Peachy Kellmeyer

Last updated
Peachy Kellmeyer
Full nameFern Lee Kellmeyer
Country (sports)Flag of the United States.svg  United States
Born (1944-02-19) February 19, 1944 (age 79)
Wheeling, West Virginia
Int. Tennis HoF 2011 (member page)
Singles
Grand Slam singles results
Wimbledon R2 (1964)

Fern 'Peachy' Kellmeyer (born February 19, 1944 in West Virginia, United States) is a retired tennis player and current tennis administrator who helped change the face of women's tennis. Kellmeyer is an alumnus of Florida Atlantic University. [1]

A junior champion in the 1950s, Kellmeyer played No. 1 on the University of Miami women's tennis team and became the first woman to compete on a Division 1 men's squad. Hired as physical education director and coach at Florida's Marymount College in 1966, Kellmeyer successfully sued to overturn an AIAW rule barring women's athletic scholarships, leading to Title IX legislation.

In 1973, Kellmeyer was tapped by founder Gladys Heldman as the first tour director of the fledgling Virginia Slims Circuit. She continuously pushed to secure additional venues and increased prize money for players. In 1977, she brought the first women's tennis tournament to Madison Square Garden.

She is the tour operations executive consultant for the Women's Tennis Association.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gigi Fernández</span> American professional tennis player

Beatriz "Gigi" Fernández is a Puerto Rican former professional tennis player. Fernández won 17 major doubles titles and two Olympic gold medals representing the United States, and reached the world No. 1 ranking in doubles. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 17 in 1991. Since retiring from the professional tour in 1997 at the age of 33, Fernández has been a tennis coach and entrepreneur. She now shares her knowledge of doubles with tennis enthusiasts throughout the US by conducting Master Doubles with Gigi Clinics and Doubles Boot Camps. Fernández is the first Puerto Rican to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

This article lists the WTA Awards given by the Women's Tennis Association to players and coaches for achievements during a season or their careers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pauline Betz</span> American tennis player

Pauline Betz Addie was an American professional tennis player. She won five Grand Slam singles titles and was the runner-up on three other occasions. Jack Kramer called her the second best female tennis player he ever saw, behind Helen Wills Moody.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jill Craybas</span> American tennis player

Jill N. Craybas is an American former professional tennis player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Granville</span> American tennis player

Laura Granville is a former American professional tennis player. During the two years she spent at Stanford University, she set the record for most consecutive singles victories with 58 and finished with an overall record of 93–3. Granville won the NCAA Championship in singles as well as the ITA Player of the Year in both 2000 and 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Frazier</span> American tennis player

Amy Frazier is a former professional tennis player from the United States. She won eight singles and four doubles titles on the WTA Tour. On February 27, 1995, she achieved a career-high singles ranking of No. 13, while on March 29, 1993, she achieved a career-high doubles ranking of No. 24.

Donna Floyd Fales is an American amateur tennis player. She was ranked in the Top 10 in the United States from 1960 to 1963, and from 1965 to 1966.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julie Heldman</span> American tennis player

Julie Heldman is an American tennis player who won 22 singles titles. In 1968 and 1969, she was ranked No. 2 in the U.S. She was Canadian National 18 and Under Singles Champion at age 12, U.S. Champion in Girls’ 15 Singles and Girls’ 18 Singles, Italian Open Singles Champion, Canadian Singles and Doubles Champion, and U.S. Clay Court Doubles Champion. She won three medals at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, and three gold medals at the 1969 Maccabiah Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carole Caldwell Graebner</span> American tennis player

Carole Caldwell Graebner was an American tennis player. According to Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, Graebner was ranked in the world top 10 in 1964 and 1965, reaching a career high of World No. 4 in these rankings in 1964. Graebner was included in the year-end top 10 rankings issued by the United States Lawn Tennis Association from 1961 through 1965 and in 1967. She was the third-ranked U.S. player in 1964 and 1965. She was ranked U.S. No. 1 in doubles in 1963.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bryan Shelton</span> American tennis coach and former player (born 1965)

Bryan Shelton is a former American college tennis coach and former professional tennis player. During his professional career, he won two singles and two doubles ATP tour titles, and reached the mixed doubles final at the 1992 French Open, partnering Lori McNeil. Shelton played collegiately for Georgia Tech from 1985 to 1988, and then played professionally from 1989 to 1997. He subsequently returned to his alma mater to coach the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets women's tennis team, which won the NCAA Women's Tennis Championship in 2007. He then served as the head coach of the Florida Gators men's tennis team of the University of Florida, where he coached the Gators to winning the 2021 NCAA Championship. He is the only head coach to have won a national championship in both men and women's NCAA Division I Tennis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Audra Cohen</span> American tennis player

Audra Marie Cohen is an American former professional tennis player and current college tennis coach. She was the # 1 collegiate female tennis player in the United States in 2007. At the University of Miami in 2005-2006 she was named the ITA National Player of the Year and was the National Indoor Champion, and in 2006-07 she won the ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship, the NCAA Singles Championship, and the ITA National Player of the Year award. She is currently the head women's tennis coach at the University of Oklahoma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intercollegiate Tennis Association</span> Organization of coaches and collegiate tennis players

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) is the governing body and coaches' association of United States college tennis, both an advocate and authority, overseeing men's and women's varsity tennis at all levels – NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, NAIA, and Junior/Community College. The ITA headquarters are located in Tempe, Arizona.

Gladys Medalie Heldman was an American tennis player, manager and magazine publisher. She was the founder of World Tennis magazine. As a manager, she supported and represented Billie Jean King and eight other female tennis players: Rosie Casals, Judy Dalton, Julie Heldman, Kerry Melville, Peaches Bartkowicz, Kristy Pigeon, Nancy Richey, and Valerie Ziegenfuss. They were called the Houston Nine and formed the Virginia Slims Tour in the early 1970s. She is a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Furman Paladins</span> Intercollegiate sports teams of Furman University

The Furman Paladins are the varsity athletic teams representing Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, in intercollegiate athletics.

Wendy White-Prausa is a former professional tennis player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katrina Adams</span> American tennis player

Katrina M. Adams is an American tennis executive and former professional tennis player from Chicago. She was president and CEO of the United States Tennis Association and chair of the US Open, as well as the chair of the International Tennis Federation Fed Cup and Gender Equality in Tennis committees. As a player, Adams was a doubles specialist, reaching the quarterfinal stage or better at all four Grand Slams as well as achieving a career-high doubles ranking of no. 8. Her book, Own the Arena: Getting Ahead, Making a Difference, and Succeeding as the Only One was published in 2021.

Lele Forood is the Peter and Helen Bing director of women's tennis at Stanford University. She has been the head coach since 2001, and has won 10 NCAA Championships. Previously, she was a top amateur and college tennis player. As a professional, she is best known for reaching the doubles semifinals at the 1977 US Open and at the 1978 US Open, upsetting reigning Wimbledon champion Virginia Wade. Forood reached a high ranking in singles of No. 30.

Alice Luthy Tym, née Alice Luthy, is a former American college and amateur tennis player who was ranked No. 13 in the world in the mid-1960s. She later became a college tennis coach, tennis writer and university instructor. She as inducted into the Tennessee Tennis Hall of Fame in 2013.

Stacy Margolin is a former American professional tennis player in the WTA tour and the ITF world tour from 1979 to 1987 whose career-high world singles ranking is No. 18. In her eight professional seasons, Margolin competed in a total of twenty-five grand slam championships, which includes several appearances at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the French Open. She won a gold medal at the 1977 Maccabiah Games in Israel.

References

  1. "ITA - Fern 'Peachy' Kellmeyer". ITA Women's Hall of Fame McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center. Archived from the original on 2006-08-31. Retrieved 2006-11-24.