World Team Tennis (1975-1978)
TeamTennis (1983)
Tombstone
Born: November 1974 – The Detroit Loves relocate to Indianapolis, IN
Folded: November 9, 1978
Re-Born: November 23, 1982 – Team Tennis expansion franchise
Folded Again: 1983
First Match (original franchise): May 1, 1975 (L 23-22 vs. Pittsburgh Triangles)
Last Match (original franchise): August 13, 1978 (W 28-23 vs. Anaheim Oranges)
WTT Championships: None
Arenas
1975-1978: Indiana Convention Center (7,200)11978 World Team Tennis Media Guide
Opened: 1972
1975-1978: Market Square Arena (17,000)21978 World Team Tennis Media Guide
Opened: 1974
Demolished: 2001
1983: None (played all games on road)
Marketing
Team Colors: Green, Burgundy & Gold31978 World Team Tennis Media Guide
Ownership
Owners:
- 1975-1976: William Bereman & Dan Domont
- 1977-1978: Larry Noble & William Bereman
- 1983: ?
Attendance
Tap (mobile) or mouse over chart for figures. Tilting your mobile device may offer better viewing.
Source:
Craig, Jack. “Lobsters to quit WTT for a year”. The Globe (Boston, MA). October 28, 1978
Trophy Case
WTT Female Rookie-of-the-Year
- 1977: Sue Barker
Our Favorite Stuff
Indiana Loves Team Tennis
Logo T-Shirt
“I emphatically believe team depth can beat individual brilliance,” Loves owner Bill Bereman announced on the occasion of his club’s first victory in May 1975. The Loves survived four years in World Team Tennis from 1975 to 1978. True to Bereman’s philosophy, the team had few stars. Vitas Gerulaitis was the biggest name and lasted just one season. But the owner’s faith in depth never quite bore out – the Loves finished with a losing record every year.
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Background
The Indiana Loves were a four-year member of Billie Jean King’s kooky, colorful World Team Tennis experiment during the mid-1970’s. The franchise started out as the Detroit Loves in WTT’s inaugural season of 1974, but was unsuccessful in the Motor City. At the end of the season, the original owners sold out to Indianapolis businessman and tennis aficionado William Bereman, who kept the Loves name and moved the club to Indianapolis’ Market Square Arena for the 1975 campaign.
The Loves’ main attraction was the young Lithuanian-American golden boy Vitas Gerulaitis. Gerulaitis came to Indiana for the 1977 season after the Pittsburgh Triangles, his original WTT employer, went out of business. Gerulaitis was 23 years old at the time and coming into his own as a rising star in both the singles and doubles game. He won the Australian Open in 1977 (in what would be his only Grand Slam singles title) and was a semi-finalist at Wimbledon in 1977 and 1978. Gerulaitis’ sister Ruta Gerulaitis also played for the Loves.
The Loves also featured a handful of top notch doubles players, including Aussies Allan Stone (also the Loves’ coach for all four seasons), Dianne Fromholtz and Geoff Masters.
Demise and Revival
The Loves had a losing record in all four seasons they played in Indianapolis, bottoming out in World Team Tennis’ final season of 1978 with a last place 13-31 record. Shortly after the 1978 season concluded, eight of the ten World Team Tennis franchises folded causing the demise of the league.
A re-organized, lower-budget version of World Team Tennis came back in 1981. In November 1982, former owner Bill Bereman announced that the Loves would return to the revived league in July 1983 after a four year absence. Bereman announced plans to play at the 8,000-seat Indianapolis Sports Center.
I’m not sure what became of Bereman after that announcement. A team did play under the Indiana Loves name the following summer, but it never set foot in the state of Indiana. The Loves played the entire 1983 Team Tennis season as a travel team in other league cities and then quietly went out of business once and for all.
Indiana Loves 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.
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In Memoriam
Vitas Gerulaitis died of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning at a friend’s home on September 17, 1994. He was 40. New York Times obituary.
Loves Owner & President Bill Bereman passed away in April 1996 at age 54.
Former Loves Director of Publicity Jep Cadou died on October 21, 2003 at age 80.
Downloads
5-1-1975 Indiana Loves vs. Pittsburgh Triangles Inaugural Game Program
5-1-1975 Indiana Loves vs. Pittsburgh Triangles Program
6-16-1978 Loves vs. Phoenix Racquets Game Notes
Links
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