Wilmington's Virginia Skillman, 92-year-old trailblazer, to be inducted into NC Tennis Hall of Fame
Virginia Dumas Skillman didn't grow up with many luxuries.
That didn't stop her from becoming a successful tennis player, even when women didn't have many opportunities in sports.
The trailblazing women's tennis star who captured the Georgia State Women's crown in 1948 will be inducted into the North Carolina Tennis Hall of Fame in January.
"I'm glad they didn't wait any longer," the 92-year-old Skillman said with a laugh. "A tennis friend said she thought I had fallen through the cracks, which was fine with me because I was going to have to make a speech."
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Skillman has spent nearly 60 years in Wilmington, where she moved with her husband Frank, and has taught tennis at various schools.
Raised in Mobile, Alabama, in the 1930s, Skillman didn't have a high school team to compete on as girls rarely played sports. She remembers petitioning her high school's tennis coach to let her play with the boys, something that was unheard of at the time.
"I went to the coach of the boys team and said, 'I think I could make your team and would like to be on the team," she said.
That request was never granted, as the coach told her they wouldn't have any way to house her if the team traveled.
While she couldn't compete against the boys players in high school, she played with them before practices and competed in local tournaments. At one point, she was ranked the No. 1 girls player in the south.
Even as she attended the University of Alabama in the 50s, there was little competition in women's tennis as the NCAA didn't recognize the sport until 1982.
"It was rampant in everything," Skillman said of sexism during her youth. "You didn't like it, but you sort of took it because that's the way you grew up,"
Moving to North Carolina in the 1960s, Skillman and her husband, an avid tennis player, settled in Wilmington in 1967. She spent much of her adult life teaching tennis, even publishing a book with Frank titled "Beginning Tennis" in 1962.
Skillman is one of four former tennis stars who will be inducted into the N.C. Tennis Hall of Fame in 2024. Bobby Taylor, Bonnie Vandergrift, and Calvin Davis make up the rest of the class.
Skillman has three children who attended Hoggard High School and has maintained her active lifestyle over the years. She lives in the same house she moved into in 1967, does chores to keep busy, and still drives her own car. Her takeaway from her decades-long obsession with the sport of tennis is one of gratitude.
"I don't think of myself (as a trailblazer), I just enjoyed playing tennis," Skillman said. "I played because I love it, and the friendships that I made were really great."
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Wilmington's Virginia Skillman to be inducted into NC Tennis Hall of Fame
