Running into old friends...

Random meetings of old acquaintances is one of life's little joys. For the last 5 years at the annual Racquet Club NCAA Invitational Tournament, I've been a supporter of my old grad school, Pepperdine University and their women's tennis team. In between our matches I happened to be at the main stadium court watching a match involving Texas A&M and I noticed their coach, who looked fairly familiar, but at first I couldn't be sure.

Then it dawned on me that the coach was Bobby McKinley, who I had known at Trinity University. I hadn't seen Bob since an alunmi weekend long ago. Bob is now the Asst. Coach of Tennis for A&M, but is a tennis legend in his own right.

Bobby was a four-time All-American and was a team captain for our Trinity team which won the 1972 NCAA Championships. He was later the Coach at Trinity and the NCAA Coach of the Year in 1977. He was the No. 1-ranked Junior Tennis Player in the United States at one time. He reached the Round of 16 at Wimbledon in 1973, reached the doubles semifinals at the U.S. Open in 1972 and was part of the No. 2-ranked men's doubles team in the USA in 1972. At the time of his retirement, McKinley was ranked No. 50 in singles on the ATP Tour. His brother, Chuck McKinley, won the Wimbledon Men's Championship in 1963.