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>&j,     miljohnson ’30, ’32 is 80   Robcrt   Thurman Tennis Association Super Seniors  
  i years old. While many people division ( for age 55 and older) in 1963,  
id  2 , look forward to age 65 as the · V _ ’_ the year it was founded. Although he  
    year of retirement, he looked   · lost in the first round, he went on to  
  i forward to age 80 as the year of the   _ I t · win the consolation tournament. In  
 `»   grand slam in the Super Senior Tennis i     ,_, " __ 1968, after winning the National Clay  
mi-  i_ lDivision for players 80 years and older.   ~ ey; _, · lt   .   I I Court Singles championship in the A  
  il This means winning the national clay, `     ,i   ‘ “’hi?7iiT V Super Seniors Division @$6 60 l
Ccd `  i· i grass, indoor, and hard court   ,   jj    ~` `, . " ‘ if bracket), he was ranked number one {
1  championships. And, he started the .    y .  ·iil L, _, , tg, nationally. l
,€   singles and doubles at the Fort Meyers r    `·;i?°{" Senior and Super Senior titles including IQ
; ,  Oasis Super Seniors Tournament and       Q i " live national championships—three  
dc [  , at the Bradenton Country Club Super /'   singles and two doubles. He has  
  Seniors Tournament, Bradenton, Fla.   if ih". is ii competed throughout the United States . .|
igiy  ._ During the summer he saw his johnson who also received her degree and has traveled as far as Germany,  
and _;  favorite sport played at the All England in 1930. With that as beginning, he has Spain, and Austria to play in tourneys.  
  A Club in London, better known as continued to play and to win. It was in Spain that he placed second in  
  l Wimbledon. Emil was invited to join a He maintained his tennis interest doubles and third in singles competition  
thy-   dozen U.S. players to compete with while in the Army and lists among his at the International Seniors  
j is   players from five European countries many triumphs the 2nd Army Senior tournament. Then, in 1985, he won the li
  i during the first week of Wimbledon. singles (age 40 bracket) championships singles in the 70 and over class of the  
  He WOH lC>0th doubles matches that he from 1955 through 1959. He was All- Open Tournament for Veterans at the ‘  
Zed Q  played. The following week he was in Army Senior singles and doubles World Championships in Austria. l`
  the throng that watched the main champion in 1955, runner—up 1956, Emil has made tennis a family affair. i
  Wimbledon matches and he said it was and won the 1957 All-Army Senior During the 1950s, he and his son, _ {
  l qltite 3 thrill to be there. doubles (age 40 bracket) championship Allen, played in the LeXiI1gtOrl City    
,   Emil, also known as the Major (U.S. and the runner-up position in the tournaments. After the death of his first ; '
iis   Army, retired, 1962), became singles wife, Margaret Allen johnson ’30, he i
 ; interested in tennis when in high school In 1962, he retired from the Army married Frances Brown of Edgewater. , t
i  but did not get really active until he and moved to Edgewater, Florida, They have played in several doubles  
n in ‘··  tutored the University of Kentucky in where be built a clay "fast-dry" surface tourneys and have brought home    
it  Q thc late 1920s. "I started playing in court for Edgewater United Methodist trophies. Until recently, he doubled i  
iii  high school and we called it tennis, but Church where he was a member, Emil with his brother, Frederick, who also { Q
1 the   it was really just pat ball. We didn’t managed the court, gave lessons, and lives in Edgewater, in a number of i gl
ie  . take full swings. We would hold up the played anyone willing to face him tournaments. .  
 ,- racket andjust pat the ball back over across the net. As one player said, One of the highlights in his tennis l  
,‘  thi; net. When I was a freshman at the "Looks are deceiving. I thought I was a book of memories took place in 1987 '  
iffers Ei  University, I entered an intra-mural good player and was half this man’s age when he, Allen, and Allen’s son, Jeff, f
  tournament. _]ust before we started so I shouldn’t have much trouble. It participated in the Sedona Family · 5
llc  ,. playing someone asked my opponent to didn’t take me long to find outjust how Open Tournanment in Arizona and  
 if do something and he said, ‘I’ll do it in wrong I was. He ran me all over the won the grandfather-grandson event.  
tre.   Hl>out 10 minutes’ He wasjust about court and had a drop shot that soon Emil has three children, Peggy {
{  Fight. The balls kept whizzing past me convinced me to conserve my energy Thurman ’52 of Knoxville, Tenn.,  
; Q  and I couldn’t even see them. I took rather than waste efforts to attempt Allen of Rolling Meadows, Ill., and i.
j  ` that defeat as a challenge and decided getting it back. And, he was very Joyce Pennington (’57—’60), Orlando,  
the   to really learn to play.” gracious. After two very quick sets Fla; eleven grandchildren and four  
1r as  _' And, learn he did! He became a which he won, he thanked me for great-grandchildren. He says he looks `  
 i, member of the UK tennis team and playing a good game and excused forward to the creation of a "great  
f  ’ Won the first of many trophies when he himself because he was scheduled to grandfather-great grandchild" tourney  
  look the Lexington City championship play doubles in fifteen minutes." and has no doubt he will be in it. ,  
Gah   m 1933* One Of the Students in the But, Emil does UOK limit hi$ play t0 Robert S. '17zurman is afreelancc writer andfriend  
  g**ll€YY was his m¤th¢r Gmcc Ruth Edgewater. He joined the U.S. Lawn tjEmz'l_]ohns0n. li;
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