Julius Seligson
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Julius "Julie" Seligson (born December 22, 1909, in New York City; died October 13, 1987) was an outstanding tennis player in the early part of the 20th century. Like other Jewish tennis players of the time, he experienced anti-semitism.[1]
A native of New York, Seligson was ranked as high as No. 9 in USTA Singles in 1928.
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[edit] Tennis career
As a junior he was the national boy's 18-and-under champ in 1925 and 1926.
He played collegiate tennis at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. In 1928 he won the NCAA singles championship, beating Ben Gorchakoff 6-1, 6-1, 6-1, to become Lehigh’s first individual national champion.[2]
He reached the singles final of the NCAA championship again in 1930, and prior to losing that 1930 final 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 8-6, to Cliff Sutter of Tulane, he had won 66 straight matches.
He won the NCAA indoor singles championship in 1928, 1929, and 1930.
In 1928 and 1930, he was a singles finalist at the U.S. Indoor Singles Championship.
In 1929 he was disqualified during the U.S. Indoor Singles Championship by Charles Beard, the referee, because Seligson left the clubhouse in a severe rainstorm to see a movie. Seligson said: "most reporters felt there was an anti-Semitic tinge to it." Many members of the Merion Cricket Club did not agree with Beard's decision, but felt he had the right to do what he did.
In 1929, at the historic tennis tournament in Cincinnati, he reached the singles final, only to fall to Herbert Bowman in four sets: 6-2, 4-6, 4-6, 1-6.
He later turned professional and won three titles at the Metropolitan Clay Court Championship.
[edit] Halls of Fame
In 1992, he was inducted into the Lehigh University Athletic Hall of Fame, and in 2002 he was enshrined into the ITA Men’s Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame.
[edit] Miscellaneous
Seligson died in 1987 of a malignant melanoma at his home in Westport, Connecticut. He was 77 years old.
[edit] External links
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