From Mark Winters:
“A Few Words About the Passing of John Leonard Davis” by Barry Buss was a haunting revelation for me... Having written about tennis forever, I had been aware of Davis, the lanky, mop of cascading blond hair as a Southern California junior prior to his time at UCLA. Looking back, he was a “quiet” talent, never fully open to being interviewed...But, Paul Cohen, his coach was, as the saying goes, “A good quote...” Davis’s reticence, as Buss brings out, was built on a foundation of quicksand because, among other things, his family wasn’t sustaining... Tennis offered structural support while fostering confined yet cautious trust.
But even more telling of the times, a collection of local elite juniors seem to have confronted similar dislocation. Their disturbing situations were compounded by the weight of expectations they had carry. Playing competitive tennis, had few, if any, escapes from the mental crippling that could take place... Particularly since the reaction to being “talented but different...” was never explored beyond the three-word synopsis used to describe a supposed outlier.
Sadly, it appears, and “appears” must be stressed because it is my opinion, a few former Southern California standouts, players such as Michael Falberg, Woody Hunt, Howard Schoenfield, Cynthia “Cinny” MacGregor and the Menendez brothers, Erik and Lyle were unable to contend with a combination of issues that, over time, led to career and behavior altering action ...
Barry, mythanks for opening the door to John Davis, who I had dealings with but didn’t take the time to discover...
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