REMINISCENCES OF THE CAPITOL HILL TENNIS CLUB, 1969-2024

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By Art Rynearson

I came to join the Capitol Hill Tennis Club (CHTC) by pure luck. The Club was in its charter year of existence when, in the fall of 1969, I chanced upon Club members playing and having a lot of fun on courts in East Potomac Park. They encouraged me to join and I wanted to but couldn’t as I was in town only temporarily as a House intern. But the idea had been planted so that, when I returned to DC after college, I did not require any further persuading. My colleague at the Library of Congress, Ed Knight, invited me to a crowded reception for new Club members held on the Hill in the spring of 1972, and I was hooked. Little did I know then that the Club would play a major role in my life for most of the next 52 years.

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The Club at that time was quite large—more than 200 members—and included on paper quite a few Members of Congress. Among the Senators were Jack Javits, Lowell Weicker, Ted Stevens, Fritz Hollings, and Pete Domenici. Later Senators joining were John Breaux and Mary Landrieu. I never saw any of them at a CHTC event other than Senator Breaux. Reportedly, Senators would use our membership lists to arrange private tennis outings. In fact, Senator Stevens was once caught voting in the Senate while dressed in tennis attire, with only his head visible peeking out the Cloakroom door in order to not run afoul of the Senate chamber’s dress code. I am not sure with whom he had played!

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Even George H. W. Bush, as Vice President and thus an official of the Senate, was a nominal member of the Club. I never saw him at the Club, either, but his Senate administrative aide, Barbara Lowe, was quite active in the Club.

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House Members were a different matter. They would play with us and I remember having a number of games against Sonny Montgomery of Mississippi and Bob Kastenmeier of Wisconsin. I relished scoring points against Mr. Montgomery—nothing personal, just a staff vs. Members thing--and he was a good sport about it. House Speaker Tom Foley’s wife, Heather, was also a Club member and I have pleasant memories of extended conversations with her between games on hot summer afternoons.

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By the new Millennium the Club had lost all its Senate members and all but one of its House members. I am not sure why this happened but it could not have helped that fewer Members were staying in town on weekends. It really did not affect the Club. The job positions and status of our members never seemed to matter, and I never heard much “shop talk”. Our times on the courts were so much happier for being an escape from our Hill jobs. Club tennis was and is probably one of the few bipartisan activities in Washington.

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I played with the Club year ‘round, which meant, during the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s,  playing on the East Potomac Park Har-Tru (“green clay”) courts on a blazing hot Saturday afternoon in the summer and on the indoor courts at the Linden Hill Racquet Club on Pooks Hill Road in Bethesda in winter. Courts were rented by the Club for up to 3 or 4 hours each time.

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Most Club play was open tennis doubles with the rotation of waiting members after 1 set, 8, or 4 games, depending on the demand for court time. Club members came in a wide range of tennis skills and in a wide range of ages. Because of the rotation of waiting players onto the courts, the resulting tennis partners would often be a refreshing mix of older and younger, veteran and newbie players. With the large membership, it was not unusual to be playing with strangers.  Pre-conceived notions about who could do what on a tennis court were dangerous. A player of any age could turn out to be a 4.0 or better player. Watch out!

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There were other activities at the Club besides open tennis doubles. For many years stretching well into the 1990s, the Club maintained a tennis ladder whereby a member could challenge another member to a singles match and obtain a ranking based on the outcome. There were no prizes for high rankings, just a way to rate one’s play. There were also summer men’s and women’s tournaments, both singles and doubles. Not having a great singles game, I did not participate in the Ladder or the summer singles tournaments. I once was asked, however, to referee a match, and I soon discovered how popular one becomes when making line calls. I never ref’d again.

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The end of the summer season would be celebrated with a party at the courts. In addition, through much of the ‘80s and ‘90s, each fall the Club would hold a mixed doubles tournament at the Arlington Y, sometimes attended by Senator John Breaux of Louisiana, who was always a contender. Manae Fujishiro won this tournament in 1991, with its then prize of a free air ticket to France!

In the early 2000s, Club President Tim Johnson arranged for some Club members to play doubles at the Belle Haven Country Club on behalf of the children’s charity, the Foundation for Prader-Willi Research. Tim also arranged social tennis events that raised more than 1.2 million dollars for Multiple Myeloma Research, a disease to which he tragically succumbed.

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There were always “regulars” at summer tennis, more than can be named here, but perhaps our most memorable “regular”, other than the Congressmen and our presidents, was Peter Lu. Peter was head of the Club’s men’s team that competed against other Hill groups and was an excellent player, who could hit the ball with great touch. Peter liked to watch others play and when he saw a “moon ball” land way out of bounds, he liked to exclaim “Just Out!”. The men’s team ended with Peter’s passing in 2006.

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Among the regulars were the actual presidents of the Club, a series of fine players who did so much for the Club: Dick Gentry, Terry Morris, Lew Gulick, Ralph Orlik, George Cody (1989-92), Bill Gaymon (1993-95), Melissa Schulz/Melissa Schulz Bennett (1996-99), Tim Johnson (2000-17), and Julie Hasler (2018-present). We have also been aided for more than 40 years by the amiable and accommodating court staffer, Vernon Fenwick, at the East Potomac Park courts. In addition, during the early 2000s, tennis pro Will Warren conducted group lessons for the first 6 weeks of the summer season.

Club presidents each year had to grapple with a series of unenviable and thankless jobs: getting the members to pay their dues and respect Club rules; and booking courts for the season, with all the attendant problems of location, number of weeks, time of day, number of courts, variety of courts (hard or Har-Tru), and pricing. They handled these tasks behind the scenes so that most Club members were unaware of all the work involved.

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Amazingly, the presidents succeeded annually in making Club membership affordable, with the summer season costing as low as $10 and the winter season $60 annually for much of the 1970s. Inevitably dues increased but Club membership has always been highly affordable, a real source of pride for the Club.

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Winter tennis was held on Saturday nights, and the Club would fully occupy all 6 courts at the Linden Hill Racquet Club in Bethesda. Manae and Shinji Fujishiro were regulars at winter tennis and were terrific players. The Linden Hill courts were carpeted, something I remember well as I still carry the knee scar from slipping on the court one night. But, oh, those games were so much fun!

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With the dawn of the 21st century and the decline in maintenance of the East Potomac Park courts, the Club moved its summer tennis to beautiful courts at the Officers’ Club at Fort Myer. We owed this bit of luck to Terry Morris, who was also a member of the Officers’ Club. Our luck lasted for a number of years but by the end of 2015 Fort Myer decided to redevelop the land upon which those courts sat and sent us packing back to the East Potomac Park courts, where our times there switched to Sunday afternoons. But during our time at Fort Myer, Club president Tim Johnson began the very useful practice of conducting tennis drills beginning the hour ahead of open tennis play, a tradition that has continued. Tim was a superb, patient coach of tennis, a courageous and generous human being, and is very much missed.

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Meanwhile, our winter tennis operations had shifted out of Bethesda to the Bubble at East Potomac Park where our group had declined in size, and we occupied only 2 courts. The Bubble was known for its somewhat difficult lighting and could be cool in winter but, nevertheless, we had some wonderful games there.

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In 2022, Club vice president George Cody arranged for winter tennis to be played at the superior Arlington Y courts on Saturday afternoons, and this venue eventually supplanted the Bubble. Our winter tennis membership increased, and we now occupy 3 courts at the Y, a big improvement but still not enough to accommodate demand! Thanks, George!

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I remember one night at winter tennis in the Bubble, Manae Fujishiro turned to me and said “You know, I am still playing and I am now 80 years old”. It was a remarkable accomplishment, owed no doubt to Manae’s disciplined efforts to stay in great condition. She celebrated her 80th as she had done for several of her birthdays with cake and champagne that she brought to the court.

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When I played in May 2024 at age 75, I had hopes of going for Manae’s record, but, alas, it is not meant to be. Medical issues have forced my retirement from tennis. Although without a chance for the record, I do have my memories of many fun games and great players, some of whom sadly are no longer with us. These memories now appear like a dream to me. As Shakespeare’s Prospero said in The Tempest, “Our revels now are ended. These our actors…were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air”.

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And, yet, every spring, as has happened for the past 55 years, the tennis spirits return and inhabit new members of the Capitol Hill Tennis Club as they join returning members to discover and rediscover the excitement, satisfaction, and joy of playing tennis.

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 Those spirits will inhabit me, too, as I reminisce.