Tennis in the Northland: A History of Boys' High School Tennis in Minnesota [Hardcover]

Jim Holden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 9, 2009

Tennis in the Northland is a book about Minnesota's high school tennis champions, and the coaches who helped them become successful. It is a comprehensive 75-year history, beginning in the first year of state competition in 1929. Featured in the book are narrative profiles of all the singles and doubles champions; sketches of prominent Minnesota tennis families, teaching pros, patrons, and media reporters; and stories about successful teams. The book also includes stories about girls playing on boys' teams before Title IX, dark horse teams such as St. James, dynasty teams such as Edina, and many fun facts about former champions. For example, one future champion missed his streetcar and so missed the tournament his junior year. Another is one of the creators of the play ''Triple Espresso.'' Another had a tennis scorebook named after him, and still another was the lead prosecutor at the Charles Manson trial (and author of the book Helter Skelter).

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A baseball and basketball player at Sherburn High School and Augsburg College, Jim Holden was, like so many high school tennis coaches in the 1960s and '70s, an unlikely candidate for a tennis caching job. Nonetheless, without any real playing experience or knowledge of the game, he reluctantly agreed to become the Northfield High School boys' coach in 1971. Despite some relatively lean early years, under Holden's guidance the Raiders made five state tournament appearances - finishing as high as third in 1978. In addition, he coached 1976 doubles champions Andy Ringlien and Tim Ross and fourteen individual state tournament entrants (nine in doubles and five in singles). And during a seventeen year tenure his teams won 237 matches and lost just 82.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Beaver's Pond Press; First Edition edition (January 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592982182
• ISBN-13: 978-1592982189
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,550,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Tennis in the Northland and Shakespeare -- Priceless, June 27, 2009

By 

Mark Twain aka Bill Cosgrove (Edina, MN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tennis in the Northland: A History of Boys' High School Tennis in Minnesota (Hardcover)

Jim Holden's book about tennis in Minnesota is a kick to read whether it's for the tennis or for the flavor and cheekiness of playing such a fair-weather outdoor sport in the four seasons Midwest. He tells the story of the player's eyeglasses that were completely covered over with driving snow and all that was visible were two white disks where his eyes should've been. And the kick serve hit into so ferocious a cross wind that it bounced over the fence. And who knew that the lead attorney in the infamous 1969 Charles Manson Family murder trial and author of Helter-Skelter, Vincent Bugliosi, was a boy's high school singles tennis champion in Minnesota.

These idiosyncracies and more are in Holden's book, including the occasional quirky rule change along the way. Coaches, boys single and doubles champions, "dark horse" teams, dynasty teams, and tennis families are some of the topics in the 10 chapters and seven appendixes of Holden's book, along with a "Foreword" by Steve Wilkinson, the incredibly successful tennis coach at Gustavus Adolphus, creator of the Tennis and Life Camps, and nationally ranked USTA player..

It turns out that Minnesota has had a number of players who were nationally ranked, won national titles, played professionally against (and even beat) world-class tour players, and represented the U.S. on international team, Wilkinson included. The state also has some of the most successful programs for inner city and summer park tennis in the nation. If tennis is really, as some have said, "a wealthy man's game," Minnesota has done a good deal since at least the 1970s to make it more inclusive and "bring it to the kids in the streets" after the rush to the suburbs in the 1950s.

Holden's book has much to recommend it beyond its abundance of statistics and information about Minnesota tennis. It's filled with human-interest stories about players and coaches and the Minnesota towns they are from. Multiple interviews and 1st hand accounts, 100s of pictures, and thorough research yield interesting background and contextualizing narratives on every page. From the teaching majors of high school coaches (surprisingly many in history and English) to the tennis upbringing of players (public courts vs. private country clubs), Holden gives us full, rounded portraits of a host of tennis players in Minnesota, many of whom Minnesota tennis players would likely know. The book itself is large format and professionally printed on quality paper with quality cloth binding and attractive covers and dust jacket. Altogether a high quality and attractive publication.

Finally, in addition to the short cultural histories of each decade he covers, Holden includes excerpts from the plays of Shakespeare, who, as far as I know, was not a tennis player. "'Tis true 'tis pity, and pity 'tis 'tis true." Would that he were. Tennis and Shakespeare "twinn'd" together - priceless.