WINTER PARK, Fla. -- (February 20, 2015)
- Rollins alum Pauline Betz Addie (1943) who passed away
four years ago at the age of 91 on May 31, 2011 was featured in the
New York Times opinion section a few days ago.
Addie was a five-time Grand Slam singles champion and world's
top-ranked woman in April 1947. She was born on Aug. 16, 1919, in
Dayton, Ohio, and raised in Los Angeles, where she was taught
tennis by her tennis-playing mother. Pauline bought her first
tennis racket when she was 9, trading some of her father's pipe
collection for it at a thrift shop.
'Miss Betz' had quickness on her feet and a backhand shot which
distinguished her as a potential star on the local public courts.
In 1939, she attained her first national ranking in the top 10; she
was 19. That same year while playing at Rollins, where she played
on the men's tennis team, she filled in at the No. 4 spot.
While at Rollins she was known as a gifted all-around athlete,
playing table tennis, golf or pickup basketball games with men. She
graduated in 1943 and climbed to the top of both the United States
and international rankings.
Addie continued to compete at the club level until 2003 because
she wanted to "keep up" with her grandchildren, whom she had taught
the game. Betz Addie was inducted into the International Tennis
Hall of Fame in 1965. Her resume includes winning the U.S.
Championships in 1942, 1943, 1944, 1946, the French Championships
(mixed doubles) in 1946 and hoisting the Wimbledon trophy in 1946.
In 1997, she marched in the United States Open parade of champions
to help christen Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. The
Pauline Betz Addie Tennis Center is located in Bethesda,
Maryland.
Addie is featured in a recent New York Times article, which you
can read here.
