Before the US Open got underway this week, PALMER’s Palm Beach editor Christine Schott was inducted into the Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame, following in the footsteps of Billy Jean King, John McEnroe, and more. The ceremony, which took place on Friday, featured a who’s who of tennis insiders at the River Club in New York. We followed up with her to learn about her and her family’s deep roots in the sport’s history.
When did you start playing tennis?
I have played tennis all my life. My grandmother, Emily Baker Lovell, learned how to play in the 1920s. And my grandfather, Frederick V. Krais, Sr., played and won the USTA Eastern Father-Son Clay Courts with my dad in 1954 and ’57. He was also one of the founding members of the Eastern Tennis Umpires Association. My dad captured the Boys’ National 18s Doubles title in 1939, and went on to play in the Nationals (now the U.S. Open) in 1940 when it was an amateur event held at the West Side Tennis Club. He was invited to play Wimbledon that year too, but it was cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II. He enlisted instead.
After the war, he continued to play. I recently found a draw sheet from the Invitational at Newport Casino showing that both he and Stanley Rumbough played in it in 1947. (Rumbough was married to actress Dina Merrill, whose mother Marjorie Merriweather Post built Mar-a-Lago.) When my dad died in 2007, my daughters were training at the Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, and Jimmy Evert—Chrissie’s dad—made a special trip up from Fort Lauderdale to see me. He recounted how my dad had beaten him on the wood courts of the Park Avenue Armory when they were both playing in the 18s.
Were there plans for you to follow in his footsteps?
I played tournaments growing up. But he really just wanted me to be good enough so that, no matter where I went in the world, I’d always be invited to play. He did not intend for me to become a professional. It was really about having fun and getting some exercise. I hope I’ve instilled that in my daughters as well. One of my proudest moments was when my daughter, Whitney, was awarded the Kae Jones Sportsmanship Award at the Mayor’s Cup in NYC. The umpires got together and made the decision unbeknownst to me. That was a special moment, as was accepting this award.
Christine Schott and her father, teaching her to read the draw at Forest Hills in 1970.
When did you first visit Forest Hills?
My dad first took me to the matches when I was about seven. He and my uncle, Jack March, both played there. But with wins over Welby Van Horne, Bill Tilden, and Gene Mako, Jack wasn’t interested in playing for silver trophies. He wanted to make money. So, he gathered his pals Don Budge, Pancho Gonzales, Lew Hoad, Pancho Segura, Tony Trabert, Fred Perry, and Bobby Riggs and started a pro tour of sorts which was the precursor to the ATP. In 1958, he invited a player named Robert Ryland to compete in his tournament in Cleveland, Ohio. By accepting, he became the very first Black tennis professional. When Arthur Ashe was growing up, Bob was his idol.
Is it true Bobby Riggs and Fred Perry taught you to play?
Yes! Mr. Perry taught me to serve while running a tennis clinic with my Uncle Jack at a resort in Florida. But Bobby Riggs actually taught me to play backgammon in between playing tennis matches with my dad, Jack, and Ted Withall, the legendary director of tennis who succeeded Fred Perry at the Boca Raton Resort and Club in 1957.
What made you so passionate about saving the stadium at Forest Hills?
I was a board member of the West Side Tennis Club. With a childhood surrounded by some of the greatest tennis players of their time, you can only imagine how upset I was when we were asked to consider a developer’s proposal to demolish the stadium and build condos. To me, this was heresy! These were the hallowed courts where Althea Gibson broke the color barrier; Arthur Ashe became the first Black man to win a Grand Slam; Billie Jean King fought for equal pay for women; and where Renée Richards competed as the first transgender player.
Schott at the awards ceremony with her daughters. Photo by Christine Ashburn Photography.
I understood how the idea could generate support. After all, the stadium sat vacant for years since the US Open moved from Forest Hills in 1977. But with all that history, I was like, “How can we tear down this iconic stadium?’” I wrote letters to Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe (Arthur Ashe’s widow), then-mayor Michael Bloomberg, former mayor David Dinkins, and the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. Then I started blogging about it for The Queens Ledger’s Forest Hills Gardens Blog. To my surprise the posts went viral. Major media outlets like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Daily News, and NY1 started following the story. The rest is history.
What is happening with the Stadium today?
It’s buzzing. The site has hosted World Team Tennis matches, a Davis Cup event, a challenger, and this past week a U.T.S.Tour event with Tsitsipas, Kyrigos, and others. Pitbull even performed music there! There’s an incredible history of music at the stadium. The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, and Diana Ross were some of the many artists who performed there in the ’60s and ’70s. It’s nice to see that all back again.
Do you still play tennis?
Yes, but not competitively anymore. I spent over a decade working with 1989 Eastern Tennis Hall of Famer Gene Scott at Tennis Week. I wore many different hats at the magazine, including serving as a tournament director for the USTA Men’s 35 National Grass Court Championships at the Meadow Club in Southampton, and, along with Lloyd Emanuel, running the Eastern Men’s 35 Grass Courts at Forest Hills. It was through this role that I connected Andres Fanjul with teaching pro Peter Bromley who played and won the Nationals together. Peter, is now of course the director of tennis at the Bath & Tennis Club in Palm Beach.
That was a really happy time for me. It was really about the players. They were all guys who had great games. Some played professionally, but most were lawyers and doctors who all knew each other from playing in the juniors, and were still playing against each other in their thirties, fifties, seventies, and beyond! It is really nice to see such camaraderie. Tennis is truly the sport of a lifetime.
