Southern Tennis Hall of Fame

 
Members of the Southern Tennis Hall of Fame, by excellence of their activities in and connection with Southern Tennis, have brought substantial recognition and esteem to themselves and to the USTA Southern Section. Inductees are annually enshrined into the Hall of Fame in January during the USTA Southern Section Annual Meeting.

In 2010, Georgia's Jerry Caldwell and Al Parker will be inducted into the Southern HOF.

Jerry Caldwell
Caldwell, of Madison, Ga., has been the quintessential adult doubles tennis player, coming into the game in his late teens. An All-City high school baseball and basketball player in Nashville, he talked his baseball coach into letting him play tennis along with baseball in his senior year and won the city’s high school doubles championship in his first tournament.

It’s been the world of adult tennis in which Caldwell has made his mark. Starting in 1970 in Atlanta, Caldwell began his dedication to high-level tennis. In 1986, he won the 1986 USTA National Men’s 45s Clay Court Doubles Championship and has been a national doubles finalist 11 times. He has won at least 25 Georgia championships and about 30 USTA Southern Section championships.

He has been ranked No. 1  in his age group once in the nation, about 10 times in the nine-state Southern Section and about 15 times in Georgia. In doubles he has been ranked in the top 5 nationally several years in his age group. In 1981 he was ranked No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 – with three different partners – in USTA Southern.

At Vanderbilt University, where he played varsity basketball and baseball, he only had time to win intramural tennis tournaments and titles during his Navy ROTC summer active duty tours.

Caldwell has served the sport as a distinguished volunteer. He served as Vice-President of USTA Georgia and as a board member for three years along with serving on the USTA Southern’s Olympic Facilities, the Information Technology and Marketing Committees.

Caldwell was inducted into the Georgia Tennis Hall of Fame in 1997. He was a President of the Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association (ALTA) in 1974 and was a founder of the Senior Tennis Players of Georgia and the Atlanta Cup. He also served as tournament director of the 1974 World Championship of Tennis tournament in Atlanta.

Caldwell’s self-crafted tennis strokes often make him an example of how not to play the game. Numerous tennis coaches have said he has the ugliest strokes going, notably citing a backhand that no pro would ever teach and a painfully slow serve. This unorthodox style has fueled many interesting stories over the years and around the country, mostly humorous.  He has been called a "hero" to the majority of players who do not have perfect form.

Caldwell has been married to his wife, Margaret, for 51 years. They have three children and four grandsons.

Parker is the current holder of three U.S. junior tennis records:
1. Winner of 25 national junior titles,
2. The only player to be ranked No. 1 nationally in all four junior tennis age divisions (Boys’ 12s in 1981, Boys’ 14s in 1982, Boys’ 16s in 1985 and Boys’ 18s in 1986),
3. In the 1980-81 season, Parker won the Boys’ 12s singles and doubles titles at all four national tournaments – was termed the "double Grand Slam" – becoming the only player ever to win all available national championships in one year.
At the height of his career he competed against Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Jim Courier.

During his junior career, Parker competed in 66 national singles and doubles tournaments – and he either won or finished as runner-up 38 times, in other words he made the finals in 58 percent of those tournaments. In international junior competition, Parker won three Orange Bowl World Junior singles and doubles championships and finished runner-up in two.

Parker was selected by Tennis Magazine as Junior Player of the Year in both 1981 and 1986 and was selected by the United States Olympic Committee as Sportsman of the Year in the Sport of Tennis in 1986. Parker also received numerous sportsmanship awards throughout his junior tennis career, including at the 1984 Orange Bowl World Junior Championships in Miami, Fla. and at the 1985 USTA Boy’s 16 National Championship in Kalamazoo, Mich.

Parker was a four-year No. 1 singles player at the University of Georgia and achieved four-time All-American and four-time All-SEC recognition. He captured two national collegiate individual singles championships – winning the Volvo All-America National Collegiate Singles Championships in both 1989 and 1990, and became the only player in history to successfully defend this title. Parker won 10 collegiate singles and doubles championships – winning every time he reached a final during his college career.

He also maintained a 4.0 grade point average at UGA and in his senior year was named the NCAA Academic All American of All Collegiate Sports. In his senior year he was named Boyd McWhorter SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year, selected by Tennis Magazine as College Player of the Year and the Volvo Tennis and Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Association as Senior Player of the Year, received the Dan Magill Award, which recognizes the NCAA’s outstanding senior player and the University of Georgia President’s Award as Outstanding Senior Student.

After turning professional in 1991, Parker won four satellite circuit titles (three in the United States and one in Australia) but retired after only two years because of a back injury.

Since retiring from tennis, Parker was inducted into the University of Georgia Circle of Honor in 2001, the Georgia Tennis Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame in 2007.