Tennis Courts


A view of the tennis courts looking toward Centennial Gym, taken in 1955.


 A set of tennis courts once stood on the site now occupied by Sutliff Hall and the Hartline Science Center. The University's tennis teams used them for matches and practices, and they were also open for general student recreation.  The courts were originally graded in the spring of 1935 as a government relief program during the Depression, at the same time as the athletic field.  The one set closest to Centennial Gym was removed when construction began on Sutliff Hall in 1958, and the others when work began on the Hartline Science Center in 1967.

The first tennis courts on campus were laid out in 1890 on the current site of the old commons, now the Bookstore Building.  They were removed when construction began on the commons in 1955.  A single court was on the lawn just to the north of the old gym, but by the early 1920s the training school playground was put in its place.  For five years there were no courts on campus, until a much larger set was completed in 1972 near Buckalew Place.  These were heavily used for 34 years until a parking lot replaced them in 2006.  Today one will find the tennis courts on the upper campus, which were finished that same year just to the west of the softball field.


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