A Tennis Legend Leaves Us

I was very saddened to hear the recent news of Vic Braden’s passing. He’s one of those figures in our sport that I started following many years ago and always enjoyed seeing what he was up to. He was a pioneer in many ways and brought new dimensions to the sport that we all love. What follows is a brief bio for Mr Braden.

Victor Kenneth Braden, Jr. (August 2, 1929 – October 6, 2014) was an American tennis player, instructor and television broadcaster for the sport.

Biography

Braden was one of eight children born to Victor (1904-1973) and Mildred (née Mayes) Braden (1906-1968); both were natives of Claiborne County, Tennessee.

Introduced to tennis at age 12, he became good enough to earn invites to play in River Forest, Illinoisand in Milwaukee. He told Sports Illustrated in a 1976 interview that he once hitchhiked to Detroit to watch Don Budge play Bobby Riggs because he wanted to learn how Budge hit his backhand.

Braden attended Kalamazoo College, where he was captain of the tennis team, and won the league title in singles. He was awarded an honorary degree by his alma mater in 2008.

Vic Braden died of a heart attack on October 6, 2014 at the age of 85.

Career

Braden played professionally after graduating from Kalamazoo College in 1951 while serving as assistant basketball coach at the University of Toledo. Among those he played with on the tour were Jimmy Evert (father of Chris Evert) and George Richey (father of Cliff and Nancy Richey). After obtaining a master’s degree in psychology at UCLA and Cal State, Braden joined Jack Kramer on Kramer’s pro tour. He and Kramer later founded The Jack Kramer Club, where Braden served as the head tennis pro and developed the “tennis college” concept. In 1986, Kramer said, “One Vic Braden is worth a lot of champions in helping the sport. The [John] McEnroes, [Bjorn] Borgs, [Jimmy] Connors, they’ve been great. But I don’t think any one of them has created the interest in the sport Vic has.”