By Caitlin Looney
 |
Town Crier Editorial Intern
One long success story for tennis legend, LA resident Frank Brennan
If Frank Brennan’s tennis life was the subject of a made-for-TV movie, even Disney might say the plot was just too good to be true. Brennan of Los Altos was the head coach of the Stanford women’s tennis team for 21 years. Each season brought one success story after another.
“If you made a script of the story, no Hollywood producer would accept it,” Brennan said. “It is too unbelievable. A son follows in his father’s footsteps, and his son follows in his footsteps, his son-in-law is successful in the same career - it’s just too perfect.”
From 1979 to 2000, Brennan coached Stanford to 10 NCAA titles. He was named Intercollegiate Tennis Association Coach of the Decade for both the 1980s and the 1990s, National Coach of the Year four times and Conference Coach of the Year 10 times.
Recently retired, he reflected on his favorite part of coaching. “I miss the matches. I miss feeling that nervousness and anxiety,” he said. “Sometimes I couldn’t eat or would take a run. It was unbelievable - exhilaration mixed with suicidal tendencies. Luckily we won more than we lost.”
That statement couldn’t be truer as Brennan had a career record of 510-50 match wins (.911) in his 21 seasons.
Despite Brennan’s intensity during matches, he was an expert at appearing cool and calm. Teryn Ashley, who played under Brennan, recalled, “If he saw that we were nervous, he would crack jokes and make us feel more comfortable. He exuded confidence.”
So how did Brennan become such a success? Not without the help of his supportive wife Terry, he acknowledged, and especially his father, Frank Brennan Sr.
Frank Sr. did not know a thing about tennis when he lived in Patterson, N.J. As a young teen, he walked by the clay courts of the tennis club near his home. The groundskeepers asked him to help them fix and manage their courts.
Frank Sr. soon started spending hours at the club watching people play tennis. Before long, he was jumping in as the fourth player when members needed another player for doubles.
“He never took a lesson. He just watched tennis and read about it constantly. He was a true student of the game,” Frank Jr. said.
Years later, Frank Sr. became a well-known and successful coach. He gave lessons to eager students and started successful tennis camps. He raised enough money to open the first indoor tennis facility to enable practice in the winter as well as summer. “Soon, indoor facilities started popping up all over the East. He really changed the sport of tennis,” Frank Jr. said.
One day, Frank Sr. went to a tournament to critique the young players. One of them was 14-year-old Billie Jean King, traveling as part of the Junior Wightman team. After watching her match, the impressed coach went up to her, introduced himself - and Frank Jr., who was with him - and told her to hang in there, that she would be a great player some day.
His encouraging words were the start of a lifelong friendship. King lived at the Brennan home every summer during tournaments in the area. Frank Sr. coached and critiqued her game during her visits.
Frank Jr. didn’t mind another girl in the house. “She was great. I didn’t date her but my friend did,” he recalled.
Frank Jr. still keeps in contact with his childhood friend, the tennis legend.
Frank Jr. also became a tennis player and played college tennis at Indiana University. After college, he went right into coaching. “I was making money, which was great, and learned quickly that I was good at it.” Following in his father’s footsteps, he acted on an idea from his father in-law and started his own tennis camp in New Jersey in 1972. Soon he added camps in Florida and North Carolina.
One summer, while Frank Jr. was coaching in Scarsdale, N.Y., a woman approached to discuss her 10-year-old daughter, Lele Farood. Farood’s mother wanted her off the baseball field, knowing she was never going to play for the Yankees, and wanted Frank Jr. to make sure she stayed on the tennis court. Frank Jr. worked with Farood year after year, watching her grow up on the court and become progressively better each year with the help of his coaching.
Farood became a Stanford tennis star and went on to reach the top 30 in the world. So much for baseball.
Years later, the coaching position at Stanford opened up and Farood was quick to tell Frank Jr. about it. “I couldn’t really see myself doing that. I was fine where I was, but for some reason I applied for the job,” Frank Jr. recalled. He applied, and Stanford eagerly accepted.
Frank Jr. started out as the only tennis coach, but soon requested an assistant. Years later, when the athletic department implemented his request, he made a phone call to his old friend and student, Farood. She had never coached, nor was she interested in that career. But she agreed to help out temporarily until Frank Jr. found a permanent assistant. “Eleven years later she becomes the head coach,” Frank Jr. said with a chuckle.
After Frank Jr.’s retirement in 2000, Farood took the head coaching position and Frank Jr.’s son, Frank Brennan III, became assistant coach. Frank III, a successful tennis player in his own right, had coached briefly at the University of Redlands and at the Fremont Hills Country Club in Los Altos Hills after he graduated.
“He has always wanted to get back into coaching (at the collegiate level), so when I needed more help I knew exactly whom to call,” Frank Jr. said.
In their first two years in their new roles, Farood and Frank III have won two national titles. Frank III recalled having his father watch him coach his former team at Nationals this past spring.
“I am thrilled to be doing what he did for so many years,” he said. “I consider him to be the best women’s tennis coach in the world. My dad started working with Lele when she was 8 years old and made her into the top 30 in the world. I don’t know anyone else you can say that about. I have gone from just being a son to an admirer as well.”
The story doesn’t stop there. Frank Jr.’s daughter, Megan, played tennis briefly at the University of Hartford, Conn. Growing up, she kept in close contact with her friend Randy Becker, who attended her father’s tennis camps in New Jersey. Years later they were married, and now Randy is the head tennis pro at the Los Altos Golf & Country Club. The Beckers have one daughter, Olivia, and Megan recently gave birth to a son, Jack.
Frank III recently got married, and he and his wife, Shauna, have a daughter, Madeline.
Frank Jr. said the recent increase in the number of grandchildren is the reason he retired.
In October 2001 he was inducted into the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame.
Besides going to awards dinners for his accomplishments, Frank Jr. now spends his time enjoying his grandchildren, coaching on the side and playing some tennis himself.
“It is still very flattering to get phone calls from my son or son-in-law about questions they have regarding tennis and their careers,” he said.
Frank Jr. is enjoying his free time, but tennis is still very much part of his life. When asked about future plans, he responded, “I’ve got three grandchildren now. I’m not going to let anyone coach them but me.”
