Article on Tennis Alumnus
Really good article on Bill Godfrey. He is back playing at a high level in his late 50's.
http://alumni.umich.edu/alumnus/bill-godfrey-the-competitor/
But it was during his last two years of high school that Godfrey distinguished himself in tennis. In 1976, he defeated John McEnroe, the future No.1 in the world, in the U.S. national 18-and-under hardcourt tournament. The following year, Godfrey advanced all the way to the finals in the national 18-and-under Easter Bowl.
Now THERE'S something you can tell people, even if it was before McEnroe was a household name. I wonder if he was just as amusingly fiery even then.
Great read though. Thanks for sharing this.
A freshman that lived on my floor in Couzens Hall was on the Tennis team. He was the 2nd Singles player in HS, but the 1st Singles was John McEnroe. He went with McEnroe on his Stanford visit and considered it but took the scholarship offer at UM. The guy used to get a package every week with rackets, warm-ups, shoes, socks, balls, etc. I played with him a couple times on the Hill courts and he would intentionally break his rackets during serves. The guy eventually discovered weed, and was kicked off the team. After losing his tennis scholarship, he opted for a ROTC schollie (didn't know there was such a thing), but on their weekend outings he would sneak off and smoke weed. He didn't make it to the end of his second semester. His father owned a fleet of oil tankers, so I'm sure he ended up just fine.
Is this a story from a movie that I'm not aware of?
On a side note, I couldn't crack the PRACTICE squad at Michigan.
Never lost to anyone famous, certainly never BEAT anyone famous. Did learn to love the game, been coaching it in HS more than 30 years. Not that cool a story, bro...