Twenty-four-year-old Wilmer Allison stunned the tennis world on June 28, 1930 by beating the defending singles title-holder in straight sets in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon.
An outstanding high school athlete in Fort Worth, Wilmer was thrilled to death when a Texas League team offered him a professional contract. But his father would not give his consent for his son to play any sport for money, and that was the end of a promising baseball career.
Turning to tennis at the ripe old age of 17, Wilmer quickly mastered the new game. In no time at all, he was clobbering kids who grew up thinking tennis elbow was a childhood ailment as common as measles.
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