Tennis in Illinois was pioneered in the schools of Cook County as far back as the 1880s. The sport never generated a lot of enthusiasm in Cook County schools, but it was a recognized sport early on. As early as the fall of 1884 Lake View High had a tennis club, and students at the school were playing tennis in lieu of football in the fall of 1886. Evanston that fall was also playing tennis as reported by the High School Journal, "A couple of tennis courts have been set up on our lawns, and pupils of both sexes manifest a lively interest in them." Also, as early as 1888 tennis was part of some of the high school intramural field days along with track and field events. West Division gave an interesting report on the sport in May 1891:
"The tennis season has begun. Already, one by taking a short walk in any direction from the high school building, may see the tennis balls flying, and hear the thud of the balls on the racquets. The game has recently become very popular in W.D. A short time ago courts were scarce and players few, but now good courts are abundant and everyone plays tennis...The West Side parks furnish a great inducement to W.D. students to spend their leisure time there. Every pleasant afternoon the park courts are crowded. But he interest in each locality on the West Side is centered around its own court. The one called the "Ashland Court" seems to be the best known."
Unlike other high school sports, the game involved both boys and girls, and as noted by the West Division reporter, "the exercise is not severe so the game can be played and enjoyed by ladies as well as gentlemen. This is an important feature for the popularity of the game in high school." In May 1894, the West Division Voice noted that other schools were getting up a tennis league. The school conducted an intramural tennis tourney in June, but apparently chose not compete against other schools, for on June 18, the Tribune reported on the "first annual tournament of the Cook County High School Lawn Tennis Association," held in Oak Park, without West Division. Participating were Lake View, Englewood, English, Evanston, North Division, and Oak Park. The championship, both singles and doubles, was won by Oak Park, which took "four gold medals." Clearly, by 1894 tennis had been established as a regular sport among the Cook County schools
In 1895 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. The University of Chicago Interscholastic, which was usually held the first week of June, went by several names during its on-and-off existence. In the early years it was popularly called the Western Interscholastic, as were many events held in Illinois during those years. The Western Interscholastic was one of the six major interscholastics — the others were Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Pennsylvania, and Columbia — that sent the singles champion to the Casino Club, Newport, Rhode Island, to compete in the National Interscholastic held in August. The United States National Lawn Tennis Association (USNLTA) conducted the interscholastic competition the same time it held its national championships.
In 1895 meet, the Chicago Tribune reported the singles winner, a Chicago Manual lad who beat a North Division player. Surprisingly, no private school player, say from Harvard, Princeton-Yale, or Morgan Park Academy, made the finals. During the next decade, the University of Chicago conducted an annual interscholastic meet for all the private and public schools in the Chicago area, but the private schools dominated the competitions.
The University of Chicago Interscholastic produced some notable winners. The 1905 winner, Lawrence Stern of Hyde Park, in the previous year represented Hyde Park at the Olympic Games in St. Louis, and there won the "world interscholastic" singles championship. The 1906 winner, J. Allan Ross of Hyde Park, was the only University of Chicago Interscholastic winner to win the National Interscholastic. The 1910 winner, Alexander Squair of Englewood, in 1914 won the Western Tennis Championship, then a highly prestigious event.
Meanwhile, in 1909 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. The private schools in the East were vigorously involved in the sport throughout the 1890s, competing in league meets and interscholastic tourneys. By 1907 the New York Public Schools League was also conducting a tennis tournament.
State universities took the lead in sponsoring state championships in interscholastic sports during the first three decades of this century, and tennis was no exception, when in 1912 the University of Illinois started sponsoring a state tournament. The University of Chicago meet attracted boys mainly from the Chicago area. The Illinois tourney broadened the field to include the entire state. The state tennis championship recognized only singles and doubles winners; no team championships were awarded. If team championships had been awarded, Hyde Park, Harvard, and University — three schools all in the Hyde Park area — would have dominated early and Parker High later on.
During the first years of the state tournament, the newspapers virtually ignored it, despite the presence of some high caliber tennis players. The first giant in the tourney was Jerry H. Weber of Harvard, who won the first three singles titles, as well as a doubles title with his brother, James, in 1913. He was one of six boys selected in the country to play in 1912, 1913, and 1914 at the prestigious National Interscholastic, held every year in Newport, Rhode Island, in August. In 1914 he took second in the tournament. Another three-time winner (1922, 1923, 1924) was George Lott of University, one of the most famous alumnus of these years, having been elected to the Tennis Hall of Fame in 1964 and won a score of national doubles titles, as well as the 1932 national clay court championship singles title. Douglas Turner, the 1927 winner, is probably the first black in the country to win a state title in tennis. Prior to the Depression he was one of only four blacks ever to play varsity tennis for a white university, when at the University of Illinois he took second in the Big Ten in 1929. In 1930, he won the national championship of the American Tennis Association, an organization sponsoring black competition because of the color line at United States National Lawn Tennis Association-sponsored events. (In 1927 he took the ATA's Boys 18 And Under title.)
Meanwhile, the scope of the University of Chicago tournament was narrowed when it was resumed in 1924 after a seven-year hiatus. The first three years it was called the University of Chicago Cook County Interscholastic and during 1928-29 the University of Chicago City and Suburban Interscholastic, but in its final years the meet reverted to its original name. The 1924 champion, George Lott, was of course the most notable alumnus of the event Emmett Pare of St. Mel, the 1925 singles champion, won the national clay court singles title in 1929.
A top tennis player competing and winning in both the University of Illinois Interscholastic and the University of Chicago meet was John Shostrom. In the Illinois meet Art Jorgenson at Parker High, and Bill and Chet Murphy of Tilden were notable winners. It is clear that the top players in the state during the 1920s and early 1930s came from the South Side, particularly from Hyde Park.
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The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Illinois High School Association.