John Powless
John Powless – A Fond Remembrance
May 2021
Senior tennis lost one of its greatest ambassadors last week [May 20, 2021] with the passing of John Powless at age 88. His tennis life goes back decades to his beginnings in tiny Flora, Illinois, where his father KO (or Cecil, or CJ) was instrumental in getting some tennis courts built in the local park —and founding the Frog Island Tennis Club! Flora became an Illinois tennis hotbed.
I’ve known John throughout most of my years in tennis. I first encountered him in the finals of the National Clay Father/Son in 1958 when I was 15 and John was 25. He was a strapping 6’5,” and I was barely more than 5 feet tall. Not surprisingly, the Powlesses prevailed. The next time Dad and I went to play the Flora Open, a huge billboard at the edge of town announced, “Flora – Home of the National Father/Son Champions!” (If Dad and I had won, we might have gotten an inch of coverage in our local St. Louis newspaper!)
At that point, John had already had a storied career as a multi-sport athlete in high school and then at Murray State. He went undefeated in three years of varsity tennis there and also starred on the basketball team. After graduation, he became Assistant Basketball Coach at the University of Cincinnati, a national championship team that included Oscar Robertson, and twice won the NCAA title.
But he had not forsaken tennis! John also became the coach of the U.S. Junior Davis Cup team and traveled the summer circuit as it existed then with future stars like Arthur Ashe, Charlie Pasarell, and Stan Smith under his wing.
I was also on those teams, and John was the perfect coach for us. He was knowledgeable, perceptive about what each of us needed to work on, and friendly with everyone we encountered. One year at Southhampton, one of the patrician clubs on the eastern grass-court circuit, John had us all dressed up in our JDC blazers for the famous Saturday night party. I remember seeing him on the veranda, schmoozing with the club president, meanwhile scratching his privates and kicking his leg. “You can take the boy out of the country, but….” Even after years of traveling the world, John never lost that unpretentious mid-western country-boy flavor.
After World War II, a lot of the tennis-playing veterans in the U.S. had banded together to form Super Senior Tennis – SST. C. Alphonso Smith was their leader for years, and at some point, he began to look around for a worthy successor. John was the ideal choice. He knew just about everybody, was friendly with everyone, and by that time was dedicated to senior tennis. John took the reins and has been the flag-bearer for men’s senior tennis in the decades ever since.
During that time, John founded the John Powless Tennis Center, became the moving force behind the Gordon Trophy (the team competition between U.S. and Canada), and continued playing competitively. Eventually, John began another iteration as a USTA Team Captain, going overseas with some of the age-group teams for the ITF World Team Championships. Again, I was fortunate to play on several of his teams, and I think he was absolutely the best captain the USTA ever had. Because he knew all the players, he had a knack for selecting lineups and coaching on-court. As a result, he was responsible for multiple World Championship team titles coming back to the U.S.
But his winning record nowhere near told the whole story of his contribution to tennis. Frequently he would arrange for local juniors to come to clinics we as a team would put on. He would hand out rackets to kids who couldn’t afford socks. The gleam in their eyes was payment enough for John. And it made heroes out of Team USA, so we always had a lot of locals pulling for us.
In the meantime, his own tennis just kept getting stronger. He loved to hit balls! He won 78 USTA National Championships, including 21 gold balls with his perennial doubles partner Dick Doss, both in the Top Ten all-time. His best world rankings occurred in the older age groups: he was ranked #1 in the world in the 70’s, 75’s, 80’s, and 85’s. So all-encompassing were his contributions and accomplishments that he was named “U.S. Senior Player of the Millennium.” It doesn’t get much better than that!
Like most senior tennis players, John dealt with various injuries, ailments, and re-habs over the years. He had knee replacements, surgeries on both shoulders, and a bout with colon cancer five years ago. One time during that period of chemo treatments, I called his son Jason to find out whether John was strong enough to talk on the phone. I found out that he was in South America playing a tournament….which he won!
All of John’s titles and awards don’t come close to making the measure of the man. Even more significant was his ability to spread joy and exude optimism, and promote the game he loved. He was a raconteur par excellence, and never, to anyone’s recollection, did he ever run out of stories. He had friends all over the world and treated everyone the same – the stars of the game, players who were playing their first national tournament, and club members in Madison.
He did so many things that we’ll never hear about, but the people he touched will never forget. Thank you, John, for giving me a glimpse of what A Life Well Played, the title of his biography by Dan Smith, looks like from up close!