Gardnar Malloy: Unknown Legend

[johnyandell]

Let's get your feedback on Lee Tyler's latest - "Gardnar Malloy: Unknown Legend"!

[klacr]

Great Article. Very difficult to write an article on someone who is 100 years old but seems to have 1000 years worth of experience and stories.

The name Gardner Malloy is well known here in South Florida. He is a true living legend beyond the tennis court. He is a true gentleman and a hero for serving his country and all that he stood for his his career. Despite his age, he is as sharp as a tack. Often on this forum we speak about Budge and Rosewall and Laver and all these other classic players and speak of their greatness. Malloy didn't garner as much attention or win as many singles titles as these guys, but he was still a great player (remained in top 10 rankings for his age group over seven decades) but most importantly, a great person. Long live Gardner Malloy.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[stotty]

Gardnar Mulloy came to Wimbledon around 20 years ago. A friend of mine pointed him out to me. He was watching a game on one of the outside courts not far from us. My friend had seen Mulloy play in the 50s and said he was good. Mulloy that day was tall and upright and didn't look at all 80 years old. Now he is nearly 100...amazing.

I really enjoyed the article. It was good to read Mulloy's take on the modern game. It's a similar take to don_budge's. You have to respect Mulloy's opinion, as you did Kramer and other legends no longer around. I can understand where they're coming from. I watched wooden racket tennis at Wimbledon in the 70s and saw dozens of games on the outside courts. I've been watching games on the outside courts every year for 37 years. The game back then seemed equal in pace and standard to the games I watched this year at Wimbledon 2013. I know this can't be, and that sensory memory is notoriously unreliable, but I could swear players then could play as well then as players do now.

What a full life Gardnar Mulloy has had. He seems still to be mentally sharp and alert.

I loved the article, absolutely loved it.

[EdWeiss]

Great Article

Great article and great posts. Here is some footage of Gardnar playing with Bill Talbert winning the U.S. National doubles championships.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pmbZIko5Mc

[don_budge]

Gardnar Mulloy...A Major Blast from the Past

Gardnar Mulloy...A Major Blast from the Past...another legend right out of Rudyard Kipling's "If".

Now he is nearly 100...amazing.

I really enjoyed the article. It was good to read Mulloy's take on the modern game. It's a similar take to don_budge's. You have to respect Mulloy's opinion, as you did Kramer and other legends no longer around. I can understand where they're coming from. I watched wooden racket tennis at Wimbledon in the 70s and saw dozens of games on the outside courts. I've been watching games on the outside courts every year for 37 years. The game back then seemed equal in pace and standard to the games I watched this year at Wimbledon 2013. I know this can't be, and that sensory memory is notoriously unreliable, but I could swear players then could play as well then as players do now.

What a full life Gardnar Mulloy has had. He seems still to be mentally sharp and alert.

I loved the article, absolutely loved it.

I just love the tone of your post. It reminds me of the old school of tennis. Full of respect and love for the game...respect for the truth. Respect for old guys. I just love old guys. Just like klacr does. Just like John Yandell does. The wooden racquet. When I moved to Sweden some nine years ago I had to decide what to bring with me and what to leave behind. I left behind 37 wooden racquets all strung with gut. It is the one thing that I wish that I could have brought with me. Well...those wooden racquets and my father.

It's amazing how an elderly fellow like this brilliant man can stay sharp into their nineties and into the century mark. If you cannot respect that then you are truly and officially a modern day human being. People these days are under the impression that this is the most remarkable age to live in. They just may be surprised that it will be the final age at some point in the not too distant future.

I once knew an old Indian in southern Arizona who claimed to me to be 109 years old. He certainly looked every year of it. Just to watch him raise himself from a sitting position to upright made me think of the weight of that much time. But you know what...I used to fly out there from Michigan just to see him. To visit with him in the hopes that he would talk to me. Talk to me he did...he spoke the truth. About everything. I listened...sitting at his feet on the ground with my tape recorder. Carlos Castanedo.

So Gardner is bringing it on. The past lives in spite of your cell phone and your computer. At least for now. Until he is gone...and I am gone. And then? Some of the things that this guy says are just astounding to the modern day aficionado. Tilden the best ever? Several players of the past measuring up to todays players? Tilden, Kramer, Budge and Gonzalez. The "modern" guys have a hard time not consulting with their cell phone to see if this could possibly be true. All things being equal...the old guys would have carved these guys up.

But of course the classic game was superior in every way to the modern game. His observation that they all play the same isn't very hard to fantom.
His favorite doubles partner is a stitch...King Gustav. The guy is a legend here for playing a number of sets of tennis well into his advanced years. He looks like he's got the making of an ATP forehand judging from the photo.

Bill Tilden the best ever? Coming from a guy that has seen it all. You see...that is the problem. Once he is gone and the first hand account is gone with him...did the tree really fall in the forest if nobody was around to hear it fall? Once my old Indian friend was past on to the next world...who is left to tell their side of the story. Geronimo's side? Obama? George Bush?

No...the classic game was every bit as athletic as the game today. Just in a different sense. The players were more like gazelles and cheetahs compared to the big muscled robocop sprinter types of today. The speed of the ball may have been slower but that just means that the players ran farther for it...there were many more possibilities of chasing it down to try and stay in the point if the ball wasn't going a million miles an hour within millimeters of the lines. Plus going forwards and backwards is much more demanding than side to side. Try it and see...advance and retreat to the net twenty times and go side to side twenty times. Which leaves your tongue on the ground panting for the next breath? Long live Gardner Mulloy! 5 racquets and a trench coat! Classic tennis!

Is that a wiper finish to the Tilden forehand in the picture. Gee...I thought that they just invented that finish. Somehow this guy found the time to serve in the Pacific in World War II? I can just see Rafa dug in some trench somewhere...where's my IPhone...HELP!!! Paper Tiger. Warrior my you know what. The old timers were real tough guy types...unlike todays pampered royalty.

Hey Lee...if you are ever in Sweden drop by for a cup of coffee. I have a golf story for you...about a ghost that lived near a golf course in Hawaii. It morph's into a love story out of control. It goes something like this...a golfer goes out and shoots 72 at the Big Island Weimea Country Club after not having played a round for several months...he starts out with four straight birdies. He manages to hold it together after searching the heavens on the fifth tee he realizes that it was an act of God. He extends his hands to the sky and asks God, "What does it mean?" He proceeded to find out...enter the ghost. Life would never be the same.

[bottle]

My favorite line: "My life has been up and down, with wins and losses, successes and failures, interspersed with dumbness on my part..."

[stotty]

My favorite line: "My life has been up and down, with wins and losses, successes and failures, interspersed with dumbness on my part..."

Yes, this quote stood out for me also. Only a rounded man who has lived a lot is willing to offer a phrase like the last one. It's the mark of a true man...to admit his dumbness, weaknesses.

As don_budge suggests, it's like standing in a witness box when defending the tennis these old guys played and the world they stood for. It's hard to tell younger people that Rosewall's backhand volley was one of the best ever. They dismiss me out of hand.

Standing in a witness box is a good way to describe it. Another 30 years and I'm probably going to sound like I'm a lunatic. But Rosewall's backhand volley was one of the very, very best...it was...it was...it was...I swear it was. HELP, HELP... don't let them take me away!

Apparently Gardnar had a strong serve. I'm not sure what his overall game style was, but, as he was so successful at doubles, I guess we can assume it revolved around coming to the net.

[DougEng]

Great Article. Very difficult to write an article on someone who is 100 years old but seems to have 1000 years worth of experience and stories.

The name Gardner Malloy is well known here in South Florida. He is a true living legend beyond the tennis court. He is a true gentleman and a hero for serving his country and all that he stood for his his career. Despite his age, he is as sharp as a tack. Often on this forum we speak about Budge and Rosewall and Laver and all these other classic players and speak of their greatness. Malloy didn't garner as much attention or win as many singles titles as these guys, but he was still a great player (remained in top 10 rankings for his age group over seven decades) but most importantly, a great person. Long live Gardner Malloy.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

I didn't know he was an 'unknown legend' since I thought of him as a coaching and doubles legend.

[don_budge]

Words...summing it all up.

My favorite line: "My life has been up and down, with wins and losses, successes and failures, interspersed with dumbness on my part..."

It says a lot for a lot of us...great line.

[johnyandell]

Doug,

Good point. But I bet if you asked 100 club players under the age of 60 if they had heard of Gardnar 95% (or 100%) would say no. About 10 years ago I asked 50 kids age 5-12 at one of my camps if they had heard of Rod Laver... no they hadn't...

Not everyone has read everything as some of our posters...

[klacr]

I agree with John. Most people under the age of 60 sadly will not know who Gardner Malloy is. Many of the kids I'm teaching now don't remember sampras or Agassi (I feel old). I happen to have lived in South Florida for most of my life so I'm familair with Malloy and the whole Miami tennis scene. Although, knowing myself, even if I lived in Iceland, I'd probably have known Malloy just through reading and research. But I'm a rare breed I guess. Sadly, many of the younger pros in my area would have no idea who Malloy is.

side note: During the classroom session I administer for the USPTA testing and Certification, I briefly go over the history of the game since there are a few questions on the written exam regarding this. Many aspiring tennis professionals (young and middle aged) lack the knowledge of Rod Laver, Battle Of The Sexes, the Open era etc. Not that knowing these factoids makes or breaks a teaching professional, but it certainly gives you a greater appreciation for where the game has been and what it has gone through.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton