Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Bud Collins on Gladys Heldman

Her zest for tennis, and life, was boundless. But after serving as a major international factor, first as an influential voice, then as orchestrator of the revolution in the women's game, Gladys Medalie Heldman felt it was time to tend to her own strokes, with a racket and gardening trowel.

She sold World Tennis magazine, which she had founded in 1953 and shepherded to the top of the list of the game's publications, retired to Santa Fe, N.M., in 1982. There Gladys died last Saturday at age 81, not long after taking her last swings on the family indoor court, constructed cleverly and tastefully under the direction of herself and surviving husband, Julius Heldman.

Though the adobe exterior made it look like just another local mud hut, it was air-conditioned elegant within, the viewers gallery lined with photos of the game's greats, many of whom had played there. Friends from across the globe visited and played in the daily games on that court where laughter and ribbing were paramount.

They were amused and amazed that Gladys, applying herself shrewdly as she always did to such things as the magazine business, plotting the future of women's tennis, and learning Japanese, had - after 60 years of playing -- added a respectable volley to her repertoire.

Tickled to present this new look to her pals, she gave an Italianate shrug, as though it were nothing, saying "Gotta keep improving. Everybody improves here." She told a frequent participating hacker, the late English Duke of Bedford, "Even you've improved - from ghastly to abysmal."

She did have an acute sense of humor, yet shy, preferring the background, speaking softly and soothingly.

Tennis, an unknown subject to a girl growing up as a prominent judge's daughter in New York City, entered her life with marriage to Stanford schoolmate, Julius. He, a petroleum engineer, had an excellent playing pedigree as former US Junior champion and future US Senior Indoor champ, tutored her well. Their union produced two lively daughters, Trixie and Julie. Julie, an uppermost level pro, was a US top ten regular for seven years, No. 5 in the world in 1969, the year she won the Italian Open, and 1974.

In the early years of open tennis, launched in 1968, the women were being treated unfairly in tournaments, traditionally dual sex. Because prize money was tilted heavily in favor of the men, Gladys decided to do something about it, allied with such leading players as Billie Jean King and Rosie Casals.

"Without Gladys there wouldn't be women's professional tennis as we know it," says King. "She was a passionate advocate, and driving force behind the start of the Virginia Slims Tour, and helped change the face of women's sports. Because of her vision women's tennis was changed forever."

The women rebelled in 1970, parting with the men and bravely setting off on their own, with Heldman, as godmother, planning and Billie Jean preaching and playing.

Long a Los Angeles fixture, the Pacific Southwest tourney was offering an 8-to-1 edge to the men in cash prizes. King and Heldman called for a boycott, and Gladys obtained $ 7500 sponsorship (a large sum then) for an alternative female tournament, the Virginia Slims of Houston.

Although the US Tennis Association threatened to suspend entrants, the risk-taking radicals defiantly went ahead as the "Houston Nine" -- King, Casals, Nancy Richey, Peaches Bartkowicz, Valerie Ziegenfuss, Julie Heldman, Kristy Pigeon, Judy Dalton, Kerry Melville. They were suspended, briefly, but it was a success. Heldman moved quickly to obtain underwriting through chief executive of Philip Morris, Joe Cullman, for a Virginia Slims circiuit in 1971, and the pioneering Long Way Babies were on their way. She nicknamed the tour "Women's Lob (cq), Featuring the Little Broads."

Current USTA President Alan Schwartz lauds "Gladys as equal parts innovator, invigorator and inspiration, expanding the horizon for others."

Pam Shriver, a Hall of Famer, regrets, "Not enough of today's players know the history of the last 33 years. Otherwise the WTA (Women's Tennis Association) tour flag would be at half-mast."

"All that stuff happened before I got here," says Martina Navratilova, "but Gladys affected me personally, growing up in Czechoslovakia, through World Tennis magazine. It was my main lifeline to what was happening in the world of tennis before I started traveling."

In that way she affected millions of followers of the game, and in 1979 was tapped for the International Tennis Hall of Fame at Newport, R.I.

Despite her self-effacing quiet manner, Gladys was extremely strong-willed. But, deeply troubled by painful heart disease, she lost the will to live longer.

By then, grieved and missed by innumerable friends, she had established her substantial place in sporting history.

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