Career
Smith played collegiate tennis at the University of Southern California, under Coach George Toley, where he was a three-time All-American and won the 1968 NCAA singles championship and the 1967 and 1968 doubles titles. At USC, Smith was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity.
As a kid, he went to get a job as a ballboy at the Davis Cup but was turned down because the organizers thought he was too clumsy http://www.onlinecollege.org/2010/02/16/50-famously-successful-people-who-failed-at-first/.
In his 1979 autobiography, Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, ranked Smith as one of the 21 best players of all time.
In 2005, TENNIS magazine ranked Smith as 35th in its "40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS Era".
Smith was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987.
Following his playing career, Smith became active as a coach for the United States Tennis Association. He now has his own academy with Billy Stearns called Smith Stearns Tennis Academy, which is in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
Smith married Princeton University tennis player Marjory Gengler. They later mentored South African tennis player Mark Mathabane, helping increase pressure on the South African government to end Apartheid. Today, Smith lives in Hilton Head with his wife and four children, all of whom competed in collegiate tennis. In Hilton Head he also is a co-owner of the highly successful tennis academy Smith Stearns.
Read more about this topic: Stan Smith
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“I seemed intent on making it as difficult for myself as possible to pursue my “male” career goal. I not only procrastinated endlessly, submitting my medical school application at the very last minute, but continued to crave a conventional female role even as I moved ahead with my “male” pursuits.”
—Margaret S. Mahler (1897–1985)
“They want to play at being mothers. So let them. Expressing tenderness in their own way will not prevent girls from enjoying a successful career in the future; indeed, the ability to nurture is as valuable a skill in the workplace as the ability to lead.”
—Anne Roiphe (20th century)