- Seymour Greenberg
Seymour Greenberg (born
August 10 ,1920 , inChicago, Illinois ; diedMarch 3 ,2006 , inPark Ridge, Illinois ) was an amateur Americanclay-court specialist tennis player in the 1940s and 1950s.He was ranked # 5 in the US in singles in 1943 and 1944, and also in the top 10 in three other years.
Tennis career
He won the Illinois State high school singles titles in 1936 and 1937 while at
Lane Technical College Prep High School in Chicago, where he was valedictorian.He won the Illinois State Championships 9 times.
Greenberg was captain of the
Northwestern University tennis team and became that school's firstBig Ten Conference singles champion when he won the title in 1940. He repeated in 1941, and won Big Ten doubles championships in 1940 (with Jerry Clifford), 1941 (withGene Richards ), and 1942 (also with Richards). Greenberg's three doubles titles still rank No. 1 all-time in Big Ten history. He led the Northwestern Wildcats to the Big Ten team championships in 1940 and 1942.He won the City of Chicago Championship in 1939, and the National Clay Court Championship in 1942 and 1943.
He was also a singles quarterfinalist at the U.S. National Championships in 1942, 1943, 1944, and 1945.
In 1943 at the
Cincinnati Masters tournament, Greenberg reached the singles and doubles finals, but lost the singles final to futureInternational Tennis Hall of Fame inducteeBill Talbert . He lost the doubles final to Talbert and partner Alvin Bunis. Greenberg had partnered with Joe Scherr to reach the final.Halls of Fame
Greenberg has been inducted into:
*the Chicago Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (1982),
*the United States Tennis Association/Midwest (formerly Western Tennis Association) Hall of Fame (in 1990),
*the Northwestern University Athletic Hall of Fame (2000), and
*the Chicago Tennis Hall of Fame (2004)Personal life
*He was the son of Jacob and Sylvia Greenberg, and married the late Wanda Henderson in 1952.
*His tennis career was interrupted by
World War II . He was a Lieutenant in the Air Force and served inGreenland as a communications officer.*His sister Toby played in the
Maccabiah Games inIsrael .*His death resulted from complications of
Parkinson's disease .Link
* [http://nusports.cstv.com/sports/m-tennis/spec-rel/042006aac.html "Wildcats Remember a Program Pioneer," 4/20/06]
* [http://www.jewsinsports.org/profile.asp?sport=tennis&ID=18 Jews in Sports bio]
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