By Kevin Herrera
Editor in Chief

LAGUNA BEACH As World War II came to an end Glenn Bassett found himself not in Guam working on a naval destroyer, but back in his quiet hometown of Santa Monica, where he decided to get his life back on track and attend college.

Realizing he wasn’t quite ready for a four-year institution, Bassett decided Santa Monica College was the best place to help him get back into the groove of studying and writing papers. It was also the perfect place for him to brush up on his tennis.

Apparently his decision paid off in a big way.

Bassett went on to become the only person in history to win an NCAA tennis title as a player, assistant coach and a head coach, leading UCLA to its very first NCAA championship.

Due to those accomplishments, Bassett, 80, who still plays tennis three to four times a week, was inducted into the SMC Sports Hall of Fame, joining other sports luminaries like Olympic gold medalist and retired SMC professor Dr. Tommie Smith, four-time Olympic swimming gold medalist and SMC alumnus Lenny Krayzelburg, and Olympic track and field bronze medalist and SMC alumnus Johnny Gray.

“It really does mean a lot to me in a lot of different ways,” Bassett said Wednesday about his induction. “It was a thrilling experience to be back from the war and to see all of my friends again. We all had been apart for so long and SMC was a great place to sharpen up on our academics and learn how to study again. It got us into the groove, and it helped me realize that tennis was my life.”

Bassett, of Laguna Beach, began his impressive career at SMC with first place honors in the men’s singles competition at the Ojai Tennis Championship in 1947.

Bassett co-captained the UCLA championship team in 1950, and represented the USA twice at Wimbledon, before entering the education arena, teaching and coaching high school tennis for 15 years, many of them at Santa Monica High School, where he helped guide the tennis team to five straight California Interscholastic Federation championships.

Moving back to UCLA in 1967, he coached tennis for 27 seasons with an impressive record of 592-92-2, winning 13 conference championships, seven NCAA team championships and three singles championships. Among the tennis stars he coached were Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe.

He is in the UCLA Athletic, Intercollegiate Tennis Association Collegiate, and the Southern California Association halls of fame, and he is the author of “Tennis Today” and “Tennis: The Bassett System.”

He got his start playing the game as a kid when he teamed up with a classmate at Lincoln Middle School. The two used to play with and against each other in tournaments at Reed Park, which was then called Lincoln Park.

“A lot of my blood was spilled on those courts” Bassett said, recalling the long hours he put in training and playing. “I started playing because of my friend and then I started to realize I had some talent, and that got me excited. We started playing in tournaments and traveling, and I got even more excited. From there I just went full blast.”

kevinh@smdp.com