Wayne Vivian Reid
OBE (12 January 1938 – 30 June 2021) was a
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 and sports administrator who was president of the
Lawn Tennis Association of Australia
Tennis Australia Limited is the governing body for Tennis in Australia. It is owned by Australian states and territories. The association organises national and international Tennis tournaments including the Australian Open, the Australian Open ...
(LTAA), the
Melbourne Football Club
The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...
, the Asian Tennis Circuit, the
Confederation of Australian Sport
The Confederation of Australian Sport (CAS) is the highest national body for sport in Australia. It was established in 1976 to advance the interests of the Australian sports community and to give the industry a united voice in discussions and nego ...
, the International Assembly of National Confederations of Sports and was a founding director of the
Australian Institute of Sport
The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...
.
Early life
Reid was born in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, Victoria, on 12 January 1938.
["Wayne V. Reid"](_blank)
Tennis Archives. Retrieved 9 August 2010. Reid was educated at
Wesley College in Melbourne. While at Wesley, Reid won the Victorian schoolboys singles and doubles tennis championships.
Tennis
Player
Reid, a right-handed player, played his whole career as an amateur. Reid's most notable display as a player came when he defeated tennis legend
Rod Laver
Rodney George Laver (born 9 August 1938) is an Australian former tennis player. Laver was the world number 1 ranked professional in some sources in 1964, in all sources from 1965 to 1969 and in some sources in 1970, spanning four years befor ...
at the
South Australian Open
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...
in 1960.
["Wayne Reid"](_blank)
Sport Australia Hall of Fame. Retrieved 25 September 2020. Reid played in the
Australian Open
The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...
five times, in
1958,
1959
Events January
* January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance.
* January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...
,
1961
Events January
* January 3
** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015).
** Aero Flight 311 ...
,
1965
Events January–February
* January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years.
* January 20
** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lyndo ...
and
1967; his best performance was reaching the third round in 1961, when he was seeded seventh.
That year he also entered the doubles with
Christian Kuhnke; they reached the semi-finals before being defeated by the eventual champions, Laver and
Bob Mark
Robert 'Bob' Mark (28 November 1937 – 21 July 2006) was a professional tennis player from Australia.
Mark won the Australian Men's Doubles title in 1959, 1960 and 1961 partnering Rod Laver. With Sandra Reynolds, he won the 1960 Australian Mi ...
. He travelled overseas only twice in his playing career,
both times to play at
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
* ...
. He reached the second round in both
1958 and
1962, losing to the eventual runner-up,
Martin Mulligan
Martin "Marty" Mulligan (born 18 October 1940) is a former tennis player from Australia. He is best known for reaching the men's singles final at Wimbledon in 1962, where he was defeated by fellow Australian Rod Laver.
Personal life
Mulligan ...
, in the latter.
While he was in Europe in 1958 to play at Wimbledon he also played in Spain, at the
Torneo Godó
The Barcelona Open (currently sponsored by Banc Sabadell) is an annual tennis tournament for male professional players. The event has been held in Barcelona, Spain every year from 1953 (except for its cancellation in 2020), and is played on clay ...
, where he was knocked out in the third round by the eventual champion,
Sven Davidson
Sven Viktor Davidson (13 July 1928 – 28 May 2008) was a Swedish tennis player who became the first Swede to win a Grand Slam title when he won the French Championships in 1957, beating Ashley Cooper and Herbert Flam.
Career
Davidson also ...
.
Reid retired from championship tennis shortly after his 22nd birthday in order to focus on his business interests.
He did, however, play in two more Australian Opens after his retirement.
Administrator
Reid became president of the
Lawn Tennis Association of Australia
Tennis Australia Limited is the governing body for Tennis in Australia. It is owned by Australian states and territories. The association organises national and international Tennis tournaments including the Australian Open, the Australian Open ...
(LTAA) in 1969,
["TA's Historical Timeline"](_blank)
Tennis Australia. 2007. Retrieved 9 August 2010. at the age of just 31. Because of his youth, Reid was able to bridge the generational gap between the officials and the players, which was considered especially important at the time, as 1969 was the first year of
Open tennis
The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis, invented in Birmingham, England now commonly known simply as tennis, is the direct descendant of what is now denoted real tennis or royal tennis, which continues to be played today as a separate ...
.
He successfully negotiated the transition from amateur to professional tennis and has been praised for his forward and progressive thinking, an example of which was the introduction of sponsorship to Australian tennis.
His tenure as president is considered to be successful; he founded the Australian Davis Cup Tennis Foundation and the Asian Tennis Circuit, of which he was the inaugural chairman, and left the LTAA $367,000 better off than when he took on the presidency.
Reid resigned as president in 1977.
Australian rules football
Having only been elected to the Board of the
Melbourne Football Club
The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...
in October 1978, Reid was a surprise selection to replace the retiring
John Mitchell as president of the club in November. One of the first actions of Reid's new Board was to sack coach
Dennis Jones, who had been in the position for only a year. He appointed
Carl Ditterich
Carl Robert Ditterich (born 10 October 1945) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club and Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He also coached Melbourne for two years, as a ...
as captain-coach to replace Jones. Reid held the position of president for two years,
until he resigned at the end of the 1980 season and
Billy Snedden took over the presidency.
Reid was approached by five clubs to contest the 1988 election for president of the
Victorian Football League
The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...
, but he decided against running after learning that
Allen Aylett
Allen James Aylett OBE (24 April 1934 – 16 September 2022) was an Australian rules football player and administrator. He was the chairman/president of the North Melbourne Football Club from 1971 to 1976, and then again from 2001 to 2005. I ...
, who became president, was intending to run.
Further presidencies
He was also the inaugural president of the
Confederation of Australian Sport
The Confederation of Australian Sport (CAS) is the highest national body for sport in Australia. It was established in 1976 to advance the interests of the Australian sports community and to give the industry a united voice in discussions and nego ...
, a position he held for eight years.
In March 1981 he was elected president of the International Assembly of National Confederations of Sports, a position he also held for eight years. Reid was also a founding director of the
Australian Institute of Sport
The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...
and was a member of the Australian Federal Government Sports Advisory Council.
Honours
Reid was made an
Officer of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(OBE) for his service to tennis administration in 1977 and inducted into the
Sport Australia Hall of Fame
The Sport Australia Hall of Fame was established on 10 December 1985 to recognise the achievements of Australian sportsmen and sportswomen. The inaugural induction included 120 members with Sir Don Bradman as the first inductee and Dawn Fraser th ...
in 1989.
He was also made a life member of Tennis Australia.
The Wayne Reid Cup is named after Reid and is awarded for a five-day Australian under-16s event, held annually in Perth in the lead up to the
Hopman Cup
The Hopman Cup is an international eight-team indoor hardcourt tennis tournament that played mixed-gender teams on a country-by-country basis.It was held in Perth, Western Australia each year from 1989 to 2019, before being replaced on the calen ...
event.
"Reid Cup"
Tennis Australia. Retrieved 9 August 2010.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reid, Wayne
1938 births
2021 deaths
Tennis players from Melbourne
Melbourne Football Club presidents
Australian male tennis players
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees
People educated at Wesley College (Victoria)