"The beautiful little Ojai Valley is the up to date spot of Ventura County for out of door sports. Baseball and tennis has each flourished like bull fights in Spain." - The Santa Paula Chronicle, 1899

In 1890, when William L. Thacher, a top-flight tennis player from Yale, made his first trip to the Ojai Valley, it was for a three-week visit with his brothers, who were living in the rural area. Upon his arrival, his brother Sherman Thacher, founder of The Thacher School, said, "William, if you have brought white tennis trousers and tennis shoes and a racquet and white hat in your trunk, please, please keep them there. We here do not play tennis at all. We work and play with horses."
Little did Sherman know that within a mere three years his brother would change the way everyone was thinking. The local newspaper, The Ojai, featured an article titled: "A Tennis Tournament for Doubles will begin this week, open to all comers!" Sherman, along with one of the Thacher teachers and six of the students were the only "all comers." Two of the students, Rex Sherer and A.R. Williams, won the Ojai Doubles Championship. These two Thacher students were the first valley tennis champions.
By 1895, the Ojai Athletic Club was organized with Sherman Thacher as the first president. By June, the paper was reporting: "The ladies will also be allowed the use of the tennis court and are invited to assist in the finances by paying dues of perhaps ten cents per month." 
On December 14, 1895, the Athletic Club held a special meeting of the ladies and gentlemen who were interested in tennis, to form a tennis club. It was decided to open the membership in the new tennis club to local residents and to charge a 25 cents initiation fee and a three-month dues of 25 cents. The club was anxious to increase its membership with people who were interested in the game of tennis. To join, one only had to turn their name in to one of the club officers.
William Thacher was elected as the first president of the Ojai Valley Tennis Club. 
On Feb. 15, 1896, the Ojai players met the Ventura players in the first match - Ojai won. The matches were being played on the old dirt court, which was located slightly to the east of the present courts, in Libbey Park. The courts had been built on the back section of the old Blumberg Hotel that stood in the downtown block. The tennis court was available for use by the members daily, and there were special matches held on Saturdays. The Ojai reported that: "The pleasure of the game was greatly increased by erecting at each end of the court a wire netting backstop six feet high and sixty feet long." 
In 1897, the Ojai players and the Ventura players challenged the Santa Barbara tennis team and the Ojai/Ventura team won. With that, another team was formed, composed of members from all three sections - Ojai, Ventura and Santa Barbara - and they promptly defeated the Los Angeles and Pasadena players. 
In 1898, they joined forces in a Southern California Champions team and they played the Northern California Champions. The team from the north defeated the one from the south.
The Ventura Free Press took notice and reported: "Rumor has it that a lawn tennis club has been organized somewhere in the Ojai Valley; perhaps The Ojai will tell us about it." With that, The Ojai reported: "There is a tennis club up here. It has the best courts in the state. On them have been held the greatest tournaments ever held in the state. The Ojai Tennis Club has beaten the Ventura Club nearly every time a contest has been held. The contests have been of frequent occurrence." The rest of the state was also starting to take notice.
The Ojai continued to inform the Ventura paper: "As the Free Press editors have not yet learned to distinguish any difference between a point, a game, a set, a match, and a tournament, there is little hope that if the Ojai should on the occasion of the next tournament defeat Ventura 9-0 matches, or a love tournament they would record the defeat to have been by more than one point, or one racquet, or one tennis net." 
At the 1899 tournament, three events were staged - men's singles, boys interscholastic singles and doubles - and Ojai won the silver cup over Ventura. The Ojai Tennis Club boasted: "We are being very generous in giving Ventura a chance at that cup. This year the Ojai has won a match from Ventura, and Ventura has won one from us." So confident was the Ojai team of winning that they did not even carry the cup down to Ventura for the game, they left it at home.
The Ventura Signal newspaper, decided to join the discussion by reporting that Ventura was training a man to defeat the Ojai tennis champion, and that the man was "laying for him." The Ojai responded with: "How very much like a hen! The hen that refuses to lay should be interred in a pot-pie, and we should be pleased to attend the obsequies."
With the popularity of the 1899 Ojai Tennis tournament, Wright and Ditson sent the "The New Foot-Fault Rule" to the Ojai Tennis Club. It was printed in the local paper for everyone's information; "By a vote of the Executive Committee, Law 6 shall read as follows: The server shall stand with both feet behind, i.e., farther from the net than the base line. It is not a fault if one of the server's feet does not touch the ground at the moment at which the service is delivered. He shall place both feet firmly on the ground immediately before serving, and shall not take a running or walking start. He shall deliver the service from the right and left courts alternately, beginning from the right." (June 15, 1899).
In 1900, men's doubles, women's singles and mixed doubles were added to the tournament. With the tournament's fame, the Tennis Club decided to construct four new courts. The club reported that: "The new feature this year will be the open events for all comers from any part of the country. It is hoped that ladies and gentlemen who excel at the game in Ventura, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and vicinity may wish to compare their games in these tournaments for all. Perhaps also some Eastern tennis expert may be induced to enter if he chances to be wintering in California."
In 1907, invitation girls' interscholastic singles and doubles were started, and in 1911, men's intercollegiate was added. 
By 1916, front page headlines were: "Tennis Tournament Closes in Presence of Record Throng" - the paper also counted the cars, and stated that: " at 3 o'clock Saturday afternoon, the writer counted, including Fords, 157 automobiles parked from the corner to the tennis grounds - the greatest number of machines in the valley at any one time, within the memory of man." 
The reporter continued: "Our early education having been sadly neglected in the educational realm of tennis, we are not qualified to estimate the true merit of the tourney along athletic lines, but those who do know the play and the players, assert that it was GREAT - equal to the best tennis played anywhere throughout the world, there being national champions and ex-champions, and will-be champions behind the nets in the several events."
Edward Libbey, Ojai's greatest benefactor, was very much enchanted by the whole tennis spectacle of so many young people having such a good time and in such a good way, with their school flags flying and their obvious desire to be sportsmanlike first and champions second. It appeared that the presence of this event contributed somewhat to his keen appreciation of the beauty of the valley as a whole. In any case, he bought the property where the games were being held, tore down the old Blumberg Hotel and gave the land to the town to be used as a park. Libbey wanted to put in cement courts, but the officers of the Tennis Club thought that he had already been very generous and should not have to do this. The courts remained dirt until 1925.
By 1923, the Los Angeles Times reported that: "The Tournament is regarded as one of the finest in the history of the Valley and was splendidly conducted throughout." The local paper reported: "There is a recognized difference in the measure of interest and enthusiasm touching tennis contests, home talent capturing the lion's share in so far as this community is concerned, while general interest hovers around the 'Champs' of other years." The tournament was now well established in the importance of tennis.
But, the following year, 1924, the tournament was canceled. The tennis club voted to abandon the holding of the Tennis Tournament that year on account of the seriousness of the hoof-and-mouth disease among the cattle of the state, in order to assist in the quarantine rules and regulations put into force.
Some of the club members argued that other events were continuing to be held, such as Easter Sunrise services, track meets, baseball and auto meets, but William Thacher, president of the club, desired to cooperate with the quarantine officers and the stockmen who had asked that Ojai give up the tournament for that year. The motion passed and a letter was sent to all entrants who had sent in their applications in advance.
In regard to the canceled tournament, the local paper said: "It does seem strange that the Ojai Valley should be urged to cancel as promising a Tournament as was in prospect when every other place in the country is going ahead with their various tournaments. Los Angeles is making no pretensions to give up any of her plays, and in a local paper there were announcements of several large events in Los Angeles for the coming week." The next year, the tournament resumed.
Now as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Ojai Tennis Tournament, our thoughts return to the gentleman, William Thacher, who started the tradition. Throughout the last 100 years, the Thacher family has continued to be involved in the tournament, ensuring a successful event, one of which the whole valley is extremely proud, and with a great deal of appreciation, we say, "Thank you."

© 2000 The Ojai Valley News

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