Tombstone
Born: February 6, 1975 – The Denver Racquets relocate to Phoenix, AZ
Folded: March 7, 1979
First Match: May 2, 1975 (L 30-21 vs. New York Sets)
Last Match: August 13, 1978 (L 26-22 @ Los Angeles Strings)
Bancroft Cup Championships: None
Arena
Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum (12,000)11978 World Team Tennis Media Guide
Opened: 1965
Marketing
Team Colors: Blue & Gold21978 World Team Tennis Media Guide
Ownership
Owners:
- 1975-1978: Jimmy Walker, Gary Walker & Reggie Jackson, et al.
- 1978: Jerry Simmons
Attendance
The Racquets led World Team Tennis in average game attendance in 1977 with an estimated average of 6,700 per match. We’re not including that figure in the chart below as of yet because it’s an unofficial press estimate, whereas the rest of the numbers in our incomplete chart are official league numbers.
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Sources:
- ASSOCIATED PRESS. “World Team Tennis attendance increases”. The Star-Tribune (Minneapolis, MN). August 21, 1976. (1974-1976 League figures)
- Stack, Jerry. “Hot WTT Could Cool Checkerdome”. The Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, MO). February 26, 1978 (1977 Racquets attendance rank & estimate)
- Craig, Jack. “Lobsters to quit WTT for a year”. The Globe (Boston, MA). October 28, 1978 (1978 Racquets figure)
Trophy Case
WTT Female Most Valuable Player
- 1976: Chris Evert
- 1977: Chris Evert
WTT Female Rookie-of-the-Year
- 1976: Chris Evert
WTT Executive-of-the-Year
- 1976: Jimmy Walker
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Background
The Phoenix Racquets were a popular entry in the original World Team Tennis (WTT) league of the 1970’s. The co-ed promotion lured top tour pros into major American hockey & basketball arenas for an ambitious 44-match spring/summer schedule. The league attracted many of the best players of the 1970’s, including Billie Jean King (a league co-founder), Jimmy Connors, Martina Navratilova, Evonne Goolagong, Bjorn Borg and many others.
The Phoenix franchise started out in Denver during WTT’s debut season in 1974 and won the league’s first championship. In February 1975, a Phoenix-based investor group purchased the Denver Racquets and announced the team would move to the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum for the 1977 WTT season. The sale earned national headlines because Oakland A’s slugger Reggie Jackson was named as Chairman and principal owner of the now-Phoenix Racquets. Jackson soon receded into the background, however. Jackson’s agent, Gary Walker, and his brother Jimmy were the active owners until they sold the club early in the Racquet’s fourth and final season.
Chris Evert
The Racquets signature attraction was American superstar Chris Evert, the world’s #1 ranked female player, who signed a two-year contract with the team in November 1975. Evert’s contract paid a rumored $160,000 per season, reportedly the highest salary in WTT. By that time, the 21-year old Evert was already a Wimbledon, French Open and U.S. Open champion. She would win both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open for a second time during the summer of 1976 while competing for the Racquets in between those Grand Slam competitions.
The 1976 Racquets had the second best record in WTT (30-14). Evert was the league’s top-ranked women’s singles player and earned Female MVP and Female Rookie-of-the-Year honors. The Racquets lost to the Golden Gaters, WTT’s Bay Area franchise, in the playoff semi-finals.
The Racquets won the WTT West Division for the second straight year in 1977. Evert and the Racquets drew strong crowds in Phoenix. On August 4 1977, the Racquets pulled a franchise record crowd of 10,515 at Veterans Memorial Coliseum for a match against Martina Navratilova and the Boston Lobsters. Three weeks later, the Racquets set a new record when 11,294 turned out for the deciding game of the 1977 WTT championship series against the New York Apples at the Coliseum. 1977 Wimbledon champ Virginia Wade of the Sets dominated Evert 6-0, setting the tone for a two-game sweep of the series by the New Yorkers.
The End
Evert’s two-year deal expired after the 1977 season. She returned to World Team Tennis in 1978, but elected to sign with Phoenix’s West Division rivals the Los Angeles Strings instead of return to Arizona. Without Evert, the Racquets fell to last place in the West with a 14-30 record. Early in the 1978 season, founding owners Jimmy and Gary Walker sold the Racquets to local petroleum dealer Jerry Simmons.
Eight of WTT’s ten franchises folded in the fall of 1978. The Phoenix Racquets, along with the Golden Gaters, put on a brave face and vowed to forge ahead with a 1979 season. But with no expansion franchises waiting in the wings, the Racquets bowed to reality and folded in March 1979.
After two years off, a re-booted World Team Tennis launched in 1981 and continues to play to this day. Phoenix has hosted two short-lived entries in the modern-day WTT, the Sunsets (1982) and the Smash (1992-1994).
Trivia
Dean Martin, Jr., son of Rat Pack crooner Dean Martin, played for the Racquets during the 1978 season.
Phoenix Racquets Shop
Editor's Pick
Bustin' Balls
World Team Tennis 1974-1978, Pro Sports, Pop Culture & Progressive Politics
by Steven Blush
Bustin’ Balls tells the strange but true story of World Team Tennis (1974-1978) that attempted to transform the prim and proper individual sport of tennis into a rowdy blue-collar league. Billie Jean King and her partners merged feminism and civil rights with queer lifestyle, pop culture and a progressive political agenda to create a dazzling platform for the finest tennis players of the day to become overnight stars.
When you make a purchase through an affiliate link like this one, Fun While It Lasted earns a commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!
In Memoriam
Dean Martin Jr. (Racquets ’78) died in a plane crash while piloting on F-4 Phantom II jet during California Air National Guard duty on March 21, 1987. He was 35 years old. New York Times coverage.
Downloads
1976 Racquets Player Roster
1976 Phoenix Racquets Player Roster
Links
“Disorder on the Court“, Douglas Towne, Phoenix Magazine, February 1, 2019
World Team Tennis Media Guides
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One Response
“Join The Net Set” – LOL