"Tennis Icon Dies" by Mike London
(originally published in Salisbury Post, July 25, 2023)
"Jack Thompson passed away on Friday morning while doing what he loved to do most — playing tennis. For a lot of people in Salisbury, Thompson was Mr. Tennis. He devoted 48 years to teaching the sport, a lot of it locally. Thompson put everything he had into every lesson he ever game, leaving him exhausted at the end of the day, but he never got tired of teaching tennis. He developed quite a few young champions in Virginia and North Carolina and he came to be regarded as one of the most knowledgeable instructors in the country. His focus was always on building well-rounded players who could hit all the shots. He was an encourager. He not only taught tennis players, he’d show up to watch their matches. It distressed him as the years went by to see the decline of male American tennis on the world stage and attributed that demise on an increasing reliance on booming serves, rather than having the all-round game needed to make successful adjustments to an opponent. Thompson took tennis very seriously, but it was never work for him. It always was a labor of love. Tennis pro isn’t an easy profession to choose, but he thrived in that world. Thompson was a notable teacher, speaker, camp instructor, consultant, academy director and author in a working life that revolved around the game. He coached clubs and he coached schools at different levels, including a successful tenure with the Catawba men’s and women’s teams. He was part of the program’s first South Atlantic Conference championship in 2001. He practiced what he preached. He was a standout player in his age group for many decades. Thompson was from Virginia. He graduated from Homer L. Ferguson High in Newport News in 1971. He studied health and physical education before focusing on exercise science at Virginia Tech. From 1981-1990, he was the director of tennis and manager of the Staunton Racquet Club in Virginia. He coached his sister, Leigh, on the pro tour. She achieved a top-30 world ranking in the 1980s. He came to Salisbury in 1990 and served as the director of tennis for the Country Club of Salisbury for a decade. His tennis lessons made a lasting impact for Salisbury High, which was a factor statewide in boys and girls tennis. He coached three-time high school state champion and ACC standout Eric Saunders. In 2001, Thompson became an International Master Professional. His most prestigious accolade came in Hilton Head, S.C., when he was honored by the 2015 Professional Tennis Registry as its Professional of the Year. He was the first North Carolina winner of that award since the 1990s. Thompson found new challenges and new jobs several times, but he never slowed down as he passed normal retirement age. He always was the director of an academy or head pro at a club or a school coach somewhere in the area. When Adam Houston interviewed Thompson for a story in the Post in 2015, Thompson summed up his tennis teaching philosophy in a handful of words. “It’s not how much you know, it’s how much you care,” he said."
In a career that spanned 40 years, Jack Thompson had been involved in virtually every aspect of tennis coaching, teaching, consulting, and programming. His experience included 26 years as a Director of Tennis at clubs in Virginia and North Carolina, 8 years as a tennis academy Director and co-owner, and 6 years as the Head Men’s and Women’s tennis coach at Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina. From 1988 to 2004, Thompson’s Catawba College teams compiled win records of 68% and his men’s squad won the SAC conference in 2004, the first team to do so since 1946! Jack had produced 17 Virginia junior state champions and 12 North Carolina Junior State Champions. He also served as professional coach for his sister Leigh Thompson (WTA # 27) in 1983 and 84. His partnership with colleague Gray Cook (arguably today’s preeminent Sports and Orthopedic Physical Therapist) had produced 2 co-authored works: Power, Speed and Stamina for Tennis (1999) and Functional Tennis Training (Release Date Winter 2023). A Virginia Tech graduate, Jack had been a top 5-8 ranked player in singles and doubles in Virginia and North Carolina since 1988. In 2001, Jack was inducted as a PTR International Master Professional, 1 of only 41 among the PTR’s worldwide membership of 16,000 certified members. Then, in 2015, Jack was honored as the Professional Tennis Registry (PTR) pro of the year at the PTR International Tennis Symposium in Hilton Head, SC. He had also authored numerous scholarly articles in the PTR’s quarterly journal, TennisPro.
At the time of his passing, he served as the Boys Tennis coach at the Gray Stone Day School and Co–Director of the Tim Wilkison High Performance Tennis Academy in Charlotte, NC. He resides in Salisbury, North Carolina with his wife of forty years, Pam, who is a professor of business at Catawba College and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
