined the team was play tennis. He worked intensely — and played on the team himself.
“When he was teacher and coach at West,” Kelley added, “he ran a summer school P.E. program. He would help develop players from all over. They would take summer P.E. and it was basically Ron giving tennis lessons at West back in the 1970s.”
Balsam continued to help young players whenever he could his entire life. That included befriending Buelte's son Finley, who took second in the state in Class 1A two years ago, tying the second-highest state finish in Rockford history.
"Mr. Balsam was always there for the young kids in his kind way, helping them grow in their tennis," Finley Buelte said. "He was so generous bringing us young players into his doubles goup as we came up the ranks. He even watched my college matches online. I will really miss him, as so many will. How lucky we were to know him."
Balsam also organized leagues for years at the now-defunct Clock Tower Resort.
“He was a person that you could depend on,” said Rex Parker, a starting guard on West’s 1955 state championship basketball team who was the vice president/GM of the Clock Tower. “He was enthusiastic about the game and also about the development of young people. He taught at Rockford Country Club on a volunteer basis. He worked with beginners, whether young people or older adults who wanted to get into the game.”
He seemed to know every tennis player in town. And he strung racquets for many of them, charging a nominal cost — or sometimes doing it for free.
“He was a great ambassador,” Kelley said. “Here’s a guy who was vice president of banking at Alpine Bank and he would take time to string your racquets for an unbelievable price. It was mind boggling.”
“He deserves a lot of credit,” Saunders said, “for making Rockford tennis what it was.”
Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Former track star Ron Balsam became a tennis institution in Rockford
