{"id":3061,"date":"2013-07-10T16:11:11","date_gmt":"2013-07-10T20:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=3061"},"modified":"2013-07-17T16:13:26","modified_gmt":"2013-07-17T20:13:26","slug":"tennis-champ-macken-reflects-on-storied-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/tennis-champ-macken-reflects-on-storied-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis Champ Macken reflects on storied career"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Doner<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Andy Murray became the first British player in nearly 80 years to capture Wimbledon\u2019s Men\u2019s title on Sunday, few people in Aurora were probably watching as closely as Brendan Macken.
\nWhen we left Mr. Macken, now in his 91st year, in the first part of our interview with the Aurora resident, and Canada\u2019s former reigning tennis champ, he was a 25-year-old working his way through William and Mary College to further his tennis dreams. <\/em><\/p>\n

With his brother Jim and his sister Pat [who also won a Canadian Championship in the \u201840\u2019s] eventually following him down to William and Mary, the Mackens started to make names for themselves.<\/p>\n

Macken was also an active figure in the school\u2019s student government, serving as class president and chief aid to the school president.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen when we had some famous person visiting the campus, there were some male students that would help the college president entertain. I became the chief aid and when we had a Canada-US Day with President Harry Truman and Lester B. Pearson and when they were speaking, I was sitting with Mrs. Truman and Mrs. Pearson in case they needed anything. The only thing around me was a few secret service guys.\u201d <\/p>\n

He even recalled being on the front page of the Newport News newspaper, which showed him walking with an umbrella with Truman and Pearson on either side of him. <\/p>\n

Soon after that function, he met the bombastic Winston Churchill.<\/p>\n

When he went down there, he knew school and tennis would be his focus, but he didn\u2019t predict he would meet the love of his life.
\nIt was while working a job where he collected laundry from students in the dormitories that he met his wife Libby of 63 years. \u201cThat\u2019s when I snagged her,\u201d he said proudly.<\/p>\n

A big tennis fan herself, Libby supported and travelled with Brendan while he was on the circuit.<\/p>\n

His success in North America eventually garnered him a spot at Wimbledon in 1946, an experience he fondly looks back on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one time I went over to Wimbledon, I went with a French Canadian named Henri Rochon from Montreal and Lorne Main from Vancouver and we had $500 for two months over there, so we were at the mercy of people putting us up in their homes,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

At that time however, Macken recalls stiff competition from the American and Australian teams, consisting of players who had fresh Wimbledon success.
\n\u201cThey got more financial support from their association from than we did. There was just more in it for them because their stadiums held a lot of people. When we played our Davis Cup in Montreal there was maybe 2,500 people there.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, Macken says the Canadian program simply didn\u2019t have the support or the training systems that the American\u2019s had, which was something that factored into his decision to train south of the border.<\/p>\n

In 1950, Macken probably had the biggest win of his career, as he became known as the only Canadian to beat an Aussie in the Davis Cup. \u201cIt was Billy Sidwell,\u201d he says. \u201cThe Aussies were so upset with him losing to this rank outsider that he wasn\u2019t invited back the next year \u2013 and he was their number two.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as fate would have it, later that year, he won the Canadian Open in Montreal and the newly [secretly] engaged couple were featured on the front page of a local newspaper.<\/p>\n

A copy of the paper somehow made it down to Libby\u2019s parents in New Jersey, which caused a stir among her family who had not heard of the engagement yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey weren\u2019t impressed,\u201d Macken says with a smile. \u201cIt was quite a job to sell them on the idea that I wasn\u2019t the worst thing in the world.\u201d
\nHowever, selling was a forte of Macken\u2019s as he would dabble in sales after his successful run as a tennis pro.<\/p>\n

Still living in the US, they would marry later that year and within 10 months they had their first of four children and he was looking for a job to support his family.<\/p>\n

He soon landed a gig with Seagram distilleries in Montreal, leaving after three years. <\/p>\n

\u201cI decided I didn\u2019t want to make my living in the whiskey business, because I was still playing tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then became sales manager at new Pontiac and Buick dealership across from the historic Montreal Forum and according to Macken, it became the biggest Pontiac and Buick dealership in the country.<\/p>\n

In 1966 the young family moved to Toronto where Macken would work selling janitorial chemicals and equipment and eventually started his own business in the same field.<\/p>\n

He would also dabble in coaching at York University, where of his teams would win the Ontario Tennis Championship, edging out the powerhouse University of Toronto.<\/p>\n

Over the years things have changed for Macken and his family. He now has eight grandkids and is happily retired in Aurora with Libby.
\nHe even insisted he would keep playing if it wasn\u2019t for the painful arthritis in his wrists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t play anymore, but I did play right up until my 70\u2019s in competitions for veterans over 45,\u201d he says. \u201cThey have those now for players over 75 and in the US they have one for over 90.\u201d<\/p>\n

He may not be able to play anymore, but his passion for the game remains, especially at a time where the sport is once again thriving in Canada.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Doner As Andy Murray became the first British player in nearly 80 years to capture Wimbledon\u2019s Men\u2019s title on Sunday, few people in Aurora were probably watching as closely as Brendan Macken. When we left Mr. Macken, now in his 91st year, in the first part of our interview with the Aurora resident, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-Nn","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 17:06:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3061\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}