Weekly Interview: Ron Friedman (Printed Dec. 14, 2007)
By James V. Horrigan
Staff Writer
It’s been several years since he picked up a tennis racket, but that doesn’t mean Scarborough resident Ron Friedman doesn’t eat, sleep, drink and dream about tennis. He first picked up the game more than 50 years ago and calls tennis a sport for a lifetime, but Friedman said his lack of playing these days is not through choice.
“I managed to tear my rotator cuff and that pretty much prevents me from playing any regular tennis,” Friedman said last week from the Charles Circle home where he has lived since moving to Scarborough in 1971.
He’s no longer on the court as much as he once was, but Friedman has found another way to put his love for the game to work. Earlier this month, Friedman, 64, was elected president of New England chapter of the United States Tennis Association (USTA), the non-profit organization established in 1927 to promote the growth of tennis through a variety of recreational and competitive programs designed to appeal to people of all ages and abilities.
Friedman was a teen in Augusta when a teacher introduced him to tennis. He took to it instantly, but Cony High School didn’t have a team.
“When I was growing up, back in the Dark Ages, you could play baseball, football, basketball and do track. You couldn’t play tennis in Augusta. There were only two tennis courts out of a population of 20-plus-thousand,” Friedman said.
He’s played the game since then, though with a few interruptions, usually related to injury. Although the rules are the same, Friedman sees marked differences between the game he learned as a youth and that played by 21st Century professionals.
“The changes in tennis that we see today are the result of athletes that can perform at a higher level, and they also are using equipment, meaning the racket, that allows them to hit the ball harder,” Friedman said.
He calls Roger Federer the best player on the pro tennis circuit today.
“Probably the single most talented tennis player I have ever seen and I’ve seen a lot of them,” Friedman said.
Having served on the USTA New England board for a decade, Friedman has been to many professional tennis tournaments and several induction ceremonies at the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, and had the opportunity to meet some of the greatest players the game has produced, including Martina Navratilova, Pancho Gonzalez, Tony Trabert and Billie Jean King.
Friedman said King, whom he has met several times, is the only professional tennis player from whom he has requested an autograph. Friedman said King came to Maine a few years ago to take part in a benefit at the University of Southern Maine indoor tennis facility, and as he was walking her to her car after the event, he got up the nerve to do something he’d never done before.
“I had a tennis ball in my hand and said, ‘Would you mind?’ And she said, ‘I’d be delighted,’” Friedman said. He described King as an advocate of professional athletes signing autographs that are legible.
“She always carries her own Sharpie,” Friedman said. “When Billie Jean King signs her name you can read it.”
In 1973, Friedman and several town residents formed the Scarborough Tennis Association. It was a time when the sport was at the height of its popularity and exploding nationwide.
“It’s declined since then, but it really took off in the ‘70s when municipalities started building tennis courts, often with the help of federal money. People had a place to play and it was an easy sport to pick up and have fun,” he said.
Although Scarborough today has six tennis courts – four at the high school and two at Pine Point – it is no longer as difficult as it was in decades past to find court time.
“It depends on the time of the day. Obviously, during the day, when people are working, the courts are empty. But when they’re not working, as in weekends, they’re well utilized,” Friedman said.
Interest in tennis is on the rebound, according to a 2005 USTA survey, which found that 25 million Americans play, up 1.1 million since 2004. One out of five of those people hit the courts more than 21 times a year and are considered frequent players.
Friedman’s favorite event to watch is the United States Open, which takes place each year in Flushing Meadows, New York. The tournament is owned by the USTA. Friedman described it as the single largest two-week sporting event in the world.
“The U.S. Open is probably the biggest source of revenue for the USTA,” Friedman said. He guesses it brings the organization hundreds of millions of dollars annually. In addition, USTA owns 94 events on the pro circuit, selects the teams for the Davis Cup, the Olympic team and the paralympic team.
“Do you realize there are people in wheelchairs who play tennis?” asked Friedman, who pointed out that today tennis is taught in fewer public schools than it was 20 or 30 years ago. He blames the decline on the emergence of other racquet sports, which he is reluctant to name.
“I don’t want to mention them because I don’t want to endorse them,” he said.
A divorced father of two, Friedman’s daughter Tammy, 38, a resident of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, played varsity tennis while at Scarborough High School in the ‘80s. His son Robb, an oncologist, lives in Newton, Massachusetts. He grew up playing the game, too, though not competitively, Friedman said.
Although Friedman spent a number of years in Chelsea teaching science to sixth, seventh and eighth graders, it was as a salesman for Whitman’s Chocolates that Friedman spent the bulk of his career.
“They used to be made in Philadelphia, but Russell Stover Candies bought them out while I was still working for them, it must have been 1993 or 94, and they laid off 1,500 people. I was one of them,” Friedman said.
It’s been almost as long since he’s had a chocolate from a Whitman’s Sampler box. But Friedman isn’t bitter about the corporate takeover that took away a job he loved; he avoids the modern-day incarnation of the candy he once sold because the taste is now different.
“Russell Stover didn’t keep any of our recipes. Whitman’s Chocolates was one of the last manufacturers of chocolate in the country that made its own coating. We took the cocoa bean, ground it, created the chocolate liqueur from bean to the end product. Russell Stover doesn’t make their own coating. It’s made by Nestle,” he said.
Staff Writer
It’s been several years since he picked up a tennis racket, but that doesn’t mean Scarborough resident Ron Friedman doesn’t eat, sleep, drink and dream about tennis. He first picked up the game more than 50 years ago and calls tennis a sport for a lifetime, but Friedman said his lack of playing these days is not through choice.
“I managed to tear my rotator cuff and that pretty much prevents me from playing any regular tennis,” Friedman said last week from the Charles Circle home where he has lived since moving to Scarborough in 1971.
He’s no longer on the court as much as he once was, but Friedman has found another way to put his love for the game to work. Earlier this month, Friedman, 64, was elected president of New England chapter of the United States Tennis Association (USTA), the non-profit organization established in 1927 to promote the growth of tennis through a variety of recreational and competitive programs designed to appeal to people of all ages and abilities.
Friedman was a teen in Augusta when a teacher introduced him to tennis. He took to it instantly, but Cony High School didn’t have a team.
“When I was growing up, back in the Dark Ages, you could play baseball, football, basketball and do track. You couldn’t play tennis in Augusta. There were only two tennis courts out of a population of 20-plus-thousand,” Friedman said.
He’s played the game since then, though with a few interruptions, usually related to injury. Although the rules are the same, Friedman sees marked differences between the game he learned as a youth and that played by 21st Century professionals.
“The changes in tennis that we see today are the result of athletes that can perform at a higher level, and they also are using equipment, meaning the racket, that allows them to hit the ball harder,” Friedman said.
He calls Roger Federer the best player on the pro tennis circuit today.
“Probably the single most talented tennis player I have ever seen and I’ve seen a lot of them,” Friedman said.
Having served on the USTA New England board for a decade, Friedman has been to many professional tennis tournaments and several induction ceremonies at the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, and had the opportunity to meet some of the greatest players the game has produced, including Martina Navratilova, Pancho Gonzalez, Tony Trabert and Billie Jean King.
Friedman said King, whom he has met several times, is the only professional tennis player from whom he has requested an autograph. Friedman said King came to Maine a few years ago to take part in a benefit at the University of Southern Maine indoor tennis facility, and as he was walking her to her car after the event, he got up the nerve to do something he’d never done before.
“I had a tennis ball in my hand and said, ‘Would you mind?’ And she said, ‘I’d be delighted,’” Friedman said. He described King as an advocate of professional athletes signing autographs that are legible.
“She always carries her own Sharpie,” Friedman said. “When Billie Jean King signs her name you can read it.”
In 1973, Friedman and several town residents formed the Scarborough Tennis Association. It was a time when the sport was at the height of its popularity and exploding nationwide.
“It’s declined since then, but it really took off in the ‘70s when municipalities started building tennis courts, often with the help of federal money. People had a place to play and it was an easy sport to pick up and have fun,” he said.
Although Scarborough today has six tennis courts – four at the high school and two at Pine Point – it is no longer as difficult as it was in decades past to find court time.
“It depends on the time of the day. Obviously, during the day, when people are working, the courts are empty. But when they’re not working, as in weekends, they’re well utilized,” Friedman said.
Interest in tennis is on the rebound, according to a 2005 USTA survey, which found that 25 million Americans play, up 1.1 million since 2004. One out of five of those people hit the courts more than 21 times a year and are considered frequent players.
Friedman’s favorite event to watch is the United States Open, which takes place each year in Flushing Meadows, New York. The tournament is owned by the USTA. Friedman described it as the single largest two-week sporting event in the world.
“The U.S. Open is probably the biggest source of revenue for the USTA,” Friedman said. He guesses it brings the organization hundreds of millions of dollars annually. In addition, USTA owns 94 events on the pro circuit, selects the teams for the Davis Cup, the Olympic team and the paralympic team.
“Do you realize there are people in wheelchairs who play tennis?” asked Friedman, who pointed out that today tennis is taught in fewer public schools than it was 20 or 30 years ago. He blames the decline on the emergence of other racquet sports, which he is reluctant to name.
“I don’t want to mention them because I don’t want to endorse them,” he said.
A divorced father of two, Friedman’s daughter Tammy, 38, a resident of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, played varsity tennis while at Scarborough High School in the ‘80s. His son Robb, an oncologist, lives in Newton, Massachusetts. He grew up playing the game, too, though not competitively, Friedman said.
Although Friedman spent a number of years in Chelsea teaching science to sixth, seventh and eighth graders, it was as a salesman for Whitman’s Chocolates that Friedman spent the bulk of his career.
“They used to be made in Philadelphia, but Russell Stover Candies bought them out while I was still working for them, it must have been 1993 or 94, and they laid off 1,500 people. I was one of them,” Friedman said.
It’s been almost as long since he’s had a chocolate from a Whitman’s Sampler box. But Friedman isn’t bitter about the corporate takeover that took away a job he loved; he avoids the modern-day incarnation of the candy he once sold because the taste is now different.
“Russell Stover didn’t keep any of our recipes. Whitman’s Chocolates was one of the last manufacturers of chocolate in the country that made its own coating. We took the cocoa bean, ground it, created the chocolate liqueur from bean to the end product. Russell Stover doesn’t make their own coating. It’s made by Nestle,” he said.
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