Advantage NST
Appearance by new resident makes annual tennis affair a grand slam event
STORY AND PHOTO BY
STEPHEN VRATTOS
Attendees of the Tennis
Association’s annual
Potluck Dinner to raise
funds for the American Cancer
Society as part of NST’s Babes &
Guys charity event were served a
special treat Thursday evening, July
13, when NST newbie Cecil Hollins
took to the lectern to speak about
his days as a “Gold Badge” Chair
Umpire for the International Tennis
Federation (ITF).
Members have colleague Carol
Meyerson to thank for the surprise.
She met Cecil and his wife, Mariel,
who moved into NST three months
ago, at a Tennis Association Meet
’n’ Greet in May. Soon thereafter,
Meyerson serendipitously bumped
into the couple in the elevator,
where Meyerson asked Hollins his
interest in speaking to the club at
the Potluck Dinner. More than 40
people participated in the dinner,
raising $1100, before settling down
to listen to Hollins share his tales
of life on the pro circuit.
A strong tennis player in college,
Hollins became a lawyer after graduation,
but continued to be a passionate
fan, so much so, he was not
shy about letting the umpires know
his feelings at matches he attended.
Finally, an ump got so fed up with
Hollins’s persistent “questioning”
of his calls, he called out the young
rabble-rouser. “If you’re so good at
refereeing matches, why don’t you
come down here and try it!”
Hollins took the man’s “friendly”
advice, learned the trade and was
soon a fledgling linesman. Each
serve, he’d focus on the player serving,
immediately adjusting his focus
to the service lines of the opponent
to ensure the ball landed fair. The
ball was traveling well over a hundred
miles per hour—Hollins noted
Boris and Becker and Ivan Lendl
as having particularly blistering
serves—so following its trajectory
was not easy. “Tough job,” he
admitted.
For several years, Hollins traveled
America and Europe, seeking out
matches and schools for umpires,
and working his way up to chair
umpire. In 1994, when Hollins
achieved his gold badge, it was only
three years after he’d attained the
level of chair umpire, making his
one of the fastest progressions in
tennis history.
Hollins served as a chair ump
for 13 years, refereeing games
with such tennis greats as John
McEnroe, Andre Agassi and Pete
Sampras, including his infamous
match against Spanish Pro Alex
Corretja, during which the Greek
pro vomited. He presided over 6
Australian, 2 French and 13 U.S.
Opens, 6 Wimbledons and dozens
of other prominent tournaments,
including more than 20 Davis Cups.
He was also a tennis referee at the
1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.
With a baker’s dozen years working
during arguably the Golden Age
of tennis, Hollins had a plethora
of stories to tell, including enlightening
information about whether
the online antics of certain players
followed them off the court. “Ilie
Nastase was crazy; McEnroe was
meaner, but Jimmy Connors was
unrelenting,” he revealed of the
sports triumvirate of terror. True to
form, the ornery McEnroe would
“ding” Hollins’s chair with his
racquet whenever trading sides at
matches.
Connors once asked Hollins,
if the ump could give him a code
violation for what he thought. “No,
I cannot,” Hollins replied.
“Well, I think you’re a G**
D***d A**hole!” Conners shouted.
Needless to say, the irascible pro
was given a code violation.
But not all players were bad.
Arthur Ashe was as much a gentleman
off the court as he was on and
“Bjorn Borg was the nicest guy.”
Hollins was the only ump invited
to Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi’s
wedding
“At least a hundred thousand,”
one audience member suggested, as
if to say that yearly stipend, which
many might find decent, but would
still seem paltry for such a prestigious
and important position. After
all, the people whose “work” you’re
charged with presiding over are the
greatest tennis athletes in the world,
making millions of dollars. Some
received tens of thousands merely
for showing up at an event, not
even playing.
“Sixty thousand,” Hollins finally
answered to a stunned crowd,
whose silence quickly turned to a
collective murmur of disbelief.
Still, 60K—including travel
and per diem—flying to some of
the most exciting cities in world,
doesn’t seem too shabby. But the
life of a chair ump was far from
glamorous. Hollins and company
weren’t spending nights drinking
pints of Foster’s and making s’mores
around a campfire on Bondi
Beach during the Australian Open,
nor sipping champagne with a basket
of gourmet cheeses and fresh
baguettes on the left bank of the
Seine in Paris during the French
Open.
Matches lasted for hours, and
unlike the athletes, who’d play their
single daily game, then retire for
the day, the chair ump might work
several matches in a row. Hollins
told of one such experience of double
duty, each game easily exceeding
five hours. That’s nearly half
a day perched in sweltering heat,
sitting in a hard metal, far-from-ergonomic
seat (think lifeguard), with
minimal breaks. It wasn’t unusual
for the barometer to hit 110 degrees
during the formerly mentioned
Aussie Grand Slam tourney, with
on-court temps topping 120º! Thus,
the on-tour life of a Gold Badge
umpire was more puritanical than
Bacchanalian.
In all, Hollins calculated his
cumulative time spent in the chair
at 270 days! He cited one important
difference between his days as
a chair ump and today’s arbiters.
“Back then, we had no instant
replay. We’re bound forever by our
mistakes.”
After leaving tennis, Hollins
returned to the legal profession and
today is a Rent Regulator for the
New York City Housing Authority.
“My life continues to be centered
around the court!”
Former International Tennis Federation Umpire and new NST resident Cecil Hollins speaks to Tennis
Association members
38 NORTH SHORE TOWERS COURIER ¢ August 2017