TENNIS AND AMERICA, THANK YOU
Memoirs of a Czech Refugee, 1948
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“Mister, Do You Play Tennis?” The question which changed my life forever. At that time of day in 1948, the Palmengarten Tennis Club was deserted. I found a place to sit and rest overlooking the courts. I thought, “What a waste. Nobody is on them.” Not long after I sat down, a gentleman who looked to be in his sixties walked over from the clubhouse. He came over to me and asked me politely in German, “Mister, do you play tennis?” Yes, I play a little bit, I replied. “If you could do me a favor,” he said. “There is an American army captain who is looking for someone to play with.” He introduced himself as the caretaker of the club. I told him that I did not have tennis clothes or a racket with me, so he took me to the locker room and got me a pair of shorts and an old racket. I walked out onto the court, and minutes later, a soldier in a US captain’s uniform arrived. He was very short and bald, and he kept two Doberman pinschers tied up at the next tennis court. He introduced himself as Captain Atlas. I found out after a few days that Captain Atlas managed all the post exchanges (PXs), stores where Allied soldiers and their families could buy everything from food to clothing and household items. We played for an hour, and he seemed to enjoy himself very much. As soon as we finished, he asked me to play again the next day. Then he handed me two scripts, legal $ currency for American soldiers and other Allied persons in occupied Germany. He must have been under the impression that I was a club pro. It was manna from heaven. With these scripts, I could buy whatever I needed: nuts and bolts or diamond rings. I was able to go to a PX snack bar inside Palmengarten Park and within walking distance from the tennis club. I got a full meal with coffee for 80 cents and candy for another 20 cents. I also bought a carton of cigarettes for one dollar, which I later took downtown and sold for about thirty deutsche marks. At that time, the exchange rate was fifteen marks to a dollar, so I had my two dollars back and then some. That was a very good day. The groundskeeper at the club told me that a number of high-ranking British, American, and French nationals had offices right around the corner at IG Farben building and that they often asked him if there were someone around to hit with. Since all Allied personnel were automatically members of the tennis club and were always looking for a game, like Captain Atlas, I received a letter from US Army headquarters, Special Service Division, permitting me to teach there as a non-salaried employee whenever I liked and to charge for the time. It was my mother who had insisted that I take lessons as a fourteen-year-old, but it was the war that turned my life upside down and landed me in a foreign country with a groundskeeper, who accidentally gave me my start in a tennis career. The ingredients came together into an unlikely recipe for a lifetime of rich experiences, incredible travel, and interesting people.
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Jack Kramer: “Freddie, nobody wants us.” 1966 In 1966, when I had the Thirty-Fourth Street armory, Jack Kramer, the world famous player and promoter, approached me and asked me to put up fifteen thousand dollars in prize money for a tournament he wanted to organize early in 1967. He had eight professionals set to go but no place to host the tournament and no prize money to offer. “Freddie, nobody wants us,” Kramer said. “Madison Square Garden does not want us. White Plains does not want us.” I could not believe that a great and famous player like Jack Kramer was coming to me, an unknown immigrant, to ask if I would be interested in promoting the tournament. I thought about it for a little less than a minute, knew instantly that we could accommodate nearly four thousand people in the armory, and determined that I would make it happen. A few days later, I received a letter of confirmation from his manager, Mr. Wills. The players he was proposing were the most famous names in the game. We just needed to come up with the prize money. Since we did not have anyone who could sponsor us, I put up five thousand dollars myself and asked two of my friends—Lieberman, vice president of a gas company, and Zdenek Capek, the engineer friend who helped me design the roll-up mats for the armory—to invest five thousand dollars each. I can still name the singles draw from the top down: Rod Laver, Fred Stolle, Dennis Ralston, Butch Buchholz, Pancho Gonzalez, Pierre Barthes, Mike Davis, Andres Gimeno, Pancho Segura, and Cliff Drysdale. No one was willing to underwrite the event.
About the Author
* Freddie Botur was born as Vratislav Botur in Ostrava, Czech republic 1922. As Czech refugee he had a job with the US Army special service, playing tennis at the Palmengarten T.C in Frankfurt, that was his first exposure using tennis. He migrated to Australia where he took odd jobs to survive, but continued to play tennis. He became occasional hitter with professionals for Harry Hopman. Freddie migrated to the United States in 1952. His first job was in Westchester, NY at the New Rochelle Shore Club. Winning a local Tennis Teachers tournament, Freddie was offered a job at The River Club in Manhattan. He taught there for 12 years while simultaneously teaching at The Rockaway Hunting Club in Long Island during summer. Freddie opened Tennis Inc. in the Armory on 34th Street and Park Avenue in 1963 with 4 courts. He promoted the United States Professional tournaments and the Virginia Slims. He founded in 1972 Tennisport Inc. its doors was open on seven acres in Long Island City Queens over looking Manhattan. Boasting16 indoor courts and 14 outdoor courts. In between operating all his tennis clubs and new ventures in Wyoming, Freddie also participated in several senior tennis tournaments, including Wimbledon and the Us Open in Forest Hills. At the age of 55 he won the fifty-five singles, forty-five singles and fifty-five doubles with Tony Vincent all in the same year.