By Richard Dunn | www.ocregister.com
Long before it was popular to name something after John Wayne, current Palisades Tennis Club owner Ken Stuart opened the first facility named after the legendary movie star who lived in Newport Beach for several years.
In 1974, the Duke himself joined forces with Stuart to launch the John Wayne Tennis Club, and about two decades later Stuart purchased the club and renamed it Palisades, in honor of longtime tennis mentor, coach and aficionado Charlie Eaton, who once had a tennis club in the area in the 1960s called the Palisades.
Stuart has always been known to honor others, but this year the spotlight turns to him.
The Orange County Register has learned that Stuart, of Newport Beach, will be inducted in the Southern California Tennis Association Hall of Fame on Oct. 1 at UCLA.
“When they called me I asked if they were sure they had the right Ken Stuart,” the affable Stuart said. “I am obviously more than humbled by this honor. My focus always has been and always will be on the members of my club. This honor is something I never dreamed could happen to me. I hope they don’t change their mind.”
As a small example of his leadership and community impact, Stuart hosted the Roy Emerson Adoption Guild Tennis Tournament over Memorial Day weekend and helped the tournament increase its number of participants and revenue by 20 percent this year, according to a letter to Palisades Tennis Club members. Proceeds from the tournament benefit Holy Family Services.
An entrepreneur and inventor, Stuart, a former No. 1-ranked tennis player in Southern California, wanted to return to tennis on a full-time basis following a successful business career, and in 1974 consulted with two architects to help design the tennis facility adjacent to the Hyatt Regency Newport Beach and 9-hole Back Bay Golf Course. Stuart served as the Wayne Club’s Director of Tennis, General Manager and Head Professional during the sport’s boom in the 1970s.
Stuart has owned four different tennis clubs at times in the area – John Wayne, Racquet Club of Irvine, Palisades Tennis Club/Costa Mesa and Palisades Tennis Club/Newport Beach, his current club. His clubs have hosted numerous tournaments, including the 1997 U.S. Davis Cup matches.
In 1991, Stuart opened the Palisades Tennis Club behind the Acapulco restaurant on Bristol Street in Costa Mesa with five courts and no lights. With a strong and loyal membership base, but leased land about to expire and become storage units, Stuart closed the small club, purchased the John Wayne Tennis Club in 1995 for a reported $1.4 million and moved his members to the current facility on Jamboree in Newport Beach. With the merger and renaming, the new Palisades Tennis Club has thrived in the community and served as an ideal location for hosting events.
Stuart had come full circle from the time in 1973 when he was chosen over 1,200 candidates to design, build, program and manage the hip John Wayne Tennis Club. In 1975, Stuart sent his innovative match-making design to the United States Tennis Association asking for help developing a universal rating system as the Wayne Club was bursting at the seams, hosting over 700 guests per month and requesting assistance in rating tennis players from around the nation. Stuart’s outline and contribution to the USTA provided one of the formats used today in the National Tennis Rating System.
Stuart will be inducted into the USTA’s Southern California Tennis Hall of Fame along with 11 others, including 11-time Grand Slam champion Rod Laver, Bill Kellogg, Stella Sampras-Webster, Bob Kramer and posthumously Bobby Riggs.
“I never had any interest in being in the business of tennis,” Stuart said. “At the end of 1971 when I came off the men’s ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Tour I was only interested in completing my master’s degree at Long Beach State. I took a job teaching tennis across from the university at an apartment complex. A couple of years later I was selected from nearly 1,300 applicants to be the Head Tennis Pro, General Manager and Director of Tennis at the proposed John Wayne Tennis Club.
“At that exact moment, Mr. Joe Bogdanovich was my mentor and best friend who sponsored me on the men’s tour. He owned Star Kist Tuna Co. He informed me that they had created a position for me at Star Kist. I had a very difficult decision of taking that path, which guaranteed certain wealth or pursue a career in tennis. The rest is history and I have never looked back and wouldn’t change a thing.”
The SCTA Hall of Fame ceremony is black-tie optional with dinner at the new Luskin Conference Center on the UCLA campus.
