2012
NANCY GILL MCSHEA
Nancy Gill MeShen, an award winning tennis writer and the co-author of the book, Tennis in New York, calls herself a 99 percenter, one of those people who earns less than a million. She has worked at many jobs since she delivered newspapers as a pre-teen in her native Long Beach, including two stints as a secondary English teacher, Librarian and tennis coach - at the Long Beach Junior High School and St. Mary's High School in Manhasset.
She competed in Long Island baseball leagues and on high school and college varsity basketball teams before she jumped on the tennis bandwagon in the early 1970s at the beginning of the Open era. She tried to imitate Billie Jean King while learning to play tennis in the parks and coaching
JuniorTeam Tennis.
The timing was perfect. Tennis coincided with her commitment to the young feminist movement and her volunteer work in local politics as a Democratic committeeman. She worked for both of the Kennedys, in Allard Lowenstein's congressional campaigns and lobbied in Washington against the Vietnam War. When Senator McGovern lost every state except Massachusetts in the 1972 presidential election, she decided it was time to have fun.
Tennis and modeling doubled as her gateway back into the mainstream while she raised her three children. She traveled around the Tri-State area as a junior tennis parent and high school coach and hustled in and out of New York auditioning for print and television commercial roles. She landed jobs advertising an arthritic tennis player, a young woman trapped in suburbia in a Ms. Magazine ad and a Mom playing basketball in a national Cheerios commercial with her husband and two kids. She was having fun, but the director on the Cheerios" set disagreed and shouted through his bullhorn, "You just knocked your husband out of the frame fighting for that rebound. This is not a game, it's a commercial. And you're not Walt Frazier!" When her daughter Colette got a college tennis scholarship, Nancy wrote a satirical piece about the perils of the junior game for World Tennis magazine. Next up was a live guest appearance discussing pressures in junior tennis with Nick Bollettieri on Ted Koppel's Nightline show during the 1984 US Open. Soon after, she started what evolved into a 30-year career as a tennis reporter.
World champ Bob Litwin graciously called Nancy the voice of Eastern tennis who made ordinary people feel like stars in their tennis world. That was her goal, to try and give readers a look into people's lives - in their own voices - beyond the tennis stats. "Anybody who earns a tennis ranking of any kind or volunteers time to promote tennis as the sport for a lifetime is a star in my mind," she has said. "It has been my privilege. I love hearing people's stories and do my best to give readers an insight into who they are outside the white lines." Nancy has written over 2,000 tennis articles and 87 of the Junior Tennis Foundation's hall of fame profiles to showcase those stars. She has connected with the sport's legends throughout the country and received five press service awards for her work - - as the Public Relations Director/ Writer/Editor for the USTA Eastern Section; the Managing Editor/Writer for Eastern Roundup and Passing Shot magazines; a Copy Editor/Columnist for Tennis Week magazine; a Sectional Reporter for Tennis USA and USTA; a Columnist for Newsday; and a Staff Writer for College and Junior Tennis magazine. Last year, she co-authored Tennis in New York with Dale Caldwell.
RON REBHUHN
Unfortunately, tonight ill health prevents Ron Rebhuhn from joining us for his induction to the Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame. Eric, his son, will accept the bronze sculpture, "Service," on his behalf.
About ten years before he was born, Ron's parents commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build their Great Neck home where he was spent his childhood. He attended Great Neck North High School and spent part of his school years in Fort Myers Beach, Florida where his parents had a second home. He attended the University of Florida on a tennis scholarship where his teammates included Bill Tym and Francisco Montana. Returning to the New York area, Ron earned a Masters degree from New York University.
Some details of Ron's life are well-known to his friends and family.
• Since his early years, tennis has been a major player in his life.
• For ten years, he
was both a professor and the Head Men's Tennis Coach for at Mercy
College.
• He is the author of over one hundred articles about tennis for a variety of publications.
• He won over 500 tennis tournaments during his career.
• He has one son, Eric, the current Head Tennis Coach at St. John's University, and he is the proud grandfather of Jake (age 4 ½) and Dylan (11 weeks).
And, here's a little trivia for all of Ron's fans:
• His lifelong interests include classical guitar, astrology and self-development;
and,
• He is believed to be the only USPTA Master Professional on Long Island.
Few of these details, however, give insight to the heart of the man whose friends sent countless emails and nominations to the Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame Selection Committee. So many referred to Ron as their "best friend" and "an exceptional coach and person." Several people said he didn't only teach them how to play tennis - he taught them to be better people. They emphasized his sense of fairness and commitment to excellence.
Ron, tonight as you take your well-deserved spot on the illustrious roster of members of the Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame, we extend our sincere thanks and well wishes. Just as tennis has been an important part of your life, so you have been a very special part of the lives of those you've touched. Congratulations on behalf of the Junior Tennis Foundation, USTA Eastern and all of your family and friends!
PETER RENNERT
Growing up, everyone in Peter's family played tennis: his Mom and Dad, his sister Amy and brother Jimmy. At first, they played on public courts, and then they joined the Great Neck Country Club. Not exactly a country club, it consisted of five red clay courts, a ping-pong table and a rundown clubhouse, but there were a lot of good players. What he remembers is that he used to wait all day long to play the two minutes in between court times for the adult members. Needless to say, he played a lot of ping-pong.
He entered his first Eastern tournament at the age of 11, where he played someone named John McEnroe in the second round. As best he can remember, he managed to get three games. It was the beginning of a competitive relationship that turned into a life long friendship.
The next big step was getting into the Port Washington tennis academy where he trained under
Tony Palafox and Harry Hopman. He played a lot of tournaments and eventually worked his way up to the #2 ranking behind John in the East 16's. Next came his admission to Stanford, as a walk-on, where by the end of his sophomore year he was playing #4. At the NCAA team championships that year, 1978, he won the deciding match 6-4 in the third, against UCLA in the finals.
His big break came in the next year when all the players above him either graduated or turned pro and suddenly Peter was the #1 player on the top college team in the country. In 1980, he graduated as a member of three national championship teams and was named Tennis Magazine's College Player of the Year.
Professionally, he hovered around #40 in the world. Along the way, he had wins over Mats Wilander, Brian Gottfried, and an almost win over Bjorn Borg (7-6, 4-6, 6-3.) His greatest success came in doubles, where he rose to #8 in the world. The records say his highest ranking was #9, but somewhere in his attic he swears he has the ATP newspaper that said he was #8. He won six professional doubles tournaments, three with John McEnroe (Italian Indoors, Sydney Indoors and Queens Club), three with Kevin Curren, and was a finalist in two more. He won one pro singles tournament twice, and also got to the quarterfinals of US Open Doubles and Mixed Doubles. Sadly this just misses qualifying him for the Big 8 tickets. He also had the honor of being selected by Arthur Ashe to be part of the 1983 USA Davis Cup team that went to Argentina.
An injury shortened his career and he retired at age 25. For the last 12 years he has been a teacher at a private school in Connecticut, where he is the "Original Play" person. He has also developed The Effortless Approach to Peak Performance, which can be applied to all activities. He is currently applying it to a Peak Performance Tennis Training Program that he is running in Connecticut. One of the main things that Peter teaches is how to fully relax under increasing pressure. This helps people to become the best that they can be, in the fastest possible, and most enjoyable way. For Peter, joy is not negotiable!
MOLLY VAN NOSTRAND RICE
Molly Van Nostrand was taught how to hold a tennis racquet at the young age of 3 years old.
Rumor has it that Molly wasn't strong enough to hold a heavy, wood racquet with one hand so she used two. Thus, the two-handed forehand and backhand were born and never lost. Molly was the 4 and youngest child born to King and Boots Van Nostrand. Growing up in Brightwaters,
NY, all Van Nos-trand children (King, John & Jane) were ranked players in the Eastern section of the USTA. Molly was almost always ranked at the top of her age group, and won the New York State Public High School singles championship as a ninth grader at Bay Shore High School.
Her father and coach, King Van Nostrand was and still is a highly-ranked top senior player himself.
Her mother, Boots-now a highly-ranked senior player, as well--taught tennis on the local level.
At age 16, Molly held the #1 national USTA ranking in the 16 and under. She played her first professional tournament at age 16 and received her first WTA ranking that same year. She went on to receive a full tennis scholarship to SMU in Dallas, Texas. In 1984, after playing college tennis for one year, she turned pro and played professionally for 10 years, having wins over third and fourth ranked players in the world. She was consistently world ranked in the top 50 in singles, her best being ranked #38, and #42 in doubles. Highlights include: Quarterfinalist at Wimbledon three years in a row, 1986 (singles), 1987 (doubles) and 1988 (mixed doubles); finalist at the Mahwah NJ Open; Quarterfinalist at Canadian Open. Molly's career was plagued by a number of serious foot injuries, requiring long lay-offs. She retired from competitive play in 1990 due to a back injury.
In 1991, she applied and went to The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While there she met her future husband, Carl Rice, at the ever-famous Carrboro bus stop. In 1993, she received a BA in Elementary Education from UNC. Molly continued her studies at NYU where she received a MA in Speech-Language Pathology in 1994.
She married Carl Rice and they settled in Pennington, New Jersey to raise their three children:
Gillian, 15, a high school freshman who is passionately involved with performing arts inside and outside of school; DJ, 13, a 71 grader who plays competitive travel baseball and basketball (and loved visiting Switzerland in February to watch Davis Cup with his grandparents); and Carly, 11, a 6th grader. Her first love is basketball and she currently plays for her middle school team and her AAÜ team, the Mid-Jersey Mavericks. All children play tennis especially when visiting their grandparents in Florida.
Molly is involved at the local level with numerous fundraising events and volunteers at her children's schools in various capacities. She is a former board member Hopewell Valley YMCA and current board member of Hopewell Valley Music and Theatre Parents Association. Molly is a stay-at-home mom and enjoys taxiing her children around to various activities and spending time with family & friends. In her spare time, Molly loves the gym, listening to music, reading, and, of course, rooting for all things UNC-related. Go Heels!
