Joseph Thompson, Class of 2004

Joe picked up the game of tennis as a self-proclaimed “little league dropout” at the age of 12. In those days no one was teaching tennis, so Joe went to the city library and read every book he could find on it. By the age of 16, this unknown from the “poor side of the tracks” had captured the Terre Haute Boys’ 18s championship. He would go undefeated in high school conference play for two years en route to a top-5 Indiana ranking.

He attended Indiana State University, completing both his undergraduate and graduate degrees in 1971. Joe became a hospital administrator at Columbus State Psychiatric Hospital working with the mentally ill, training therapists for work in the art, music and recreational therapy divisions – an experience Joe later said was invaluable for his future career in teaching tennis. He moved to Colorado in 1973 and began his new career in tennis. He was the Director of Tennis at Rolling Hills Country Club in Golden for more than 25 years..

A member of the US Professional Tennis Association since 1975, Hoe was on the forefront of developing innovative grassroots programs to grow the sport of tennis, including USPTA’s Tennis Across America, Little Tennis, Champions of Champions, the USPTA Adult Tennis League and the recent Tennis Welcome Center initiative.

A member of the CTA Board in 1982 and a past president of the Intermountain PTA, Joe is a two-time recipient of the Intermountain PTA Professional of the Year award (1983, 1986). In 1987, he received his Master Professional certification, and has since served on numerous national tennis committees. After  receiving the USPTA’s prestigious Alex Gordon Award as America’s top teaching professional in 1998, Joe served as the National President of the USPTA for three consecutive terms (1999-2002).