You may be familiar with the term, “The Champion’s Mentality.” Tracy personifies that brilliantly. You’ll be hard-pressed to meet a more passionate analyst, teacher, and student; yes, student, for as much as Austin has accomplished, her curiosity remains as high as it was when she first learned the game from Vic Braden, wrote an elementary school paper on Billie Jean King, and sharpened her tennis with Robert Lansdorp. From drills to tactics, grips to strings, understanding the past and contemplating the present, Austin relishes the chance to dig in and explore.
The park where I first saw Tracy is now known as Reed Park, a tribute to one of the town’s former mayors. I visited Reed Park earlier this month, walking around the courts on a drizzly Southern California Friday afternoon. Like many places one explores decades later, it looks a lot smaller than it appeared at the time. But there remained the six courts and the bleachers on the west side of the court that held roughly 200 people. I recalled standing in the southeast corner, just behind the court, that day in 1973. Then I remembered the time a few years later when I watched an even better version of Tracy defeat another tennis Hall of Famer, Dorothy “Dodo” Cheney. To think then that the iconic “Dodo” was approximately 60 years old, the same age Tracy has just turned.
And then I thought about the next conversation I was going to have with Tracy, be it about our video piece, or some happening in the tennis world – past, present, future. Any conversation with her is as rich as a hitting session with a Hall of Fame tennis player. Just keep in mind that you better be on your toes. Because she sure is.
Happy Birthday, Tracy.