Julie thu

The National Women’s Tennis Organization – with some 1,220 members – also boasts about a dozen strong men, including one superstar who has followed us since Day One.

Jimmy Parker, 80, retired in Santa Fe, N.M, has been an Air Force pilot, Rice University tennis coach and tennis professional, both playing and teaching. As a senior competitor, he has won an astounding 160 USTA National Championships, a men’s all-time record, and has achieved the No.1 national ranking in every age group from 35 to 80.

But what’s also astounding – and gratifying – is Jimmy’s commitment to the NWTO during its existence as well as to the National Senior Men’s Tennis Association, known as NSMTA.  

The director of tennis at the Houston Racquet Club for more than 30 years, Jimmy attended the first meeting of what was then the National Senior Women’s Tennis Association, held in the club’s ballroom in 1977. Women’s tennis was on the move at the time, just a few years after the first Virginia Slims tournament, and Jimmy knew the luminaries of the burgeoning movement for senior players.

“I think Nancy Reed ran the meeting, and Betty Pratt, Charlene Grafton, Gladys Heldman, Nancy Penson, Mary Ann Plante and Fran Wakefield were all there. Maybe even Carol Wood,“ he recalled. “The usual questions were discussed: How are we going to fund this fledgling organization? How can we get the word out? Who’s willing to serve as officers?”

“At that time, several members of the Houston Racquet Club were active in senior women’s tennis: Sue Bramlette, Harriet Hulbert, Judy Job, Leslie Creekmore, Lovie Beard, Bambi Schuette, Libby Marks, and many others. They all spent years contributing to the tournament and the game.”

Out of this meeting, the early leadership of the National Senior Women’s Tennis Association (NSWTA) was solidified and the roots were laid to begin growing senior women’s tennis.

Jimmy’s own tennis talents had long been well established. As a teenager, he was on the Junior Davis Cup, where he won the James Bishop Award as outstanding member of the team. He went on to play at Rice University in Houston, where he was an all-American and two-time Southwest Conference singles, doubles, and team champion. He later won 27 ITF World Championships and represented the U.S. on 30 World Cup Teams. 

He also has served as president of USPTA/Texas, was a USTA/Texas executive committee member and chair and was president of the National Senior Men’s Tennis Association from 2018-2020.

As a teaching pro, Jimmy has been influential in the careers of some leading senior women. Sue Bramlette, for one, credits Jimmy with her tennis accomplishments, both on and off the court. She has been tournament director of the National Senior Women’s Clay Court Championships since 2005. "My involvement with the National Senior Women's Tennis Association and the National Senior Women's Clay Court Championships was totally a result of my weekly lessons,” she said. “For 22 years, he guided me on the court to learn to compete at the national level."

Above all, however, Jimmy’s favorite tennis memories encompass his family. He has won gold balls with his father, Ward, his son, Chris and his grandson, Heys, as well as national championships with his brother, Larry.  

Jimmy cites the NWTO and the NSMTA as two of the bright spots in the senior game and is honored to be a link between the two organizations. “We’re still a bunch of neophytes in the NSMTA compared with the long history of the NSWTA/NWTO,” he said. “Kathy Langer, a former president of yours, was the one who encouraged us men to get off our butts and form a men’s counterpart to what the women had been doing for years.”

The NSMTA was formed in 2018 with the goal of fostering tennis competition among men 30 and older, increasing interest in the sport, promoting health benefits, and supporting charities for underprivileged children and senior charities. “I think our interests not only run parallel, but frequently intersect. The more engagement between our two organizations, the better. I think we’ve succeeded in getting the USTA to trust us for feedback and player-based suggestions.”