Synopses & Reviews
Robert Lindley Lin Murray, a middle-distance runner and tennis player and a Phi Beta Kappa chemical engineer at Stanford University, went east after graduating in 1914 to play tennis. He beat the top intercollegiate players, won several tournaments, and earned a fourth place national ranking. Murray won the 1916 U.S. Indoor title and joined Hooker Electrochemical in Niagara Falls, New York. Reluctant to play in the 1917 and 1918 national championships due to wartime contracts, Murray was persuaded by Hooker 's president to play and he won them both, the latter over Bill Tilden. Murray rose through the ranks of Hooker to president, CEO, and chairman of the board and was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame a year before retiring. Leading into Murray 's exploits is a concise history of tennis, when and where the game was introduced to the United States, and American tennis through Lin Murray 's brief but brilliant career. Also included is a review of California tennis and the significant impact of its players during the second decade of the twentieth century. The book concludes with short biographies of Murray 's female and male contemporaries, before shorts and skirts replaced flannels and petticoats.
Synopsis
Robert Lindley Murray: Niagara Falls's Reluctant US Tennis Champion presents the biography of a Stanford University chemical engineer and middle-distance runner who conquered the world of tennis in the early part of the twentieth century. Sent east by Stanford in 1914, Robert Lindley Murray electrified the Eastern tennis community by beating top intercollegiate players, winning several tournaments, and earning fourth place in the national ranking. After winning the 1916 US Indoor title in February, he cast his lot with Hooker Electrochemical in Niagara Falls, New York, that September.Murray was reluctant to play in the 1917 and 1918 national championships due to wartime contracts, but Hooker's president persuaded him to play those events anyway. He won them both, the latter over Bill Tilden after only eight days' intense practice. This biography sheds light not only on Murray, but also on most of the outstanding male and female tennis players with whom he competed, as well as earlier tennis luminaries of a bygone era, before shorts and skirts replaced flannels and petticoats.