I don’t write about myself that much. But this year I’m making some exceptions. The AC “A” Board announced that I’ll be inducted into the Austin College Hall of Honor in the summer of 2025. My sport is tennis, and Legends Weekend 2025 is igniting a bunch of Marc tennis stories. Here’s one:
I’ve shared first round results of the USTA Clay Court National Championships from July 1989. The tournament features the best junior tennis players in America. The champion of this 1989 tournament won a 1992 NCAA title in doubles at Stanford with Alex O’Brien, the best guy I ever played.
I see some familiar names in the results.
I see Richard Flores of San Antonio, TX. Flores was the best player my brother Gavin ever beat. Gavin beat him at the 1991 Texas A&M Open, when Flores was playing for the Aggies. After the win, I thought Aggie Coach David Kent might offer Gavin a scholarship on the spot. Sadly, Flores passed in 2011.
I see Thomas Cook of Galveston, TX. I was thrilled to take a set off of Cook back in the early 1980s at the Texas A&M Open, as he was one of the top ranked juniors in the state of Texas at the time. Thomas Cook would go on to play for Texas Tech. Today, Cook is the head pro at the Houston Racquet Club.
And I see Erik Menendez of Beverly Hills, CA. Unlike Flores & Cook, Menendez won his first-round match. Menendez, who was headed to the National Junior tournament in Kalamazoo in August, won this USTA Clay Court Nationals match easily by a score of 6-1, 6-2 on July 24th, 1989.
Just four weeks after that match, Erik Menendez and his brother brutally murdered their parents in a shocking crime that is still hotly debated today. Yes, before he was one half of the most infamous brothers in America, Erik Menendez was one of the best tennis players in America.
The movie “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” premiers today on Netflix. See a trailer in the comments, which includes Erik Menendez playing tennis. Menendez was Top-50 in the nation while I was just Top-100 in Texas. So, it’s likely Erik would have beaten me. That’s just as well, given that he is in prison for life with no possibility of parole.
