Latin American Youth Center

New Tennis Academy, an Initiative of the Latin American Youth Center, Will Keep Memory of Latino Tennis Great Alive and Expand Access to Tennis for Low-income Immigrant and Minority Youth

The Latin American Youth Center (LAYC), building on its successful 2006 summer tennis camp, will offer tennis opportunities year-round in 2007 to low-income immigrant and minority youth in the District of Columbia through the newly created Pancho Gonzalez Youth Tennis Academy.

Named in honor of the first Hispanic to be the number one tennis player in the world, the Pancho Gonzalez Youth Tennis Academy will provide opportunities for at-risk youth to learn the sport of tennis and to be exposed to the healthy fitness and nutrition habits that come with it.

Last summer, the Latin American Youth Center, in partnership with the Washington district of the United States Tennis Association, operated the LAYC Youth Tennis Camp, for boys and girls aged 12-14. The camp taught middle-school students how to play tennis and provided valuable education about the importance of good nutrition and fitness.

This year, LAYC is integrating tennis into several of its programs, including AmeriCorps and its after-school programs at Powell Elementary School and MacFarland Middle School. Tennis will be offered in the summer through LAYC’s Summer Enrichment Camps in Wards I and IV. Additionally, LAYC will make scholarships available to youth interested in attending area tennis camps and programs, such as the Tennis Center at College Park (TCCP).

Lori Kaplan, Executive Director of the Latin American Youth Center, said, “Our tennis program is really taking off and we’re very excited about the opportunities to introduce this wonderful sport to more and more young people in our community. Many of the young people we work with face significant personal challenges. Educating these youth about some of the challenges Pancho Gonzalez overcame to become one of the best players of all time will be inspiring and motivating. It’s an honor to have our tennis programs identified with a tennis legend, Pancho Gonzalez.”

Greg Gonzales, Pancho’s nephew who resides in Phoenix, Arizona, said, “My Uncle, Pancho Gonzalez, was a spectacular tennis player who overcame discrimination to become one of the greatest players who ever played. Pancho was very concerned about getting more Latinos into the game of tennis and I know that he would be excited about this initiative in the nation’s capital to offer Latinos and other minority youth the opportunity to learn and play tennis. I’m very pleased to team with the Latin American Youth Center to bring tennis to kids who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to play the sport.”

Mr. Gonzales will serve as the honorary chairman of The Pancho Gonzalez Youth Tennis Academy and will work closely with the Latin American Youth Center on its tennis efforts.

LAYC recently received a $20,000 grant from the U.S. Tennis and Education Foundation to help support the 2007 tennis programs.

About Pancho Gonzalez
The son of Mexican immigrants, Richard “Pancho” Gonzalez was born May 9, 1928 in south central Los Angeles, the eldest of seven children. A natural talent, Gonzalez, with no lessons, became, by age 14, the best player in his age group in southern California. Still, he faced discrimination and was not selected to play in the national championships. Frustrated with a tennis system that seemed stacked against the son of Mexican immigrants, Gonzalez quit tennis, struggled with school attendance, and subsequently ran into problems with the law that resulted in his spending a year in a juvenile detention center.

But at age nineteen, Gonzalez returned to tennis. At age 20, he won the U.S. National Lawn Tennis Championship, becoming the first Hispanic man to win a Grand Slam event. He won the event again the next year, in 1949. That same year, Gonzalez helped the United States hold the Davis Cup against archrival Australia.

Gonzalez turned professional shortly thereafter. As a result, he was prohibited, during the prime of his career, from playing in the major tournaments – Wimbledon, the French, Australian and U.S. Championships – because they were amateur events until 1968. Even so, by winning the World Professional Championship in Cleveland eight times, and by defeating the top amateurs in the world, including Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Lew Hoad and Tony Trabert, Gonzalez established himself as one of the great players of all time.

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Gonzalez was ranked # 1 in the world eight times. He holds the records for the oldest player (age 44) to win an Association of Tennis Professionals sanctioned tournament. By the time he retired at age 47, Pancho Gonzalez had been ranked as one of the Top 10 players in the world for more than 20 years.

Gonzalez is also remembered for playing one of the longest matches in Wimbledon history. In 1969, after Wimbledon had been opened to professionals, 41-year-old Gonzalez played and defeated Charlie Pasarell in a 5-set match that took five hours and 12 minutes and two days to finish. The score was 22-24, 1-6, 16-14, 6-3, 11-9.

Pancho Gonzalez was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 1968. In 1999, Sports Illustrated named him one of the top 20 favorite athletes of the 20th century. In 2005, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) selected Pancho Gonzalez’s 1948 victory in the U.S. Tennis Championships as the top accomplishment in Hispanic tennis history.

Pancho Gonzalez died at age 67 in 1995 while watching Wimbledon.