1888-1935
Court Tennis Champion

A Court Master's Education.

From 1906 to 1925 Jay Gould dominated court tennis, one of the more obscure sports in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Court tennis is a completely different game than tennis: players use the walls and ceilings in making their shots. Whereas lawn tennis gained much popularity during the 1910s and 1920s, court tennis remained the game of a wealthy elite because of the cost of maintaining the indoor, enclosed court. Exclusive urban athletic clubs usually maintained court tennis facilities, but some individuals, such as Jay Gould's father, George Gould, a wealthy industrialist, constructed their own courts. In 1900 Jay and his brother Kingdon began to take lessons in racquets and tennis from Frank Forester. After a year of instruction in racquets (a forerunner of modern racquetball), Forester introduced the boys to the rigors of court...