She's Lived a Cool Tennis Life
Benjamin Hochman | Post-Dispatch
Previously published by the Post-Dispatch
From Doubles with Gene Wilder to Coaching Principia College, She's Lived a Cool Tennis Life
Shannon Carney, 68, is a tennis lifer who plays at a high level and coaches the men's team and the women's team at Principia College in Elsah, Ill.
Just like Charlie Bucket, Max Bialystock, Sheriff Bart and the Monster who performed “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” Shannon Carney was a great partner off whom Gene Wilder could play.
“He was probably my favorite tennis partner,” she said on a recent afternoon at Forest Hills Country Club in St. Louis County. “Just so fun to be with him. And it was like — that's Gene Wilder, oh my gosh!”
Carney, 68, is the longtime women’s tennis coach at Principia College in Elsah, Ill. Oh, and she was just named the coach of the men’s team, too. And Carney has just lived this fascinating life. She was raised by actors in Los Angeles (and was best friends with the daughter of the guy who played the professor on “Gilligan’s Island”). Carney became a college tennis standout, a doubles partner to the stars, a pro player traveling the world, a ballroom dancer, a wife, a mother, a divorcee, a single mother, a tennis coach in Hollywood and a tennis coach in a small Midwestern town.
Carney continues to play tennis, as well — and quite well. In 2025, she won the USTA “gold ball” as the top U.S. player from age 65-69 on hard courts. And she competed on a four-player team in the 2025 ITF Masters World Team Championships — and came in second (in the world!) for the age group of 65+ (incidentally, St. Louisan Pat Purcell and her team came in first for 70+).
“Tennis is just a sport of a lifetime,” Carney said. “It's a game of honor, it's a game of trust. I mean, I think of tennis as artistry, poetry, creativity, balance. It's all these things to express. And then, you go out and push your opponent and try to see if you can execute and do what you want to do in the moment. And then, you go practice to do it again.”
OK, but how the heck did she play doubles with Gene Wilder? “And Mel Brooks,” she added.
She first learned tennis from her father. He was Clarke Gordon, who had 93 acting credits on shows ranging from “Rawhide” and "Peter Gunn” to “The Cosby Show” and "Cheers.” Her mother was Eve McVeagh, who had 164 credits, including a memorable episode of “I Love Lucy” on which she played a hairdresser selling Lucy a black wig.
Carney’s love of tennis grew in the early 1970s — she was inspired by a young Chris Evert in the U.S. Open. Carney thrived on her high school team and made the squad at UCLA.
OK, so, the movie actor Tom Laughlin, famous for “Billy Jack” and its sequels, hosted tennis parties at his home in the late 1970s. He invited college players from USC and, yep, UCLA. Thus, that’s where Carney played with Wilder and Brooks — often while Brooks’ wife, Anne Bancroft, would watch from the sideline (coincidentally, Carney’s mom had an uncredited role in “The Graduate”). At Laughlin's home, Carney also played with Carl and Rob Reiner on those sunny Los Angeles days. Phyllis Diller would sometimes get out there, too.
“They all loved the game, you know?” Carney recalled. “They cracked jokes with each other. I remember Phyllis Diller talking about her game and she said, ‘A butterfly goes faster than my shots.’ They were just sparring back and forth all the time with their own humor — and making fun of their games — but just loving tennis.”
At UCLA, Carney was named an All-American in both 1978 and 1979. She twice played doubles in the U.S. Open, but both times lost in the first round to eventual champs Betty Stove and Wendy Turnbull. In the early 1980s, Carney played in pro tournaments across the globe. Once, she was doubles partners with Renee Richards, a transgender player who made headlines.
Carney was, and is, forever fascinated — a student of the world. She loves to learn differently — to test different approaches. In college, she had a personal tennis mentor named Bud Freeman, who was a writer on “Lou Grant” and “Hawaii 5-0,” but loved the physics and psychology of tennis. Freeman even studied Ted Williams’ baseball swings, Carney said, “to see how that translates in movement and rotation.”
After Carney retired as a pro player in 1986, she began coaching at MountainGate Country Club (upon a quick Google search, it looks rather fancy). She also taught private lessons to the children of Stevie Wonder and John Fogerty. She, too, had two children of her own. Girls. Danielle and Caitlin.
Carney always preached perseverance.
Soon, she was the one who needed to personify it.
Within a four-month period in 1997, her brother died, her mother died and Carney got separated from her husband.
“It was like — boom!” she recalled.
For a stretch in the early 2000s, Carney actually stopped playing tennis. But she kept her feet moving. She became a devoted ballroom dancer in the early 2000s — “West Coast Swing, Cha Cha, Bolero, Foxtrot,” she said.
At this point in our chat that day at Forest Hills, I had to share my admiration about her zest for life.
“I feel like I bring that energy, enthusiasm, joy, passion,” she said. “I mean, the kids (on the Principia College team) say I have a passion. I want you to get as good as you can get, whatever it is. 'Let's get better, we can do things.' And when you struggle, we're going to persevere, right?”
Carney’s religion is Christian Science. Sixteen years ago, her oldest daughter chose Principia College to play Division III basketball (the school has since opened its doors to students of all religions).
“I was never going to live in the Midwest, ever,” Carney said. “But she goes, 'Mom, they need a tennis coach. You should apply.’ So, I applied. I just finished my 16th season.”
She’s been named the conference coach of the year five times.
“It's all about developing (a player’s) character and strength,” said Carney, whose daughter, Caitlin, played at Principia and had an impressive college career. “I mean, why do I coach? Because I want students to love the game, but it's also those moments when you overcome defeat, doubt, fear, negative conversations in your head. …
“The ones who make it in sports, they have a positive attitude, they expected to be there, they want to be there, they're driven. ‘No’ is not an answer for them — they're going prove and show it.”
And this was the most Shannon Carney thing ever — for kicks, she has helped out the theatre professors and acted in some school performances.
She played a lion in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” And in “All in the Timing,” she played Leon Trotsky’s mother.
In the offseason, Carney passionately recruits for her tennis teams, selling students on what she calls the “concierge education” at the Illinois liberal arts college.
And she passionately plays tennis. I watched her that day at Forest Hills. She simultaneously displayed much care for her game, but so much joy, too.
She said that during her drive home, she might call her playing partner, like she often would.
“We're super-nerdy,” Carney said with a grin. “We’ll say, ‘Remember that one point?’ And we just talk about my forehand on that particular shot.”