Top Spin Blog » Bill Tilden

“Vamos, Del Po!”

Joe Samuel Starnes — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:25:23 +0000

“Vamos, Del Po!” says Bill Tilden’s ghost. “My record of six in a row will live for 100 years and more.”

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Bill Tilden’s Record of Six Wins on the Shoulder of a Tall Argentine

Joe Samuel Starnes — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:51:05 +0000

Roger Federer broke Pete Sampras’ record of 14 grand slams this summer, but today has the chance to tie a major American tennis landmark if he wins his sixth straight U.S. Open. William T. “Big Bill” Tilden II won the U.S. Championships six straight years, three times at Forest Hills in 1920, ‘24 and ‘25, and three times at the Germantown Cricket Club, a block from his home in Philadelphia, in 1921-23. Federer looks poised to win his sixth, but Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina stands in his way this afternoon.

In Tilden’s 1920 win in New York, a small plane crashed next to the court during the fifth set, killing two, but after a break they played on. The Sept. 7, 1920, headline in The New York Times read: 10,000 SEE PLANE KILL TWO IN CRASH AT TENNIS TOURNEY.

It is a shame that this story and others about Tilden are rarely talked about. The McEnroes, Mary Carillo and others act almost like Tilden never existed, instead fawning like mindless children excited about the celebrities in the crowd. Tilden’s tennis victories are on par with what Babe Ruth did in baseball and Bobby Jones in golf. His tennis accomplishments deserve more discussion as his record teeters on the verge of being tied.

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The McEnroes Bare Their Ignorance of Tennis History

Joe Samuel Starnes — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:17:40 +0000

In golf announcers usually know and have respect for the history of Bobby Jones, and in baseball Babe Ruth’s legend is well known. But in tennis, the history of the game is as murky to the McEnroes as the $8 beers the U.S. Open sells. Here’s a rundown of John and Patrick McEnroe’s errors when discussing Bill Tilden and tennis of that era during Roger Federer’s match on Wednesday night:

PatMac: “Tilden won six in the thirties.” No, it was 1920-1925.

Johnny Mac: “Did the winner play just one match then?” (essentially a challenge draw like Wimbledon once did and Davis Cup did until the early 70s where the defending champion automatically went to the final). No, Tilden played a full draw.

Pat and/or John (the errors were hard to keep up with): The U.S. Open was played in Boston until the thirties. No: The men’s singles moved from Newport, R.I. to the West Side Tennis Club from 1915-1920. For three of the years Tilden won the U.S. Championship, 1921-1923, it was held at the Germantown Cricket Club, a block from where he grew up in Philadelphia. In 1924 it moved to the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills.

Where is Bud Collins (or at least his Encyclopedia of Tennis) when they need him?

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Bill Tilden: “Elements of True Greek Tragedy”

Joe Samuel Starnes — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 01:43:35 +0000

Few things I have written have evoked as many responses as my essay in the August 2008 Tennis magazine about searching for Bill Tilden’s almost invisible grave in his home city of Philadelphia.

Some wrote in praise on my blog and in old-fashioned letters to my home for my delving into the forgotten story of a tennis player who won six U.S. Championships, the tournament that became the U.S. Open in 1968, and a record that Roger Federer is attempting to tie with a win this year at Flushing Meadows. R.E. Cummings of Tugoff, S.C. wrote a very kind note: “I am now 95 years old and have played tennis since the age of 14,” he started, before telling of a time when he was a line judge and Tilden disliked a call. He concludes with the question: “Am I the only one left with these memories?” (To see Mr. Cummings letter, click here.)

Others were not so appreciative. Christopher Groff in Guadalajara, Mexico wrote seven months after the article first appeared: “Just because Tilden was a great tennis player does not make him a good person. He was a convicted child molester, for godsake! Erecting a monument to one of the scum of the earth is unthinkable. I am so disgusted with your article that I am thinking of canceling my subscription to Tennis magazine. I assume, Mr. Starnes, your next great idea is to make a national monument to Michael Vick and ‘Pacman’ Jones.”

Tilden served two short jail terms for separate misdemeanor charges for molesting teenage boy hitchhikers in Los Angeles, and there’s evidence in Frank Deford’s excellent 1975 biography Big Bill Tilden: The Triumphs and The Tragedy that he probably was a serial pedophile. But it’s not perfectly clear. You should read Deford’s exhaustive book and make up your mind.

For the record, (the essay is not available online or I would link to it) I didn’t argue that I wanted to build a monument for Tilden or even that he was a “good person,” only that his nondescript gravestone should acknowledge the accomplishments he achieved on the tennis court, records that still stand. Tilden died poor and shamed 56 years ago and has served his time. Let the man have a grave worthy of a tennis champion.

Playwright A.R. Gurney also responded on my blog: “…in 2004 I wrote a play called BIG BILL which opened at the Lincoln Center Theatre in New York and played for several months. John McEnroe came to the play and left promptly. Frank Deford came to it and stayed to admire it. The reviews were generally good, except for the N.Y. Times, but the play is rarely done today, suffering the same neglect as Tilden himself has suffered over the years. Somewhere in his story are the elements of true Greek tragedy, and perhaps somebody else will one day get it right.”

As evidenced by John and Patrick McEnroe’s babbling ignorance of Tilden’s history during the Federer match on Wednesday night, you aren’t going to hear any insightful discussion on ESPN’s coverage that gets Tilden’s story right.

Dear CBS and ESPN: An Open Letter on the U.S. Open EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a letter from my parents....

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