The Southern Tennis Foundation (STF) announced the establishment of the Mildred F. Southern scholarship.

Mildred F. Southern passed away October 2021 in Winston-Salem, N.C. Debbie Southern, Mildred’s daughter, announced that Mildred’s will had earmarked the funding of the awards. Debbie Southern serves on the USTA Southern Junior Competition Committee.

“Our mom was passionate about growing the game of tennis and for every child to learn to play regardless of their race, religion, or economic background. She volunteered countless hours to develop programs where kids could learn to play for free. Mom would have been proud and honored to have her name on the STF’s Academic Excellence Awards to help young folks continue their passion for tennis in college. Our family is thrilled to support the Southern Tennis Foundation in honor of our mother, Mildred F. Southern.”

Southern Tennis Foundation Chairman Paula Hale remarked, “Mildred was a tennis legend in the USTA Southern Section and all of USTA, both as a player and volunteer. It’s wonderful to honor her legacy by naming these scholarships for her.”

Mildred F. Southern led the foundation as chair along with USTA Southern and USTA North Carolina as president. She was inducted into the Southern Tennis Hall of Fame in 1991, the North Carolina Tennis Hall of Fame in 1983 and the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2013. She won five USTA championships as an adult recreational player.

Mildred was a long-time benefactor of North Carolina and Southern tennis. Her contributions helped build the North Carolina Tennis Hall of Fame and funded the Southern Cup, an annual competition of the top adult players in the South. Click here for more information about Mildred F. Southern.

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NAMED FOR LEGENDARY FURMAN TENNIS COACH

The Southern Tennis Foundation (STF), the charitable arm of United States Tennis Association (USTA) Southern Section, announced the establishment of the Paul Scarpa Endowed Scholarship on March 12, 2021.

Scarpa was the Furman Men’s Tennis Coach for 45 years and is winningest NCAA Division I tennis coach in history with 853 victories. He was named Southern Conference Coach of the Year nine times.

Friends of Scarpa, including a number of his former players, have contributed over $60,000 to establish the initial endowments for these two scholarships, which will run in perpetuity. The scholarships will be awarded to high school graduates from the nine-state USTA Southern. One of them will begin in 2021 and the other in 2022.

Scarpa’s accomplishments include:

• Winningest NCAA Division I tennis coach in history with 853 victories
• He has been awarded the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina’s highest civilian honor
• Starting in 1967 named the Furman Men’s Tennis Coach in 1967 and continued in that position for 45 seasons, making him the longest tenured head coach in any sport in Furman and Southern Conference history
• Furman teams won 17 Southern Conference regular season titles and 14 Southern Conference tournament championships
• Named Southern Conference Coach of the Year nine times
• Inducted into seven Hall of Fames, including the Southern Tennis Hall of Fame
• Coached tennis at Florida State and the United States Naval Academy
• Raised in Charleston, S.C. where he was an outstanding junior player. Junior highlights include: No. 1 in the state and No. 4 in the South, South Carolina high school champion, first 18-and-under singles champion at the Palmetto Championships in Belton, S.C., in 1957, won the Southern Sportsmanship Award as an 18-year-old
• Attended Florida State where he played No. 1 singles and doubles

With more than 20 donors, family members and friends on a surprise video call earlier this month, Scarpa was shocked with the announcement of the scholarships.

“I am super honored. I had no idea,” Scarpa remarked. “I remember everything about tennis and those who have been around me in tennis. All of you are special. Thank y’all for the kind remarks. I’m really touched by this, believe me.”

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Rex Maynard, who served as USTA Southern President & CEO and STF Chairman, said, “Paul was a tireless ambassador for Furman, recruiting students and spreading the word about the university wherever he goes. He is best known for developing his players and bringing out the best of them both on and off the court.

Bobby Austell, South Carolina Tennis Patrons Foundation Trustee and former head coach of Christ Church Episcopal School in Greenville, S.C., added, “Always one to promote the game at every opportunity, when I was finishing a 40-year business career, Paul gave me over-the-top encouragement and practical help to begin a high school coaching career that lasted for 13 years.”

USTA Southern Tennis Hall of Fame inductee Nancy Yeargin Furman added, “When I think of Paul Scarpa, I think of all the many lives he has impacted over the years … all ages, from right here in South Carolina to people from all over the world! There are many words to describe Paul … I think of heart, passion and opportunity!”

Furman Athletic Hall of Fame member David Ellison said, “Paul Scarpa is the personification of ‘necessity is the mother of invention.’  He conceived of and sold his idea to the NCAA for the current dual-match scoring system to shorten matches and to assure the relevance of doubles for every match.”

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The Southern Tennis Foundation (STF), the charitable affiliate of USTA Southern, is proud to announce the establishment of an endowment fund to support a new Scholarship Honoring Alabama Tennis Professionals. The fund will provide college scholarships to deserving students in Alabama and across the South.

This scholarship fund will enable individuals and groups to honor Alabama professionals who have made a difference in their lives, the lives of their family members and their communities. It gives players and fans an opportunity to celebrate outstanding teaching pros for the years of hard work they have put into making Alabama tennis extraordinary. The state has many notable pros, active and retired, who are highly respected in the tennis world, much loved in their communities, and this is a fitting way to recognize their service.

The scholarship will provide $1,000 per year for up to four years to deserving high school graduates. Selections will be made by the STF’s College Scholarships Committee.

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NAMED FOR FAMED TENNIS TEACHING PRO, PTR FOUNDER & WIFE

The Southern Tennis Foundation (STF) and the Professional Tennis Registry Foundation (PTRF) announced the establishment of a Higher Education Scholarship honoring Dennis & Pat Van der Meer.

Dennis Van der Meer is currently nominated in the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s Contributor Category. The hall described him as a “legendary coach and ‘teacher of teachers,’ who recognized the need and developed a universal manner of teaching tennis in order to grow the sport.” He founded the PTR, a world-wide organization of tennis professionals, in 1976. Dennis was inducted into the Southern Tennis Hall of Fame in 1998, the South Carolina Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987, the PTR Hall of Fame in 2013 and the USPTA Hall of Fame in 2015. He received the Tennis Educational Merit Award from the International Hall of Fame in 1969. He also received an honorary doctorate from the University of London, Greenwich, for his contributions in integrating sports sciences in tennis instruction. Dennis passed away in 2019.

In 1993, Pat earned the PTR’s Coach Jim Verdieck Award for top coaches and in 2002 she received the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s Tennis and Education Merit Award. Pat has been a USTA Area Training Center Head Coach and was named South Carolina Pro of the Year in 1991. She headed up the Van der Meer Tennis Academy for many years, and remains active in running the Van Der Meer Facilities and programs, including VDM Tennis University, the base for tennis teaching instruction.

Southern Tennis Foundation Chairman Paula Hale remarked, “The Southern Tennis Foundation is excited to receive funding from the PTR Foundation that will be used to honor the Van der Meers by providing college scholarships to young men and women from USTA Southern.”

PTR Foundation President Scott Tharp said, “The PTR Foundation is thrilled to be able to provide these scholarships to so many deserving young men and women whose lives have been positively impacted by the sport of tennis.  We believe this is a most fitting way to honor the legacy of Dennis Van der Meer for many years to come.”

Paul Pittman, who chairs the STF’s Major Gifts Committee, added, “I’m proud of this new partnership between our Foundation and the PTR Foundation. It’s great to see two of the nation’s finest tennis organizations team up to provide scholarships that will help young people follow their dreams.”

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11-TIME GRAND SLAM CHAMPION BROKE BARRIERS AS FIRST BLACK TO WIN A MAJOR TITLE

The Southern Tennis Foundation (STF), the charitable affiliate of USTA Southern, is proud to announce the establishment of an endowed college scholarship in memory of one of the great female athletes in tennis and any sport, Althea Gibson.

Gibson, a native of Silver, S.C., won five Grand Slam singles titles and six doubles titles, and achieved the world No. 1 ranking in 1958, the first Black to earn that distinction. She was named by Sports Illustrated for Women to its list of the 100 Greatest Female Athletes and was the first Black woman to appear on the covers of Time Magazine and Sports Illustrated. She also became the first Black to play on the Ladies Professional Golf Association tour.

• Winner of 11 Grand Slam titles, five in singles and six in doubles
• Captured singles crowns at the French Open in 1956, the U.S National Championships (presently the US Open) in 1957 and 1958 and Wimbledon in 1957 and 1958
• Won the following six Grand Slam doubles titles: women’s doubles at the 1956 French, the 1957 Australian, 1956, 1957 and 1958 Wimbledon, and the 1957 U.S National Championship mixed doubles
• In 1958 was ranked No. 1 in the world when she retired and turned professional
• First Black woman to compete in the U.S. National Championships 1950
• First Black woman to compete on the Ladies Professional Golf Association tour
• Inducted into eight Halls of Fame, including the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1971
• Was the only woman of color to win a Grand Slam championship for
  15 years. It took 43 years (Serena Williams at the 1999 US Open) for another Black female to win a major.
• The first Black woman to appear on the covers of Time Magazine
  (Aug. 26, 1957) and Sports Illustrated (Sept. 2, 1957)
• Named by Sports Illustrated for Women to its list of the 100 Greatest Female Athletes
• Gibson captured American Tennis Association (ATA) junior national championships at 17 and 18 years old and, in 1947, won the first of ten straight ATA national women’s titles
• According to the USTA, Gibson won her first international championships at the Caribbean Championships in Montego Bay, Jamaica, in 1951
• Member of the victorious 1957 Wightman Cup team
• Born in Silver, S.C. on Aug. 29, 1927, and passed on Sept. 28, 2003

(From the International Tennis Hall of Fame and other sources)

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NAMED FOR ALABAMA CARDIOLOGIST, ATTORNEY, PILOT, TENNIS VOLUNTEER; FIRST SCHOLARSHIP AWARDED TO HUNTSVILLE STUDENT

MAY 3, 2021 – The Southern Tennis Foundation (STF), the charitable arm of United States Tennis Association (USTA) Southern Section, announces the establishment of the David R. Mauritson Memorial Endowed Scholarship.

His wife of nearly 43 years, Eleanora, of Fairhope, Ala., donated $30,000 to the foundation to support an annual $1,000 scholarship beginning this year.

DaQuarris Poole, of Huntsville, Ala. and Columbia High School, was selected as the first scholarship recipient and plans to attend Alabama A&M.

Mauritson was an accomplished cardiologist practicing from 1981 until his retirement in 2012.  After graduating from Westminster College magna cum laude, with a triple major in Mathematics, Chemistry, and Biology, he attended Harvard Medical School and graduated in 1974. His residency was in Internal Medicine at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, and he went on to complete two fellowships: in Emergency Medicine and Critical Care at the University of California, San Francisco, and in Cardiovascular Disease at Parkland in Dallas. Upon moving to Tuscaloosa, he founded Cardiology Associates of West Alabama, P.C., in 1981. He was also honored with the Kern Wildenthal Research Award in 1981. He volunteered as a cardiologist at the Alabama Free Clinic.

He served as Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, for the University of Alabama College of Community Health Sciences, from 1981-2000, and in 1986 received the Patrick McCue Award for the best teacher of clinical medicine. He was a Fellow in the American College of Physicians, American College of Cardiology and the American College of Legal Medicine.

He broadened his skills in 2008 when he graduated as salutatorian of the Birmingham (Ala.) School of Law and passed the Alabama State Bar. He was admitted to the Federal District Court in three Alabama districts.

An avid pilot, David began flying in 1965 with his mother, Jan, as his flight instructor. He logged more than 11,000 hours, was certified as a flight instructor in 1989, was a certified airline transport pilot (ATP) and elected as president of the national Flying Physicians Association, 2011-12. He was a volunteer pilot and instructor with the rank of major for the Civil Air Patrol, along with volunteering for Angel Flight Southeast and SouthWings.

He was awarded the SouthWings 2015 Visionary Award, which has since been renamed in his honor as the Mauritson Award. His years of dedicated service earned him Honorary Emeritus status.

Mauritson was on a flight for Angel Flight Southeast when he tragically died in a plane crash in Mobile, Ala, in 2016.

Mauritson was the Missouri College Athletic Union springboard diving champion, 1967-1970. He played on his high school tennis team, beginning a life-long love of the sport. He served as the Fairhope Tennis Association president and was instrumental in getting six hydro clay courts built at the Mike Ford Tennis Center. He became a USTA certified official and planned to expand his officiating career.    

Here are remembrances:

Meredith Dowling, the Executive Director of SouthWings:
“David Mauritson’s understated but truly extraordinary dedication as a volunteer pilot remains an inspiration to everyone at our organization. How he did it all, I will never know. His quiet, steadfast commitment to the causes he cared about have left a better world. Even as the years pass, I continue to find new results from the ripples he set in motion with the flights he took as a volunteer for SouthWings.”

Eleanora Mauritson, wife, serves as a foundation trustee and has served for decades as a USTA volunteer on the local, state, sectional and national level. She served as the USTA Awards Committee Chair from 2017-2020, and on the USTA Southern Board as an At-Large Member from 2011-12 and Secretary from 2013-14:

“Dave had an insatiable thirst to learn and was truly a Renaissance man. He played the baritone and trumpet in the Baldwin Pops Band, volunteered as a cardiologist at the Alabama Free Clinic, was an Eagle Scout, a Rhodes Scholar finalist, and particularly loved teaching the Civil Air Patrol glider camp cadets for two weeks every summer for many years. He couldn’t seem to do enough, learn enough, or get enough out of life. He excelled at anything he did. He was brilliant, compassionate, athletic, musical, and had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. I can’t think of a better way to acknowledge his life-long love of learning and tennis than through this scholarship.”

Eric Mauritson, son, who played high school varsity tennis and is currently playing in his local USTA 3.5 Men’s League in Tampa. He is an instrument rated private pilot; his father was his flight instructor:

“Dad was a consummate educator. For as much as he loved learning, I think he might have enjoyed sharing his knowledge even more. He made a difference in so many people’s lives that trying to sum up his contributions in a few sentences will never be adequate. I’m so proud of my dad and I miss him tremendously. Continuing Dad’s legacy as a patient, kind, and prodigious educator is what this scholarship will mean to me.”

Amy Mauritson, daughter, a MD is a third-generation physician and practices internal medicine. Her father was also her flight instructor, classmate in SCUBA certification, and role model for being a physician:

“His accomplishments were diverse and numerous, but the last person you would hear it from was my father. He would quietly help others, volunteer time, donate money. There are likely many things he did for others that no one will ever know. This scholarship is another way to carry on that legacy, but we aren’t going to let him get away with being anonymous, this time. One of the most special times I had with him was when he served as my attending physician during residency for an international elective in Maseno, Kenya. We worked side by side as volunteer physicians in a rural hospital. It is time I will always cherish, teaching and learning together.”

Alice Henderson, Executive Vice-President, Flying Physicians Association, Inc.:
“Dr. David Mauritson distinguished himself among his fellow physician-pilots, always surprising them! His father was among the first members of the Flying Physicians Association, and Dave was always known as one of the best pilots. Dave Mauritson was not a boisterous person, so when other FPA members learned that he had also earned a law degree, they were congratulatory and surprised that someone with his experience as a successful cardiologist would return to school! He was also among the most active in supporting charitable work, using his plane selflessly to serve patients needing treatments in other locations and flying countless environmental survey missions to protect the rivers and estuaries, and joining his daughter on an extended mission in Africa. David Mauritson brought people together, and that was not a small feat among the physicians, ranging from free-thinking progressives to the most conservative. He instinctively knew that everyone could find common ground, and his own open, accepting friendship with everyone nurtured fellowship and camaraderie among these men and women that instilled that confidence in everyone. It speaks volumes when one person brings people from polar opposites together, to laugh good-naturedly about their differences and to admire and treat each other with respect. That was David Mauritson.”

Mike McNulty, USTA Chairman of the Board and President:
“Dave was a Renaissance Man who possessed so many talents and areas of knowledge. He led and excelled in everything he did. Doctor, lawyer, educator, pilot, musician, husband and father. Dave loved life and lived his life helping and improving the lives of others, not only in his professions, but his broad charitable work where he impacted so many people in need. As a pilot and doctor, Dave piloted his plane to transport patients in need of treatments throughout the country and was on an “angel flight” at the time of his tragic crash. Dave was loved and admired by all and left his mark by making the world better.”

Collin Rust, local tennis player:
“We had only moved to Fairhope a few months before the accident, but in that period, I worked with him in organizing events for the Fairhope Tennis Association. I really enjoyed playing doubles with him and against him.  David liked to play but I could tell he liked the camaraderie and fellowship even more.  He was always quick to give credit to his partner and to compliment his opponents.“