Editor’s note: Steve S. Rao is a Council Member At Large and Former Mayor Pro Tem for the Town of Morrisville and an Opinion Writer for WRAL Tech Wire. He served on the Board of the New American Economy, now the American Immigration Council, and on the NC League of Municipalities Race and Equity Task Force. He is a regular contributing writer to WRAL TechWire.
Note to readers: WRAL TechWire would like to hear from you about views expressed by our contributors. Please send email to: info@wraltechwire.com.
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MORRISVILLE – Thomas Edison gave us General Electric.
Mack Mcormack gave us IMG.
Sam Walton gave Walmart
Bill Gates gave us Microsoft.
Sergy Brin gave us Google.
Eric Yuan gave us Zoom.
In the Triangle, Bob Young gave us Red Hat, Jim Goodnight gave us SAS amd Scott Wingo gave us Channel Advisor and Get Spiffy.
But when it comes to game changing innovation in tennis, the world had sports entrepreneur and legend, Nick Bolleterri, who died last Sunday at his home in Bradenton, Florida, at the age of 91.
Bollettieri, was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2014 despite never having played the game professionally, produced an astounding 10 international No. 1 players by the end of his career, from Andre Agassi to the Williams sisters.
WHO WAS NICK BOLLETERRI?
Nicholas James Bollettieri was born in Pelham, New York, on July 31, 1931 to a pair of Italian immigrants. Having barely touched a racket before, he began coaching the sport to support himself through law school, reportedly knowing so little about the sport that he would convene with local tennis pros before each lesson for advice, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Bollettieri’s legacy would be cemented decades later in 1978 when he pioneered the idea of a tennis boarding academy, which would become the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy and later evolve into IMG Academy, with a curriculum so rigorous under his helm that it drew comparisons to a factory.
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FROM TENNIS LESSONS TO TENNIS ACADEMIES
Following his release from the Army 187th Airborne Division in 1957, Nick pursued a law degree at the University of Miami. To earn a few dollars, he began teaching tennis on North Miami Beach courts for $1.50 a half-hour lesson. As he got more accomplished he charged $6 an hour. His first accomplished student was Brian Gottfried, who rose to World No. 3 in 1977.
However, the acclaimed – tennis coach did not arrive on the scene until 1976, when he was 45 years old. Bollettieri, who had been teaching at the Dorado Beach Hotel in Puerto Rico in the winter, had returned to Miami, looking for a new opportunity to peddle his experience. He was tipped off to a teaching position at the Colony Beach and Tennis Resort outside Sarasota, Florida. A year later he opened the Nick BolletterriTennis Academy with students living in his house. It was a gargantuan leap for a tennis pro who went from teaching for bus fare to one who could now command $900 a hour for a private lesson. (https://www.tennisfame.com/hall-of-famers/inductees/nick-bollettieri_ )
What materialized from a seemingly basic career as a tennis teaching professional boarders on the remarkable, if not unimaginable.
In 1980, Bollettieri borrowed $1 million from a friend, Louis Marx Jr., to build a spacious live-in tennis academy on grounds used to grow tomatoes in Bradenton.
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The man who never played the game as a professional would become the most sought-after tennis coach in the world, developing 10 world No. 1 ranked players, a stunning and impressive list that features Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Jim Courier, Martina Hingis, Jelena Jankovic, Marcelo Rios, Monica Seles, Maria Sharapova, and Serena & Venus Williams. (https://www.tennisfame.com/hall-of-famers/inductees/nick-bollettieri)
The Academy Concept came to life and transformed the way Tennis was taught in the United States and eventually, all around the world.
Under Bill Wymer’s leadership, (Passed away last December) almost all junior tennis programs became Tennis Academies, at the Charleston YMCA, Charleston Players Club and Charleston Tennis Club, which produced one of the top players in the world at the time, John Albert Falbo, one of the top junior players in the world at the time, John Albert Falbo, and West Virginia tennis stars including, ATP Bud Vredeveld (one of my coaches), Kevin Ball, Brad Kelly, Paul Mancini, Billy Wymer, Steven Wymer, James Kent, Andy Michael, Carrie King, Jo Marie Cinco, and ATP Mens’ Touring Professionals Anne Smith and Jeff Morrison.
On a personal note, I am proud that I went on to win two state championships in Delaware, where I attended St. Andrews High School, and then played in College for a few years at Emory University.
In Cincinatti, entrepreneur, Steve Contardi, brought the concept to a number of his clubs and transformed Cincinatti to be a breeding ground for top ranked Ohio Valley and United States Tennis players. We also saw a number of these tennis factories come to life in Columbus, Ohio, which produced a number of Nationally Ranked Tennis Players during my playing days.
Two Ohio tennis stars and tennis academy graduates include David Kass, a top junior player in US, who runs his own Academy in Columbus, and Ty Tucker, who coaches Ohio State and is one of the most successful coaches in Division 1 Tennis.
The Bolleterri Academy concept would trigger the founding of other Successful Tennis Academies, in the United States including The Dennis Vandermeer Tennis Academy, Smith Stearns in Hilton Head South Carolina, John Mcenroe’s Tennis Academy in Manhattan and most recently, the Cary Tennis Park, a USTA junior training facility and host to Men’s ATP Challenger Events.
As of today, Five Bollettieri-mentored players are in the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
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Nick lent his expertise to countless others that reached Top 10 singles status, including Jimmy Arias, Carling Bassett, Thomas Enqvist, Brad Gilbert, Brian Gottfried, Anna Kournikova, Mary Pierce, Mark Phillippousis, and Nicole Vaidisova. Sprinkle in prominent German player Tommy Haas, American Aaron Krickstein, and No. 1 ranked doubles players Mark Knowles and Max Miryni, and Bollettieri’s legacy takes on enormous stature.
By November 1981 the academy was on strong footing, prompting a legion of promising junior players to descend to the Bollettieri Tennis Academy, all with hopes and aspirations of hoisting a professional championship trophy.
Nick became a national sensation appearing on CBS’s 60 Minutes, ABC’s Nightline, PBS, the BBC, Discovery Channel, and featured in People Magazine, and Sports Illustrated . I remember my Tennis Coach asking me to read the June 9, 1980 Sports Illustrated article, waiting to play in my first tennis tournament, “He’ll Make Your Child A Champ, But It Won’t Be Much Fun.”
In 1987, Bollettieri sold it to IMG founder Mark McCormack, who brought into his Tennis Academy concept, and eventually replicated the model to other sports.
It is now known as IMG Academies, an over 400-acre complex that has branched out into eight sports.
Like the United States, it did not take long to see other places in the World to turn to tennis academies. Today, some of the top players in the world are training at the Nadal Tennis Academy in Spain, most recently we are seeing the meteoric rise of number four player in the world, Carlos Alcaraz, a student of the Nadal Academy and I am sure Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic will also lead efforts to start these types of programs in their respective home countries, Switzerland and Serbia, if not already.
Bollettieri is the recipient of dozens of regional and national awards. In 1999 The Sporting Life listed him in the top 25 people who have influenced tennis in the past century. In 2000, Tennis Magazine named him as one of the 50 Most Influential People in Tennis.
MY PERSONAL CONNECTION TO NICK
As a competitive Junior Tennis Player growing up in Charleston, West Virginia, one of my close family friends, and community leader, Bill Wymer, introduced a few of us to Nick by taking a group of tennis families to train at the Nick Bolleterri Tennis Academy in the Summer of 1984. Mr. Wymer, an entrepeneur, had opened and ran a number of tennis clubs and had known Nick from his early days at the Colony Beach and Tennis Resort.
Training at the Academy was an amazing experience. During that summer, I would love seeing with my own eyes the always-suntanned Bollettieri teaching lessons bare-chested and with wrap-around Oakley sunglasses, which was his trademark look.
As a former collegiate tennis player and sports entrepreneur, I grew fond of Nick through the years, inspired by his remarkable keynote speeches at Tennis Conferences and his passion for life. I remember him reminding all of us that he would start his day at 5 am, work out, grab a coffee, and would coac and working with his students until 9 pm or even later.
He did it ever day, seven days a week, for over 40 years.
Although Nick would charge over $800.00 per hour for private lessons to students, and visitors to the Academy, he would eventually teach for free at the end of his career, contributing as much as he could to a number of charities he supported.
Had it not been for Nick and his team, there would have never been an Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Monica Seles, and others, who graced he tennis world with not only great shot making, but also led US Tennis to dominate the sport for much of the 1990’s.
MY WEST VIRGINIA AND CARY CONNECTION TO BOLLETERRI
In the Summer of 2001, I was visiting the Green Hope Tennis Courts, and was hitting some balls.
While I was on the Court, I was approached by a tennis coach, giving lessons. His name was Butch Young, a tennis pro who had worked for Nick at the IMG Bolleterri Academy for much if the eighties and early nineties. He saw my West Virginia Cap, and shirt, and asked me if I knew Bill Wymer from West Virginia. I told him that I grew up with his sons, played junior tennis with them and then he explained one of Mr. Wymer’s friends, Nick Bolleterri, was an advisor to the Management Company, which would be operating the new Tennis Center in Cary, which would be opening in a few months.
Nick had called Butch and basically ordered him to leave his job in California, where he was working with young coaches Cameron Moore and Keith Snavely for another tennis legendary Coach, Vic Braden in Southern California to run and work at a world class tennis center he was advising in Cary. Despite declining the offer, the next week Butch found himself driving from California with Cameron and Keith to arrive at a few tennis courts, with no club house, and construction.
Only the persuasive Godfather of tennis could get these coaches to make the long haul from the West to come to a tennis facility, only partially completed.
As Butch would go on to remind me, the word No was not a part of Nick’s Vocabulary. However, to this day, Butch was grateful, to come to Cary, where he met his wife, Millie, and enjoys his life in the Old North State.
As we continued our conversation, he said they were looking for a teaching professional and someone who could run Business Development and Corporate Partnerships for the Tennis Center, and since I was in between jobs, I told him I was interested.
The next thing I know, I joined the team, and a few months later, I was working for Nick and the management team he was advising, New York Tennis.
On August 17, 2022, Nick attended the dedication ceremony of the Tennis Center, and offered free clinics and hitting sessions and spent a few days with us. It was amazing to learn about his experiences training champions and it was a true honor to get to know one of the greatest tennis coaches who ever lived. One of the highlights for me was having a steak dinner with Nick and the Cary Tennis Center staff and hearing all his stories. He was a real character.
Over the next few years, I worked with Coaches Butch Young, Cameron Moore, Keith Snavely, and his management team to launch the Cary Tennis Center, (now Cary Tennis Park) which is now, also a world class USTA Training facility under the leadership and guidance of Sean Ferreira. During my time at the Cary Tennis Center. I did get to communicate and work with Nick, getting his advice on our positioning in the Triangle Corporate Entertainment and Sports Market.
Eventually, the Town of Cary took over the Center, and I ended up starting my own Sports Management company, and somehow, ended up in Politics. Butch and Cameron would join my firm TSG ACADEMIES, which ran tennis and sports programs for Triangle corporations and cities. I founded TSG Based on Nick’s advice that the IMG concept of sports academies would work well on Corporate Campuses and municipal facilities. Based on Nick’s advice, TSG began with tennis camps and programs at many Triangle Companies, including SAS, Cisco, IBM, GSK, and a number of athletic facilities in the region. Like IMG, we expanded offering to other sports, and we were able to grow a thriving company in the region.
After I won a seat on the Morrisville Town Council, I dissolved TSG and Butch, Cameron and I went our separate ways and we lost touch for about 12 years.
Fast forward to 2019, and my son, Rayan was training at the Cameron Moore Tennis Academy under the coaching of Coach Butch and Cameron. After two years in the program, he made the Mens Varsity Team at Panther Creek, and enjoys the game immensely.
An ironic and amazing twist to the story.
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WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM NICK IN THE GAME OF LIFE ?
On a personal note, Nick Bolleterri inspired me to appreciate that in the game of life, if you put in the time, live every minute with passion and determination, and give your best with every shot you can take, there is no limit to the impact you can have on our career and the world. I have tried my best to live by these ideals, not only on the court during my junior and college tennis career, but also with my relationships, business and now public service.
I challenge entrepreneurs to be inspired that the idea of giving tennis lessons through an Academy would go on to be such a game changing innovation.
A simple idea with execution, is the best recipe for success in business and life. There is not better example of this truth than Nick Bolleterri.
After I left Cary Tennis Center. I ran into Nick a few times at the US Open, and followed him and his insights over the years. Since there were no i phones at the time, I cannot find any pictures but am trying to dig some up.
I will miss him in the sport, as we all will . Tennis Great Andre Agassi summed it up so well in the following words:
“Our dear friend, Nick Bollettieri, graduated from us last night,” said Agassi. “He gave so many a chance to live their dream.
I encourage all entrepreneurs and leaders in our region to try to live their lives like Nick Bolleterri, never afraid to take or hit their winning shot and for always appreciating the spirit of healthy competition.
I hope he and Bill Wymer reconnect in Heaven.
These were great men who truly lived every minute of their lives, and inspired me to live my life like a tennis match, one shot at a time, to develop and harness your strengths and weapons (best shots) and to compete with all of your heart!
Thank you for leaving it all on the Court in the Game of Life.
We will miss you but never forget you and you will live in my heart forever.
