TCU, as the addict said, is Texas Christian University, originally founded in 1873 by two pastor brothers, Addison and Randolph Clark, who were affiliated with the Disciples of Christ, a mainstream ecumenical American denomination that schismed from the Presbyterians and Baptists during the Great Awakening period in the 1830's-1840's as part of the Campbellite movement. It is located in Ft. Worth (not Dallas - and we're very touchy about that) which, geographically and culturally, is where the western U.S. begins and the eastern U.S. ends; known widely as "Cowtown" because of its huge stockyards, but now it has a broad-based economy with a heavy emphasis on petroleum and natural gas. Despite the name and the history, TCU is now a thoroughly secular school, with about 10,000 students (which makes it a very small school in comparison to the gigantic behemoth state-sponsored universities with which we compete). The mascot is the Horned Frog, which is really a lizard, a once very prevalent little critter that shoots blood out of its eyes to ward off predators, nowadays, most everyone just calls us the "Frogs." Our rivals in the Big12 conference are Texas (boo!), Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, West Virginia and, particularly Baylor, a conservative Southern Baptist school that is currently undergoing a massive rape scandal. In the 1950's, when rock music started, the DOC was modern and allowed its teenagers to dance, so we would chant "We can dance, yes we do, we can dance, how bout you? at those awful backwards Baptists who couldn't and wouldn't embrace modern life (it's changed a little since then, but not much). We are also rivals with SMU (more friendly) and BYU (whose namesake was possibly nice to some of his many wives). TCU is an expensive private school that has a large endowment (over U.S.$1.5 billion) built mostly on oil money. TCU is a liberal arts school known for lots of things, its MBA program, its music program (especially piano and jazz), its nursing program, its ranch management program - it was one of the very first co-ed schools in the region and has historically provided organists to countless churches (and also hosts the Van Cliburn competition for great pianists worldwide).

In tennis, TCU has been an elite program since the early 1970's, when tennis really took off following the Billie Jean King-Bobby Riggs match. TCU hired Tut Bartzen, one of the best American pros of the 1950's-60's as its coach and he was there for nearly 30 years and really built the program, making the NCAA tourney and being highly ranked virtually every year. But we've never won the NCAA's despite coming very close many times. After Tut retired, the program went downhill, but in 2011, alum David Roditi was hired - he was a pro for many years, primarily having success at doubles and as a member of the Mexican Davis Cup team. Since Roditi's return, we've vaulted back to the elite, making the final 4 twice and finishing ranked 3rd last year. Cameron Norrie has been a leader the last two years, as a freshman in 2015, he and now-pro Nick Chappell were the stars; now, he, Alex Rybakov and Guillermo Nunez (and maybe Alastair Gray) are the stars. Last year was heartbreaking - we lost to Cal (our nemesis) at the NCAA's because it started raining and the matches were moved indoors and the Swedes from Cal (Goransson and Lakat) were better indoor players. And Cameron lost in the semis in the individual tourney to Mikael Torpegaard. Cameron and rest of the team really really really want revenge this year. It's a mission and a vision quest. TCU is still ranked 3rd; some other competitors are two-time defending champ Virginia, Ohio State, Wake Forest and North Carolina, but really possible 16-20 schools are in contention.

Cam likes it at TCU (and Alastair probably will too). Coach Roditi has been very flexible and allows Cam to be a pro for 8 months out of the year but everyone realizes that he wants to go pro full-time eventually. As the star tennis player, Cam is very popular - as I said, TCU has led the nation in attendance for 4 consecutive years, which for a small school is amazing. The Frogs routinely draw at least 1000 per home match and for the important matches, over 2500 - this dwarfs even the big state schools. The facilities are top-notch; the neighborhood is very safe and family-friendly; the year-round low humidity-weather is very tennis-friendly (Martina Navritilova used to "live" in Ft. Worth and her game vastly improved as a result). A TCU scholarship is worth roughly U.S.$70,000 per year; room, board, classes, travel, accommodations and coaching and workouts are free at the point of use for Cam. Most of the great American tennis players (Ashe, Smith, Connors, McEnroe) first won the NCAA's before going pro full-time. We want Cam to stay, win the Big12 (his twitter page's pic is of the team after winning the Big12 last year) the NCAA's and then go on to bigger and better things like winning Wimbledon, the Aussie, the French and the U.S. Open and playing with Murray on the GBR Davis Cup team. His game has vastly improved since coming to TCU - he's got a wicked lefty serve, he's the highest rated college player entering this season in the ATP and UTR rankings and is 2nd only to Torpegaard in the ITA. He's got thousands of dedicated Frog fans behind him.

I hope so. One of the reasons Cam blitzed out of the gate in June and July with wins at the Tulsa and Wichita Futures tourneys and the finals at the Aptos Challenger, I think, is because the NCAA loss was so emotionally devastating. The Frogs were SO hot in February thru May - winning at one point 23 team matches in a row against many ranked teams and winning the Big12 - and the NCAA's were such a downer with the team losing to Cal and Norrie falling to his Danish rival Torpegaard in the semis. After that, Cam was inspired to play some of his best tennis ever. He then suffered an ankle injury and had to take a few weeks off and skipped the Vegas Challenger; instead going to a Flume concert. He came back to play at Champaign and Columbus but wasn't quite as effective although he and Bambo nearly won in doubles; making the finals before losing to O'Hare/Salisbury (who are a very experienced doubles team).

Last year, in Auckland, he played in the Te Anua Invitational the week after Christmas and made the finals - if invited, he may play there again this year. He also might try to qualify for the ATP World event there two weeks later (as a Kiwi, he could possibly get a wildcard there if there are a lot of withdrawals) and could still (theoretically) qualify for the Aussie. If not, as I said, he told Coach Roditi that he wants to play the Maui Challenger the last two weeks of January; joining the TCU team thereafter. Which means he might miss the Frogs' first few matches (which will allow some early flexibility to Coach Roditi to see how good Alastair Gray really is). He also just might enjoy NZL with his family on the beaches (in his last match in Waco, he was wearing beach shorts). We'll see.

Cam is in the qualifying list for ATP Auckland.

I wonder if he will be able to get a MDWC due to his NZ nationality??

Jared wrote:

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Cameron will be playing in the New Caledonia Challenger this week - starting against 18-year-old Duckhee Lee from Korea in the 1st round.  .

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Already reported in the dedicated Nouméa thread.  I'll be very surprised - but delighted - if he wins that one.

Absolutely no need to apologise. Thank you for the insight into Duckhee Lee and his amazing level of achievement in the face of a not insignificant handicap.

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Sunday 1st of January 2017 08:32:13 AM

Jared wrote:

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Sorry - I'm still learning how to navigate this site. I'll go there if he wins.

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 Hi Jared, welcome to the Board.  We also have a US College thread in the General section where we keep tabs on the Brits currently in the system.