Victor Kenneth Braden Jr. (August 2, 1929 – October 6, 2014) was an American tennis player, instructor and television broadcaster for the sport. He earned a PhDinpsychology and was married twice. He had 2 children, 1 grandchild and 3 step-children.[1][2][3]
Introduced to tennis at age 12, he became good enough to earn three Michigan state high school championships, a scholarship to Kalamazoo College, invites to play in River Forest, Illinois, and in Milwaukee. He told Sports Illustrated in a 1976 interview that he once hitchhiked to Detroit to watch Don Budge play Bobby Riggs, because he wanted to learn how Budge hit his backhand.
Braden graduated from Kalamazoo College,[4] where he was Captain of the Tennis Team, and won the MIAA Conference Singles Title. He married a model, Joan, upon graduation.[5] He was awarded an honorary doctorate degree by his alma mater in 2008.[6]
Vic Braden died of a heart attack on October 6, 2014, at the age of 85. He was married for many years to his 2nd wife, Melody.[7][8]
Braden became a tennis professional after graduating from Kalamazoo College in 1951.
While serving as Assistant Basketball Coach at the University of Toledo. Harold Tenney hired him to become the Head Tennis Professional at the Toledo Tennis Club. Besides teaching, he joined the pro tour and played against Jimmy Evert (father of Chris Evert) and George Richey (father of Cliff and Nancy Richey).[9] He moved to California in 1956 and obtained a master's degree from California State University, Los Angeles[10] and an honorary PhD from Kalamazoo College.[11] Braden joined Jack Kramer's pro tour in 1959. In 1961, he and Kramer started the Jack Kramer Tennis Club in Palos Verdes, CA where Braden helped direct construction and sell memberships to the club and then served as the Head Tennis Professional. He started Tracy Austin in tennis, and developed his "Tennis College" concept.[12] In 1986, Kramer said, "One Vic Braden is worth a lot of Champions in helping promote the sport. The McEnroes, Borgs, Connors, they've been great. But I don't think any one of them has created the interest in the sport that Vic has."[13] Braden was a patient and good friend of Dr. Toby Freedman, who was prominent in Space and Sports Medicine at North American Aviation and Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic, and was an avid Tennis Player.
Braden hosted a short-lived television series, Vic's Vacant Lot, which ran from 1982 to early 1984 for 26 episodes on ESPN and rerun on Nickelodeon until May 1985.[27] The premise was to send Braden out with a group of children to show them how to organize competitive sports on a vacant lot, as specified in the title.[28] Due to the show not receiving much recognition, no recordings were available online, at least until January 3, 2022, when an Internet Archive user uploaded an episode of the show in two parts.[29][30]
^Foster Wallace, David (1996). Infinite Jest (First ed.). United States of America: Little. Brown and Company. p. 1032. ISBN978-0-316-92004-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
United States
