WhatGoesAroundComesAround_DavisRob

top school-boy “prospect” by major league scouts. He’d received a full
athletic scholarship to St. John’s University for baseball and basketball.
He was the starting guard on the great teams of the Connie Hawkins
era. In fact, even today in his late 60’s, Spencer can hit 85 to 90 out of
100 foul shots and swish jumpers from beyond the arc at will.
A devastating shoulder injury had put a premature end to college and
dreams of a professional athletic career. Moreover, war was going full
blast, and off to Vietnam he went. Luckily he returned, began his career
and most importantly, met his future wife.
Laurie had grown up in a tennis playing family. In fact, her brother was
a teaching pro. Spencer had taken to the game and thrown himself into
it. He played every possible day he could, and soon began entering
amateur tournaments. Laurie’s Columbia connection played an
important role as Spencer became friendly with the coach, who was an
ex-player on the professional tour. He encouraged Spencer to work out
with the team in order to provide his players with competition. Spencer
was soon providing more than most of them could handle. His amateur
ranking climbed rapidly as Spencer’s tournament results surged. He
became regarded as one of the top players in his age group.
I arrived at the tennis court at a little before 4:00 P.M. that afternoon.
Spencer was already there practicing serves. We greeted each other
and began to rally. I noticed, somewhat alarmingly, that the harder I
would hit the ball to Spencer, the harder it would come back. What’s
more, it didn’t seem to matter whether I was hitting to his forehand or
his backhand. That was a bit disconcerting since most of the people I
played with including myself, had much weaker backhands. Still, I soon
got into a groove and was hanging in there. It was probably the best
practice session of its kind that I’d ever experienced. Then it ended.