In long career, coach delivered aces, titles
When the Stanford men’s tennis team clinched the national title in 1978, its head coach wasn’t in the mood for congratulations. He put a towel over his bowed head and thought to himself, “Thank God we didn’t self-destruct.”
That team, led by John McEnroe, Bill Maze, Perry Wright and Matt Mitchell, was often at war with itself, according to coach Dick Gould.
Dick Gould, who retired last week, arrived at Stanford as a student in 1961, became the tennis coach in 1966 and was named director of tennis in 2004.
“I loved them, and they were good friends,” he said. “But they were so competitive that on any one day, a guy would blow up at another guy, just in a rally. They always wanted to beat each other, to the extreme.”
Gould’s teams won 17 NCAA team titles and had 50 AllAmericans, nine of whom went on to rank in the top 15 in the world, including McEnroe, brothers Sandy and Gene Mayer, Roscoe Tanner and Tim
Mayotte.
A lot of trees on the Stanford campus were saplings when Gould arrived as a student 57 years ago. He didn’t leave until he retired last week, having spent 38 years as the head coach and 14 more as director of tennis.
When women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer arrived on the Farm in 1985, Gould already had been the tennis coach for 19 years. When Mark Marquess, who retired last year as baseball coach, took over in 1977, Gould already had won two national team titles and was on his way to a third.
Gould, 80, is now an unpaid adviser to a Palo Alto nonprofit that raises awareness of concussions among teenage athletes.
Including all sports, Stanford leads the country in NCAA team titles with 115. But when Gould’s 1973 team won its first title, it was the school’s first since 1967 (men’s swimming) and second since 1953 (men’s golf ).
Early on, Gould had to fight the prevailing notion that Stanford students couldn’t succeed in sports. Many on the campus thought the school should de-emphasize sports.
“I heard very often, ‘You can’t be smart and be a great athlete. It takes too much time to do one, let alone two.’ I heard it ad nauseam,” Gould said. “I didn’t really buy into that.”
John Ralston, who coached Stanford’s football team to back-to-back Rose Bowl wins in 1970-71 on his way to the College Football Hall of Fame, “can’t get enough credit for changing the culture” at Stanford, Gould said. “He never made excuses. He was one of the most positive guys I’ve ever met. I learned a ton from him.”
McEnroe, of course, was Gould’s greatest player. He stayed at Stanford just one year before embarking on a spectacular pro career.
“We were lucky to have him,” Gould said. “He had already been to the semis at Wimbledon,” losing to Jimmy Connors in four sets.
Gould has the distinction of originating personal seat licenses to help pay for construction of the Taube Family Tennis Stadium. Since then, the idea has helped finance many athletic venues, including AT&T Park.
“Our whole stadium was financed by contributions,” Gould said. “I’m really proud of that. I’m also proud that my former players were really supportive of it.”
During an interview with The Chronicle, he touched on several other subjects:
He said he felt “a little violated in a way’’ that Stanford has lost the Bank of the West Tournament. “It was a great public event, a great women’s event. It was really well done. I’m sorry the plug was pulled.”
The university dramatically increased the rent the organizers, IMG, had to pay for the event, he said. It ran 22 years, making it the longest-running women-only tournament in the U.S. It is headed to San Jose under a new corporate sponsor. Gould said the Bank of the West was told by its French parent company to switch its sponsorship to the Indian Wells tournament.
Men’s pro tennis should switch to three sets rather than five, he said. The idea has been talked about for years, partly for the sake of prolonging players’ careers. Gould thinks it would be better for TV viewers as well. “It’s too long to watch,” he said.
On-court coaching during breaks shouldn’t be allowed in the women’s game, he said, because it gives an unfair advantage to the top-rated players who can afford to have their coaches travel with them.
He doesn’t think schools should pay athletes. “They’re lucky to be trained for a profession, and they’re getting the best coaching and all kinds of benefits as it is,” he said.
For many years, Stanford’s tennis players had the benefit of a man who was sure, before many others were, that they could be the best in the country.