Maureen Catherine Connolly-Brinker (née Connolly; September 17, 1934 – June 21, 1969), known as "Little Mo", was an American
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
player, the winner of nine
major
Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
singles titles in the early 1950s. In 1953, she became the first woman to win a Grand Slam (all four major tournaments during the same calendar year). She is also the only player in history to win a title without losing a set at all four major championships. The following year, in July 1954, a
horseback riding
Equestrianism (from Latin , , , 'horseman', 'horse'), commonly known as horse riding (Commonwealth English) or horseback riding (American English), includes the disciplines of riding, driving, and vaulting. This broad description includes the ...
accident seriously injured her right leg and ended her competitive tennis career at age 19. She died of ovarian cancer at the age of 34.
Early years
Maureen was born in
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
on September 17, 1934, the first child of Martin and Jessamine Connolly.
Her parents divorced when she was three years old and she was raised by her mother and an aunt. She loved horseback riding as a child, but her mother was unable to pay the cost of riding lessons. So, she took up the game of tennis. Connolly's tennis career began at the age of 10 on the municipal courts of San Diego. Her first coach, Wilbur Folsom, encouraged her to switch from a left-handed grip to right
and she soon became a baseline specialist with tremendous power and accuracy, and a strong backhand. When she was 11, Maureen was dubbed "Little Mo" by San Diego sportswriter Nelson Fisher, who compared the power of her forehand and backhand to the firepower of the
USS ''Missouri'', known colloquially as "Big Mo".
[ In 1948, Folsom was replaced as her coach by ]Eleanor Tennant
Eleanor "Teach" Tennant (1895 – May 11, 1974) was a tennis player and coach from the U.S., notable for the being the first female player to turn professional. Tennant was once ranked third in America and was the coach of Grand Slam winners Alice ...
, who previously coached Alice Marble and Bobby Riggs
Robert Larimore Riggs (February 25, 1918 – October 25, 1995) was an American tennis champion who was the World No. 1 amateur in 1939 and World No. 1 professional in 1946 and 1947. He played his first professional tennis match on December ...
, both Wimbledon and U.S. singles champions.[ At age 14, she won 56 consecutive matches, and the following year became the youngest ever to win the U.S. national championship for girls 18 and under.
]
Playing career
At the 1951 U.S. Championships, the 16-year-old Connolly defeated Shirley Fry
Shirley June Fry Irvin (née Fry; June 30, 1927 – July 13, 2021) was an American tennis player. During her career, which lasted from the early 1940s until the mid-1950s, she won the singles title at all four Grand Slam events, as well as 13 dou ...
to become, at that time, the youngest ever to win America's most prestigious tennis tournament. Her coach at the time was Eleanor Tennant.
Connolly won her first Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
title in 1952, defeating Louise Brough
Althea Louise Brough Clapp (née Brough; March 11, 1923 – February 3, 2014) was an American tennis player. In her career between 1939 and 1959, she won six Grand Slam singles titles as well as numerous doubles and mixed-doubles titles. At the ...
in the final. She had arrived at the tournament with a shoulder injury but refused to withdraw when Tennant instructed her to do so. The ensuing argument resulted in the end of their partnership. Connolly was seeded first at the 1952 U.S. Championships and successfully defended her title with a victory in the final against Doris Hart. For the 1953 season, she hired a new coach
Coach may refer to:
Guidance/instruction
* Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities
* Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process
** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers
Transportation
* Co ...
, the Australian Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...
captain Harry Hopman, and entered all four Grand Slam tournaments for the first time. She defeated Julie Sampson Haywood
Julia Ann Sampson Hayward (née Sampson; February 2, 1934 – December 27, 2011) was a female tennis player from the United States who was active in the 1950s. She won two Grand Slam titles in doubles.
Tennis career
As the second seeded foreign ...
in the Australian Championships final and Doris Hart in the finals of the French Championships
The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...
, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Championships to become the first woman, and only the second tennis player after Don Budge
John Donald Budge (June 13, 1915 – January 26, 2000) was an American tennis player. He is most famous as the first tennis player — male or female, and still the only American male — to win the Grand Slam, and to win all four Grand Slam e ...
, to win the world's four major titles in the same year, commonly known as a "Grand Slam." She lost only one set in those four tournaments.
Connolly won the last nine Grand Slam singles tournaments she played, including 50 consecutive singles matches. During her Wightman Cup
The Wightman Cup was an annual team tennis competition for women contested from 1923 through 1989 (except during World War II) between teams from the United States and Great Britain.
History
U.S. player Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman wanted to generate ...
career from 1951 through 1954, she won all seven of her singles matches. Connolly's achievements made her the darling of the media and one of the most popular personalities in the U.S.; she was named Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
for three straight years, from 1951 through 1953.
In 1954, Connolly did not defend her title at the Australian Championships, but successfully defended her French and Wimbledon championships.
Later life
Horseriding accident
Two weeks after she won her third-straight Wimbledon title, she was horseback riding in San Diego on July 20, 1954. A passing concrete mixer truck frightened her horse Colonel Merryboy, which pinned Connolly between the horse and truck. She was thrown and suffered a compound fracture to her right fibula
The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity is ...
, which ultimately ended her tennis career at age 19. She had intended to turn professional after the 1954 U.S. National Championships.
Connolly v. Pre-Mixed Concrete Co.
', 49 Cal. 2d 483, 319 P.2d 343 (1957). She officially retired from tennis in February 1955 when she announced her impending marriage to Norman Brinker. Connolly retained Melvin Belli
Melvin Mouron Belli (July 29, 1907 – July 9, 1996) was a prominent United States lawyer, writer, and actor known as "The King of Torts" and by insurance companies as "Melvin Bellicose". He had many celebrity clients, including Zsa Zsa Gab ...
as counsel and sued the concrete mixer company. On December 17, 1957, the Supreme Court of California unanimously affirmed a $95,000 jury verdict in her favor; the opinion was signed by Chief Justice Phil S. Gibson.
Marriage
In June 1955, Connolly married Norman Brinker
Norman Eugene Brinker (June 3, 1931 – June 9, 2009) was an American restaurateur who was responsible for the creation of new business concepts within the restaurant field. He served as president of Jack in the Box, founded Steak and Ale, and h ...
, a member of the 1952 Olympic equestrian
The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse".
Horseback riding (or Riding in British English)
Examples of this are:
* Equestrian sports
*Equestrian order, one of the upper classes i ...
team for the United States, who shared her love of horses. They had two daughters, Cindy and Brenda,[ and she remained partially involved in tennis, acting as a correspondent for some U.S. and British newspapers at major U.S. tennis tournaments. Connolly was a coach for the British Wightman Cup team during its visits to the U.S. In Texas, where the couple lived, she established the Maureen Connolly Brinker Foundation to promote junior tennis.][
In 1957, she published an autobiography titled ''Forehand Drive''. Connolly recognized the downside of her tennis career, writing "I have always believed greatness on a tennis court was my destiny, a dark destiny, at times, where the court became my secret jungle and I a lonely, fear-stricken hunter. I was a strange little girl armed with hate, fear, and a Golden Racket."
]
Death
In 1966, Connolly was diagnosed with ovarian cancer
Ovarian cancer is a cancerous tumor of an ovary. It may originate from the ovary itself or more commonly from communicating nearby structures such as fallopian tubes or the inner lining of the abdomen. The ovary is made up of three different c ...
. On June 4, 1969, she underwent a third operation for a stomach tumor at Baylor Hospital in Dallas.[ She died nearly three weeks later on June 21, at the age of 34.]
Legacy
According to John Olliff and Lance Tingay of ''The Daily Telegraph'' and the ''Daily Mail'', Connolly was ranked in the world top 10 from 1951 through 1954, reaching a career high of world number one in those rankings from 1952 through 1954. Connolly was included in the year-end top-10 rankings issued by the United States Lawn Tennis Association
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis ...
from 1950 through 1953. She was the top-ranked U.S. player from 1951 through 1953.
Connolly was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame
The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It honors both players and other contributors to the sport of tennis. The complex, the former Newport Casino, includes a museum, grass tennis courts, an indo ...
in 1969 and the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame
This is a list of female sports athletes who have been inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame, which recognizes the athletic and coaching achievements of women. Selections are made worldwide and are based on achievements, brea ...
in 1987. In 1956, she was inducted by the San Diego Hall of Champions into the Breitbard Hall of Fame honoring San Diego's finest athletes both on and off the playing surface.
Since 1973, the Maureen Connolly Challenge Trophy is played, a yearly competition between the best female tennis players age 18 and younger from the United States and Great Britain.
Brinker Elementary School in Plano, Texas is named in honor of her. The school was dedicated on November 20, 1988.
Connolly was portrayed by Glynnis O'Connor
Glynnis O'Connor (born November 19, 1956) is an American actress of television, film, radio, and theater. She first gained wide attention in the mid-1970s with leading roles in the television version of ''Our Town'' and in the short-lived series ...
in '' Little Mo'', a television movie that initially aired on September 5, 1978.
In 2019, the United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...
released a commemorative Forever stamp in her honor.
Grand Slam finals
Singles: 9 (9 titles)
Doubles: 6 (2 titles, 4 runner-ups)
Mixed doubles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups)
Grand Slam singles tournament timeline
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
Maureen Connolly Brinker Tennis Foundation Inc.
Texas State Historical Association
– Brinker, Maureen Catherine Connolly
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Connolly, Maureen
1934 births
1969 deaths
American female tennis players
Australian Championships (tennis) champions
Deaths from cancer in Texas
Deaths from ovarian cancer
French Championships (tennis) champions
International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees
Tennis players from San Diego
United States National champions (tennis)
Wimbledon champions (pre-Open Era)
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's singles
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's doubles
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles
Burials at Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery
Southern Methodist University alumni
20th-century American women
World number 1 ranked female tennis players