Dick Gould

Dick Gould is an American tennis coach.

Gould was born in Ventura, California in 1937.

He attended Ventura High School with longtime tennis friend, Tom Chivington.

He was the Student Body President and the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the Tennis Team.

This was Stanford's first NCAA team championship in tennis, and its first NCAA team championship in any sport since 1953.

Gould coached both John McEnroe and his younger brother Patrick.

They each led Stanford to NCAA championships, and John won the NCAA single's title.

He also won the Ventura County Singles and Doubles Championships in 1955.

After graduating from Ventura High School in 1955, Gould enrolled at Stanford University.

In the summer of 1958, he contacted the Southern California Tennis Association to provide two players to run a kid's clinic in Ventura and was sent Mike Franks and Noel Brown.

Dick won three varsity letters in tennis and won the tennis team's Leadership Award.

He graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor's degree in 1959, and earned a master's degree from Stanford in 1960.

Gould began his coaching career at Mountain View High School in Mountain View, California, where he was Tennis Coach and Assistant Football Coach from 1960 to 1964.

He was also the tennis professional at the Fremont Hills Country Club in Los Altos Hills from 1960 to 1966.

From 1963 to 1966, he was the Tennis Coach at Foothill Junior College in Los Altos, California, where his first champion player was Horst Ritter, who won the State Junior College Singles Championship, as well as the doubles with Rodney Kopp in 1963.

His teams won consecutive State Junior College Championships in 1964 and 1965.

He was succeeded by friend and another legendary coach in Tom Chivington.

He was the Men's Tennis Coach at Stanford University for 38 years from 1966 to 2004.

His Stanford men's tennis teams won 17 NCAA Men's Tennis Championships, and 50 of his players won All-American honors.

In 1966, Gould was hired as the Head Tennis Coach at Stanford.

He continued to serve as Stanford's Head Tennis Coach for 38 years from 1966 to 2004.

The Stanford men's tennis program began its rise to national prominence when Gould successfully recruited Roscoe Tanner in 1969 and Alex "Sandy" Mayer in 1970.

His teams were NCAA Championship runners-up in 1972, 1976, 1984, and 1994.

His players also won 10 singles titles and 7 doubles titles.

He is the winningest coach in Stanford men's tennis history with an overall record of 776–148 and a .840 winning percentage.

During Gould's tenure as Head Coach at Stanford, 50 of his players were selected as All-Americans.

Nine of his Stanford players, including John McEnroe, Gene Mayer, Alex "Sandy" Mayer, Roscoe Tanner and Tim Mayotte, have gone on to be ranked among the top 15 in ATP World Singles Rankings.

He has also coached 14 players who have reached top 10 in ATP World Doubles Rankings, including No. 1 Ranked Doubles Players, McEnroe, Jim Grabb, Jonathan Stark, Alex O'Brien, Jared Palmer, and Bob and Mike Bryan.

In 1972, Tanner and Mayer won the NCAA doubles championship, and the Stanford team finished second in the NCAA tournament.

At Stanford, Gould's tennis teams won 17 NCAA Team Championships in a span of 28 years, winning in 1973 and 1974, 1977 and 1978, 1980 and 1981, 1983, 1986, 1988 through 1990, 1992, 1995 through 1998, and 2000.

In 1973, Stanford won everything in the NCAA tournament: Mayer won singles, Mayer and Jim Delaney won doubles, and the team won the national championship ahead of USC.

In June, 1977, a few months before John McEnroe entered Stanford, he reached the Wimbledon semifinals, and there were rumors that he would turn pro immediately.

This gave Gould an opportunity to play a trick on McEnroe.

In Gould's words: "When school was getting ready to start, he called me. “Coach, I'm at the airport. Can you pick me up as soon as possible?” I teased, “I gave your scholarship away. I thought you were turning pro.” Silence. Then we both cracked up over the phone."

When the tennis season began early in 1978, the Stanford team was so deep that the defending NCAA singles champion, Matt Mitchell, played for Stanford in the no. 4 position behind McEnroe, Bill Maze, and Perry Wright.

The team compiled a perfect 24–0 record, the first of three Stanford men's tennis teams to enjoy an undefeated season.

He was named the ITA-Wilson "Coach of the Decade" both for the 1980s and the 1990s.

However, Gould continued to have success in the 1990s even as the game evolved with powerful, oversized, composite rackets and blasting topspin ground strokes.

The 1998 team finished its season with a perfect 28–0 record, lost only two singles matches and one doubles point during the entire season, and won all four of its NCAA matches without losing a dual-match point.

Gould's tennis philosophy focused on the serve-and-volley game.