- Julius Seligson
Julius "Julie" Seligson (born December 22, 1909, in
New York City ; died October 13, 1987) was an Americantennis player in the early part of the 20th century.A native of
New York , Seligson was ranked as high as # 9 in USTA Singles in 1928.Like other
Jew ish tennis players of the time, he experiencedanti-semitism . [http://www.jewsinsports.org/profile.asp?sport=tennis&ID=45]Tennis career
As a junior he was the national boy's 18-and-under champ in 1925 and 1926.
He played collegiate tennis at
Lehigh University inPennsylvania . In 1928 he won theNCAA singles championship, beatingBen Gorchakoff 6–1, 6–1, 6–1, to become Lehigh’s first individual national champion. [http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:A8n97bKDGngJ:www.aggieathletics.com/specialsites/ncaatennis2005/hist-singles.php+%22julius+seligson%221909&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us]He reached the singles final of the NCAA championship again in 1930, and prior to losing that 1930 final 6–3, 3–6, 6–2, 8–6, to
Cliff Sutter ofTulane , he had won 66 straight matches.He won the NCAA indoor singles championship in 1928, 1929, and 1930.
In 1928 and 1930, he was a singles finalist at the U.S. Indoor Singles Championship.
In 1929, at the
Cincinnati Masters , he reached the singles final, where he lost toHerbert Bowman in four sets: 6–2, 4–6, 4–6, 1–6.He later turned professional and won three titles at the Metropolitan Clay Court Championship.
Halls of Fame
In 1992, he was inducted into the Lehigh University Athletic Hall of Fame, and in 2002 he was enshrined into the
ITA Men’s Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame.Miscellaneous
Seligson died in 1987 of a
malignant melanoma at his home inWestport, Connecticut . He was 77 years old.External links
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE3D81539F937A25753C1A961948260 NY Times obituary]
* [http://www.jewsinsports.org/profile.asp?sport=tennis&ID=45 Jews in Sports bio]
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