Newsroom
Occidental Alumna Named Tennis Hall of Famer
Women’s tennis pioneer and former national junior tennis champion Patricia Henry Yeomans ’38 will be inducted into not one, but two halls of fame by the Southern California Tennis Association this summer.
Yeomans, known as one of the greatest tennis players Occidental College ever produced, will be inducted into the SCTA Hall of Fame on July 24 at a gala dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. On July 29 at the Los Angeles Tennis Open at UCLA, Yeomans will be part of the inaugural class initiated into the SCTA’s Senior Hall of Fame.
Yeomans earned the honor by being a long-time board member, volunteer, tournament organizer and historian for the organization, said Henry Talbert, SCTA executive director. He also commended her skill and gamesmanship, noting that at 92 years old, she still plays competitively. In May, Yeomans reached the finals of two U.S. Tennis Association clay and hard-court senior tournaments.
“She’s a competitive player, a historian and an ace volunteer for us,” Talbert said. “Pat is a very fine role model of what can be done with senior-citizen players.”
These latest honors will add further polish to Yeomans’ much-heralded tennis career. Besides winning the national junior title in 1935, she swept the College Girls Invitational in 1936 and 1937, and beat the No.1 player on the Occidental men’s tennis team several times. Over the decades, she placed first in scores of singles and doubles USTA national and section tournaments, wrote a number of books on the game, and helped bring tennis back as an Olympic sport in 1984.
Perhaps it’s not surprising that Yeomans is a tennis natural: Her father, former Los Angeles Times Sports Editor Bill Henry, Occidental Class of 1914, was inducted into the SCTA Hall of Fame in 1973 and her mother, Corinne Stanton, won the SCTA singles, doubles and mixed doubles tennis crowns in 1925.
“This is an honor,” Yeomans said of being inducted into two SCTA halls of fame. She added wryly, “It shows that I’ve lasted a long time.”
The SCTA gala dinner on July 24 is open to the public. Ticket and other information on the event can be found by clicking the “Hall of Fame” link at www.scta.usta.com.
More information about Occidental College Athletics can be found at www.oxyathletics.com.