It’s Not Just Tennis on Exhibit in Ojai This Week, It’s History

There’s more to see than tennis matches at the Ojai tournament this week.

The “Ojai, 100 Years” exhibit at the Ojai Valley Museum takes visitors down memory lane with a video of the greatest players in tournament history, a timeline of event highlights since it began in 1896, a sign-in book from 1913 and a list of the 80 Ojai players who went on to win Grand Slam titles.

Elsie Kosub Jones was 14 in the 1930s when she won the girls’ doubles trophy that is on display.

Rose Boggs, who has attended every tournament since 1930, loaned the exhibit the pink tennis dress worn by 14-year-old Tracy Austin when Austin won the Women’s Open Singles title in 1977.

The exhibit explains how the tournament’s tea tent, complimentary orange juice and street dance traditions were started.

“We normally do about four exhibits a year,” museum director Robin Sim said. “And this one is certainly the right fit at the right time. It is a tribute to one of our town’s longest-running annual events. Much of what you see here was loaned to us by local citizens. The Ojai Valley Tennis Club loaned us several trophies for events that are no longer played.”

One-half mile from Libbey Park, the museum accepted contributions from past participants and community members for the exhibit.

Other tidbits gleaned from the display: William L. Thacher moved to Ojai in 1895 and became headmaster at Thacher School. He started the Ojai Valley Tennis Club that year and the first tournament was held in 1896 on dirt courts at Libbey Park. The courts were paved in the mid-1920s.

The town of Ojai was originally called Nordhoff, but its name was changed in 1917 because of anti-German sentiment. On April 23, 1904, an Ojai newspaper reported the price of daily admission to the tournament was 35 cents, which included a seat in the grandstand. This year, admission is $8 a day.

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Rain delayed numerous singles matches Friday. Trying to keep the tournament on schedule, quarterfinal doubles matches were changed from best-of-three sets to single eight-game pro sets and several college players were asked to play singles and doubles matches with as little as 20 minutes rest in between.