A word of advice for my Roo friends. Always, ALWAYS wear your Roo gear. The #1 reason I wear my Roo gear is to collect Roos. They’ll let you know when they see you. It happened again this past weekend.
I was recruited to play in a USTA tennis league this summer in Austin. Sunday was our first match, so I arrived early to meet my new team. I saw a team gathering around the courts and introduced myself. Turns out, this team was not my team. This team was our opponent.
But one of those opponents saw my Roo baseball cap.
Him: “Austin College! Did you attend?”
Me: “I did. And you?
Him: “Yup. Class of 1984. And you?”
Me: “Class of 1992. Did you play AC tennis?”
Him: “Yup.”
Me: “Me too.”
His name is Dr. David Phillips. Phillips was an AC pre-med major in the early 1980s alongside fellow pre-med student Gene Branum. In an era when Branum was kicking a 57-yard field goal to earn AC a national championship in football and Arnold Schwarzenegger was kick starting his movie career as Conan the Barbarian, Phillips was a part of some outstanding AC tennis teams. Some members of those teams, such as Garland L. Turner (Sig Tau pledge brother), Michael Phillips (Sig Tau pledge brother & actual twin brother), Terri Jones Kitzmiller, and Margaret Winfield McMahen, are in this group. See the comments for more.
From 1981 to 1984, David Phillips helped the AC men’s tennis team capture four straight TIAA conference titles. The doubles team of Dale Anderson (Line #1) and David Phillips (Line #2) were nearly unbeatable in TIAA competition during this time, suffering the rare defeat only against schools which offered athletic scholarships. In 1983, David Phillips won the Carroll Pickett MVP award and was named TIAA 1st Team All-Conference. His doubles partner Dale Anderson did Phillips one better, matching those awards in 1982 and earning induction into the AC Hall of Honor in 2012.
The AC newspaper included a photo of Anderson & Phillips in a 1982 match at the old Russell tennis courts against Texas Wesleyan University. AC Coach Barbara Lawson said the following in an article about the AC dynamic duo: “Our #1 doubles team (Anderson & Phillips) is just dominating most of their opponents.” The 1982 season ended for the two in the NAIA District 8 semifinals, when they lost to the #1 doubles team from a scholarship school. They lost that match in a heart breaking third-set tiebreaker. Conan the Barbarian would have been proud.
Since those AC days, Phillips has embarked on what Austin College is most famous for. He has become yet another exemplary Roo medical professional. Hey, it’s AC: doctors are what we do. After Sherman, Philips attended medical school at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. In the nearly 30 years since, Phillips has been a trusted Austin-area Doctor in the field of Urology. In 2021, Dr. Phillips was interviewed by my Austin local news about his field. Well done KXAN, way to go with a Roo doctor.
As luck would have it, David Phillips was my actual opponent on the court on Sunday. Without that Roo cap, I would have never known that I, a Carroll Pickett MVP winner in 1990, was about to go head-to-head in a doubles match against a Carroll Pickett MVP winner from just 7 years prior. So, a word of advice my friends. Always, ALWAYS wear your Roo gear. Had I not done so, this little Roo Tale would never have happened.
You may be wondering who won this little Roo vs. Roo tennis battle between David & me on Sunday. Well, your humble Roo Tale author can’t kick a 57-yard field goal and he can’t tell you much about urology. But tennis, Marc can do. Even when my opponent is a TIAA Conference Champion, I will still go full Conan the Barbarian on the court to get the W.
For Marc, what is best in tennis? “Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of the AC pre-meds.” I’m sure the good doctor will soon ask me for a rematch.
