Tennis
Tennis never generated a lot of enthusiasm in Cook County schools, but it was a recognized sport early on. As early as 1884 Lake View High had a tennis club, and 1888 tennis was part of some of the high school intramural field days along with track and field events. On June 18, the Tribune reported on the "first annual tournament of the Cook County High School Lawn Tennis Association," held in Oak Park. Participating were Lake View, Englewood, English, Evanston, North Division, and Oak Park. The championship, both singles and doubles, was won by Oak Park. The next year there was no follow-up Cook County tourney. Instead a "Western Interscholastic Tennis Games" was held involving "high and preparatory schools" at the University of Chicago. Clearly, by 1894 tennis had been established as a regular sport among the Cook County schools, even though an annual tournament specifically for these schools was not being held. It was not until 1909 that the Cook County League again held a league-sponsored championship tourney. Tennis was a privileged sport and the pattern in most of the country showed greater development in the private schools than in the public schools.
Read more about this topic: Cook County High School League
Famous quotes containing the word tennis:
“Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“[My one tennis book] was very, very old. It had a picture of Bill Tilden. I looked at the picture and that was how I learned to hold the racket.”
—Maria Bueno (b. 1939)
“I know some of my self-worth comes from tennis, and it’s hard to think of doing something else where you know you’ll never be the best. Tennis players are rare creatures: where else in the world can you know that you’re the best? The definitiveness of it is the beauty of it, but it’s not all there is to life and I’m ready to explore the alternatives.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)