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Sir Elton John not only has sold millions and millions in the music industry as one of the world's premier performers and song writers He also has a pretty mean back hand on the tennis court as I recently found out a few days ago at the 16th annual Advanta World Team Tennis Smash Hits event on the campus of Kennesaw State. We viewed Sir Elton, Andy Roddick, Anna Kournikova, Martina Navratilova, and Billie Jean King play the game that I was first exposed to when I was a kid growing up in Tallapoosa.
Behind the old gym on there were two tennis courts with basketball goals on each side. In the winter months it was primarily used to shoot hoops in pick-up games with Danny "Fish" Waldrop sinking two handed mid-court shots. During the spring, summer and fall seasons it was used for tennis. Wayne Newman taught several of us how to play the game of tennis. Wayne was dating Marsha Smith at the time and I used to love to watch them argue about if the ball was out or in play.
Tennis is a game that requires the ability to run and hit the ball with finesse and I never had much skill at either. I was the electronic "pong" champion of my household in 1975. We later parted and she got custody of the Atari console.
It was great sitting in the Convocation Center of KSU and watching one of the greatest pop stars of my lifetime being a barracuda on the tennis court. My first full time radio job was working for Thad Brown at WWCC in Bremen and in my first weeks of doing the morning show full time I played "Levon" and "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John. Those songs are still favorites of mine. He has always been a renown artist for his supreme talent and his commitment to causes he strongly believes in. My two little girls discovered the 1950s flavored "Crocodile Rock" by Sir Elton watching the Disney Channel. If you get in the truck with them you have to endure playing "Crocodile Rock" about hundred times. Why do kids listen and watch stuff over and over again and never tire of it?
The event also had Billie Jean King who has known Elton John for most of his career. Fact is, Elton John and Bernie Taupin wrote "Philadelphia Freedom" in honor of Billie Jean King when she led the Philadelphia Freedom professional tennis team back in the mid 1970s.
Billie Jean King still has it. Martina Navratilova turns 52 on the 18th of October and her speed and ability on the court is close to when she won the women's singles championship at Wimbelton 9 times, years ago. Anna Kournikova made male hearts pound and Andy Roddick had a number of marriage proposals during the tournament. Musical superstar Keith Sweat was in attendance along with Atlanta broadcast treasure Monica Pearson.
How many of you can recall when Bobby Riggs mouthed off that he could beat tennis superstar King back in 1973? How many of you watched the event on television live from the Houston Astrodome? If you remember the outcome, Bobby Riggs had to have his tennis racket surgically removed from his big mouth. She whipped him good that night. She is now 65 years old and looks 25 years younger. I wonder if she could beat Tallapoosa's tennis king of 1964 Wayne Newman?

Rhubarb Jones is a Tallapoosa native and a distinguished lecturer in the Department of Communication and Director of Special Projects in the Office of Development at Kennesaw State University. Comments are welcome at Rhubarbjones@aol.com or by writing P.O. Box 1001, Tallapoosa, Georgia, 30176