Pautsch picked for state’s tennis HOF
BELLA VISTA — Paul Pautsch of Bella Vista is to be inducted into the Arkansas Tennis Association Hall of Fame on Jan. 26.
“It’s very humbling. It’s the biggest honor you can receive in any career,” Pautsch said.
He said his father was a high school tennis state champion in 1938 and 1939, and tennis carried over into their family. They lived in a farming community and all the students in school played all of the sports, he said.
“I was fortunate to play tennis, baseball, football and hockey, but every time I would get done with a season I would lean back to tennis,” he said.
He played tennis throughout high school and a year in college, then he was drafted into the military and spent a number of years there. He played tennis some there.
When he got out of the military he coached his younger sister’s tennis team. At that time, he said, he really fell in love with the game.
“I knew I could make a difference. I understood the game. I became enthralled with the opportunity of coaching,” he said.
In 1984 in San Francisco he became friends with Dennis Van der Meer, who founded the Professional Tennis Registry. Pautsch became certified with the PTR and also with the United States Professional Tennis Association and became a coach. He went back to Fond du Lac, Wisc., and taught at a small club and the YMCA.
In 1986, Van der Meer called Pautsch and said there was a job opening with the Property Owners Association in Bella Vista and suggested he apply for it. Pautsch applied and the POA offered him the job. He started working for the POA in March of 1987.
“When I arrived it was a decent program,” Pautsch said. “I had a lot of ideas. We built a pretty decent program.
I’ve had great people who’ve helped me do this, great people who’ve been my assistants. I love teaching. I love coaching, I’m going to continue until I can’t do it anymore.”
While working for the POA, he has held other positions as well. He worked as Robert Cox’s assistant tennis coach at the University of Arkansas for six years, and during that time the university won two Southwest Conference championships, he said.
“I had the opportunity to work with one of the best coaches in the country,” Pautsch said, adding he learned a lot about coaching and working with students from Cox.
That work led to him getting involved with Bentonville High School as boys’ and girls’ head tennis coach. He said he got the tennis courts built at Memorial Park for the high school, then retired from that work after 22 years.
He was the men’s and women’s coach at John Brown University for six years.
“It was not a very good program when I took it over, and I built it into relevance. My assistant Mike Campbell took it over and is doing a heck of a job. He’s carried it to the next level,” he said.
Pautsch was instrumental in the first Phillips Pro Celebrity Classic, which evolved into the Cancer Challenge, he said.
“Sam Walton started it, and I ran the first tennis tournament. It’s one of the most rewarding things I’ve done in my life as far as giving back to the community,” he said.
Pautsch said he and his wife started a scholarship program at Bentonville High School and gave $44,000 to seniors on the tennis team over about 10 years.
He said it is traditional for another Hall of Fame member to call and notify the inductee that they have been selected, and Cox called him to tell him. He said since then he has received many congratulatory phone calls, including ones from students he has not heard from in more than 50 years.
“I never expected it. It’s very humbling. It’s quite an honor,” Pautsch said.