Q&A With Douglas Henderson
By Michael Forte
ouglas Henderson’s 2010 book, Endeavor to Persevere: A Memoir on Jimmy Connors, Arthur Ashe, Tennis and Life, chronicles his life growing up in the Bronx in the late1960’s, discovering his love for tennis and being involved with some of the greatest players of all-time, including body guarding for Jimmy Connors. Henderson, a New York City native, now works as a lawyer at a trust and estates firm in Manhattan, and spent 18 US Opens with Connors. I sat down with Henderson to discuss his book and life in tennis.
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Forte: How did you first become involved in tennis? Henderson: When I was in high school at Horace Mann, I played on the varsity football, basketball and baseball teams. I was pretty good at them and felt I needed a new challenge. In the July of 1974 I watched Jimmy Connors play Ken Rosewall in the Wimbledon finals, I had never seen tennis like that! My idea of tennis was a wealthy sport for the “elite”, but Connors brought attitude to the game! That summer I signed up for summer camp tennis at my high school with Skip Hartman, I had only played the sport a few times in gym class. I asked Skip to 62
play one day and he told me, “sure, on the condition that the loser has to clean up the court!” I played tennis nearly every day and read every article and book I could find. I met a guy named Bill Brown who suggested, if I’m really interested in tennis, I go to the US Open. So, I did, me and my buddies went – it was much cheaper back then – down to the Open, it was still being held at West Side Tennis Club in those days. There was a gate for club members and we managed to befriend the guards enough to let us enter that way into the clubhouse. We went in, hung out in the men’s locker room watching Chris Evert on the practice court down below, and a voice from behind us called out, “hey, mind if I come watch?” It was Jimmy Connors! We couldn’t believe it! He was the nicest guy to us, [he] didn’t even know us but Jimmy got us in to watch his match; I grabbed his bags for him and walked him to the court.
1976 when he beat Bjorn Borg in a great final; that’s when it was played on clay! Jimmy lost in ‘77 to Guillermo Vilas—all the while we were friends. In 1978, it moved to Flushing Meadows and changed to “cement”; Connors won that first tournament there. I was with him until his last tournament in 1992, around 18 US Opens!
And that’s how you started working for Jimmy? Well, that’s how it started but it was more of a friendship. So, after he went on to win that tournament in 1974, he gave me his phone number to stay in touch. The next year rolled around and we met again at the Open—I was with him for that tournament, he lost in the final to Manuel Orantes. I worked with him for 1974 and 1975, and then in
What’s the most unique experience working with and being a friend of Jimmy has brought you? There was the time we came back to the hotel after a day at the Open and President Nixon was there! Jimmy introduced me and his wife to him. I was never a fan of his politics, but he was still a former president! The next morning, I went down to the lobby to get the daily paper and I hear someone call my
New York Tennis Magazine • June 2020 • NYTennisMag.com
Your book is filled with many fascinating stories, some of them unbelievable, what inspired you to write it? I’ve always liked writing; I was a writer in high school and college. I’ve actually ghost written five or six books on health and nutrition and I’ve written for magazines and newspapers. I feel like I was privileged enough to live through the “Golden Era” of tennis, with so many fascinating individuals, like Ilie Nastase from Romania: so unbelievably talented and entertaining, he also became a good friend. I felt it was time to get my story out to people.
