Guerry in college tennis Hall of Fame

Thursday, May 27, 2010

ATHENS, Ga. -- On the walls and displays in the ITA Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame are photos, rackets and other items honoring the legends of the game. Nearly every inch of the facility, located in the University of Georgia's Dan Magill Tennis Complex, features some type of memorabilia.

Near the entrance is the Jack Kramer Pro Staff racket John McEnroe, then a Stanford freshman, used to win the 1978 NCAA singles championship. There are also numerous photos of Arthur Ashe, an NCAA singles champion during his career at UCLA.

On the left when you enter the building is a display recognizing all of the Hall of Fame classes, including the 2010 group that features Zan Guerry.

A three-time All-American at Rice University (1969-71), Guerry's youthful picture is in between longtime South Carolina coach Kent DeMars and former University of Tennessee great Rodney Harmon, who won the 1980 NCAA doubles title.

Guerry, who still plays regularly when he's not running Chattem, said at Wednesday night's dinner honoring the class of 2010 that his time at Rice remains special.

"My four years at Rice were some of the best four years I've ever had," Guerry said. "We had a great team -- we finished second in the country twice and should have won one of the years.

"We never lost a match in our conference those four years, I made close friends, had great teammates and it was all a lot of fun."

Guerry's induction speech didn't draw the laughs like former Mississippi State standout Daniel Courcol -- Courcal, from France, recounted what it was like to move from Paris to Starkville, Miss. -- but he talked about how tennis is a game you can play for a lifetime. He also discussed the friendships it brought him and how it helped prepare him for the business world.

In the Hall of Fame building, the 2010 class display is right next to the 1990 and '91 classes, which means Guerry's photo is right next to those of fellow former Baylor School standouts Brian Gottfried and Roscoe Tanner.

Gottfried, a star at Trinity University, was inducted in 1990; Tanner, who hd a stellar career at Stanford, went in the following year.

Guerry graduated from Baylor in 1967, with Tanner and Gottfried following two years later. Guerry and Tanner were teammates and Gottfried enrolled at Baylor the year after Guerry graduated, so the three never played together.

"I got to know Brian really well in college because he was at Trinity and we played them all the time," Guerry said. "We had some great matches against Trinity during that time."

Curator Dan Magill, the legendary former Georgia coach, said he didn't think any school other than Baylor has three former players in the Hall of Fame.


Class of 2010

The ITA Collegiate Hall of Fame inducted its class of 2010 at a dinner on Wednesday. Among the inductees was local tennis great Zan Guerry, a three-time All-American at Rice University:

Mahesh Bhupathi, Ole Miss (player)

Daniel Courcol, Mississippi State (player)

Kent DeMars, South Carolina (coach)

Zan Guerry, Rice (player)

Rodney Harmon, Tennessee/SMU (player)

Jay Lapidus, Princeton/Duke (player/coach)

Leif Shiras, Princeton (player)

Gordon Smith, Georgia (contributor)

Craig Tiley, Illinois (coach)

Steve Wilkinson, Gustavus Adolphus College (coach)