Earl “Lornie” Kuhle admits he has always loved the action but prefers to remain in the background and away from the bright lights.
The longtime Encinitas resident Kuhle is the Chairman of the biggest girls’ tennis tournament in the nation, the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 18s and 16s National Championships, which begins Wednesday and continues through Aug. 15 at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego.
When he took over the tournament four years ago, Kuhle – who also runs the Easter Bowl USTA Spring Nationals in April – immediately went to work improving the event and making it one of the best junior tournaments in the nation.
It wasn’t easy, but Kuhle knew the first thing he had to do to elevate the tournament to elite status was to call upon some of his famous tennis-loving friends for a little help.
“We needed money so I organized a few lunches with people like Billie Jean King and Andre Agassi and Steve Carell,” Kuhle said. “We needed to raise money and we were able to. We were the first national championship to be televised on the Tennis Channel and we had an umpire chair and that was a big deal. It really is like a pro tournament in many ways.”
Always looking to pass the credit to others, Kuhle said it was the USTA’s Bill Mountford who had the vision of what the event could be, and longtime USTA Director of Junior Competition Lew Brewer’s insight that pushed him to make the tournament the success it has become. He is just as quick to praise his fundraising committee including Jack McGrory, Una Davis, Bill Kellogg and Charlie Pasarell.
And of course Kuhle said King’s willingness to help and attend the tournament each year makes it one the players will never forget. On Tuesday, Aug. 10, King will give an inspirational talk to all the players and coaches on Stadium Court.
“We are just so lucky we have her for this tournament,” Kuhle said of his longtime friend King. “And she specifically asked if she could speak to a large gathering of kids. I didn’t ask her to do that. How great is that? Not only does she come, but it’s unbelievable that she wants to come and help them these kids with their tennis and help the sport.”
Kuhle added: “When I took over the tournament the very first thought I had was to call Billie Jean. There’s no other person in the world who deserves to have their name on the most important girls’ event in the United States. Being a lover of the game and wanting to support girls’ tennis she was very willing to get involved and we renamed the tournament after her and that just elevated the event to a whole different level.”
The Fed Cup is named for BJK, and the home of the US Open in New York at the USTA National Tennis Center, as well. So Kuhle knows the small company he’s in. “She doesn’t just hand her name out to anyone,” he said. “She has no ego. She strictly wants to help female athletes and having a daughter I’m all for it.”
Kuhle first met King in the early 1970s when he was named the official coach for his best friend Bobby Riggs’ Battle of the Sexes matchup against King. “She knew it was all about the promotion,” Kuhle said. “She didn’t hate Bobby Riggs. She loved Bobby. But she wanted to win, and she did. She had all the respect in the world for Bobby. She called him when he was dying. And she knew what a great champion he was, which a lot of people don’t remember. He won the Triple Crown at Wimbledon and the US Open, and he would have won a lot more if the war wouldn’t have started in 1939.”
Kuhle credits King’s partner Ilana Kloss with coming up with the tournament’s tagline: “Where Champions Are Made.”
“We had Coco Gauff play here a couple of years ago,” Kuhle said. “She was watching her beat Venus Williams at Wimbledon and emailed me that our tournament is ‘Where Champions are Made.’ So I copied it off her email and made that our slogan.”
Kuhle said more than a hundred college coaches will be on-site recruiting tomorrow’s stars. The future goals are simple, he said. “To keep raising money and making it the best tournament in the world.”
Steve Pratt’s columns appear weekly at USTAsocal.com.
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