Greetings Yale Men’s Tennis Community,

Welcome to the Yale Men’s Tennis History website!

When I first came to Yale in the fall of 1985, I knew relatively little about Yale and its tennis program, and even less about the tennis program’s rich history. I was just thankful for the chance to start my career in college coaching.  

My first introduction to its extraordinary history was from a booklet that Steve Griggs gave to me entitled “Yale and Tennis 1983, a Perspective”. It was brief and written for the Kiphuth Fellowship lecture series on Arthur Ashe’s visit to Yale. I was inspired by the booklet and over the years since, I have gathered a tremendous amount of historical information from a variety of sources such as scrapbooks, scorebooks, newspapers like the Yale Daily News and the Yale Herald, as well as American Lawn Tennis magazines, and the archives of the Department of Athletics and of The West Side Tennis Club. While the information is extensive, it is certainly not complete and I welcome any contribution of additional articles, photos, etc.

As you will see, the website has been organized into several categories including:

Teams by Year: Team photos, scorebooks, newspaper articles, and more!

Team General Information: All-Time Ivy League Honorees, Varsity Team Award recipients, Inductees to the College Tennis Hall of Fame and the International Tennis Hall of Fame, NCAA All-Americans, and more!

Coaches: Bios on the six coaches since Yale first hired William (Bill) Hinchliff in 1918.

Facilities: See the evolution of the outdoor and indoor facilities through photographs.

It is my hope that you will enjoy perusing this site as much as I enjoyed reading and learning about this special program that was one of the founding teams to form an intercollegiate association in the spring of 1883 and to participate in the first official intercollegiate championships that fall.

Sincerely,

Alex Dorato