Jack May (tennis)


John "Jack" Bernard May was an amateur tennis player who won over 200 tennis titles in Australia.

History

May played many sports but his favorite and best was tennis. In the days of amateurs he competed with some of the best players Australia has produced, but his family could not afford to allow him to travel and play tennis.
He was trained and practiced as a dental technician, but May’s love of tennis and many more sports saw him become an employee of Spalding Australia. After progressing to the Managing Director role he grew Spalding from a small supplier to become a big sporting goods manufacturers leading the way especially in golf ball production with the Hot Dot and Top Flite balls.
In 1965 he and his family moved from Sydney to Melbourne where he remained for the rest of his life. He purchased the Sherrin Football Company in 1972, who manufactured AFL footballs in agreement with Tom Sherrin.
The desire to improve Spalding’s overall performance and market share saw May concentrate on the large golfing market. Hot Dot and Top Flite golf balls became big sellers and took Spalding’s market share from under 20% to almost 70%. Robert Molitor, the Spalding Senior Vice President and Head of Technology in USA, had asked Jack to move firstly to Canada with the intention of moving him to the Executive Office in the USA, but Jack’s family decided to remain in Australia, so he turned down the offer.
In his 1979 autobiography Jack Kramer recalled the occasion he saw Jack play in Australia. Unaware of who he was but impressed with his skill, he enquired as to who is that on court to be told he is ‘just a weekend player’, to which Kramer quoted ‘he must be the best weekend player in the world’.

Achievements

Honours

Jack was married to Patricia May on 3 August 1957. They have four children: Michelle, Jon, Martin and Rod.