Celebrating Progress in Tennis and Bay Area Community

Brad Driver and his children

When Brad Driver was a child growing up in the East Bay, his father would tell him stories about the legendary Althea Gibson. Arthur Ashe would even stay at the family home when competition brought him to Berkeley. 

“It was such an honor,” Brad remembers. “He was the kindest soul. The nicest man. Just perfect.”

 

Add in that his father happens to be Maynard Driver, the first Black tennis captain to play at Columbia University and also the first Black OBGYN in the East Bay, and his mother is Grace, a tennis lover who used her Masters in Social Work from Howard University to give back to her community, and it’s difficult to imagine Brad’s life not becoming intertwined with tennis from the start.

1949: Maynard Driver (Left) at the Eastern Tennis Championship; Althea Gibson (Middle & Right)

As part of USTA Northern California’s celebration of Black History Month, we recently featured the story of the Driver family. Our mission is to promote inclusivity, encourage open dialogues and celebrate the many fine coaches, players, parents and volunteers who bring tremendous value, insight, and richness to the sport of tennis - qualities the Drivers bring in spades. 

 

Coming from a tennis family, it’s no surprise the sport has been an active part of Brad's life from the beginning. The middle son of Grace and Maynard, Brad developed a deep appreciation for the tennis greats who came before him through his parents.

 

He remembers getting to be a ballboy as a kid and how Ashe would even ask to have him on his court. It was these kinds of first-hand experiences with Ashe that had a lasting impact on Brad not just from a tennis perspective but a personal one. 

 

“Arthur faced the same things we did as young Blacks, going to clubs and being in a white tennis world,” Brad explained. “Arthur made it all worth the fight. He had a passion and a fortitude. Some retreat to a comfort zone, while others transcend and stay in the arena to fight the battle. Ashe was like that.”

 

However, it wasn't just the past experiences and stories that inspired Brad’s own tennis journey. It was also the bonds he built with his parents and siblings over tennis. Growing up, he fondly remembers spending Saturdays playing tennis at San Pablo Park where his dad liked to play in his free time, competing in a couple of mother-son tournaments, and practicing with his older brother and younger sister.

 

Brad was, and still is, especially close with his younger sister, Wendy. Only a year apart, they were always playing in the same tournaments and spent a lot of time traveling together to compete. 

2018: Brad at the Marin Open

As a NorCal junior player, Brad was consistently ranked in the top 15 in his age group and enjoyed playing both singles and doubles.

 

However, as one of the only Black families playing tennis in the area during that time, Brad often had to work twice as hard to overcome racial discrimination. 

 

Nevertheless, there were those along the way that made his first forays into competitive tennis positive. 

2018: Brad at the Marin Open

“There were a lot of good people and it felt like there was a community of tennis players that were all ranked through the juniors, and we were all just trying to get better and everyone was there to help everyone get better,” Brad continued. 

As a NorCal junior player, Brad was consistently ranked in the top 15 in his age group and enjoyed playing both singles and doubles.

 

However, as one of the only Black families playing tennis in the area during that time, Brad often had to work twice as hard to overcome racial discrimination. 

 

Nevertheless, there were those along the way that made his first forays into competitive tennis positive. 

 

“There were a lot of good people and it felt like there was a community of tennis players that were all ranked through the juniors, and we were all just trying to get better and everyone was there to help everyone get better,” Brad continued. 

Brad also recalls relying on the foundation and values his parents raised him and his siblings with when confronting obstacles in life: hard work, persistence, and bravery.

 

By the time he was 17, Brad’s game improved to the point that he went on to play four years of tennis in college at the University of California, San Diego. 

 

Using those lessons his parents taught him, Brad excelled in college tennis, became an All-American his senior year, and earned the respect of his teammates.

 

“They called me the panther,” Brad added. “I loved working hard and always was out there on the court practicing. It helped me understand what I could do and lead by example.”

 

After college, Brad played in Europe minor league satellite tournaments for a summer before earning his MBA in Finance at UCLA. 

 

Today, Brad is a Director of Partner Advocacy at Sandler Partners; however, tennis continues to be a big part of his life. He still plays competitively on the USTA NorCal circuit and earned his first No. 1 ranking in 2018 for both singles and doubles in the 50s age group.

 

And while Brad has an impressive record on the court, some of the accomplishments he is most proud of are off the court. Compassion for others and giving back to the community have always been core values for the Driver family, and Brad has been active in both the tennis and overall Bay Area community for many years. 

He has coached kids at academies and the high school level, and helped the San Francisco 49ers Academy, a nonprofit organization integrated into the public school system that empowers underserved youth in East Palo Alto schools. He has also run tennis clinics for years and has remained dedicated to growing tennis at the grassroots level.

 

“I love the game, and I just love introducing kids to tennis and passing the game on,” Brad said. 

 

In addition to using his personal skills as a tennis player to give back to the community, Brad has used his professional business skills to also promote diversity and inclusion.

He was on the first board of USTA NorCal’s National Junior Tennis and Learning (NJTL) program in the 1990s, a nationwide network of community tennis organizations seeking to develop the character of young people through tennis and education.


“The board was looking for diverse representation, and I saw it as a great opportunity to give back,” Brad recalled. “I helped develop the initial program and ideas on how to better include kids of colors and worked to bring tennis to the areas that did not normally have the opportunity.”

2019: Brad and Sloane Stevens at one of her Foundation events for inner city kids

Brad continues to be committed to encouraging diversity in tennis across Northern California today. He is a member of USTA NorCal’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee. And his continued involvement is especially important as we celebrate Black History Month.

 

“NorCal has a very diverse membership, perhaps one of the most diverse in the country,” Brad explained. “I bring a passion, understanding of tennis, and a personal understanding of the roots of people for tennis. That’s why I feel it’s important to give back. I want to make sure we can create sustainable, long-lasting impacts and be the blueprint for how we can get diverse people on the court and support the community.”

 

Looking back on his journey, Brad added, “I realize that as much I enjoyed the game and the competition, what I loved about the sport was the process of trying to get better each day, honoring a game that required honesty in making your own calls, and respecting one’s opponent. Above all, the court was the one place I actually felt safe from always being surrounded by people who did not look like me. As a result, I felt kind of free out there. It was just me on the court competing. I didn’t worry about the coaches judgement of me or where they would not play me because I was Black. I was less concerned about winning than just being able to work hard on my own terms.”

 

To this day, it’s the life lessons tennis left that Brad finds most valuable. 

 

“Though I find myself more competitive, the joy the game brings me is internal. It truly brings out the best in me — fairness, respecting my opponent, teamwork when playing doubles, hard work, taking the triumphs with equal acceptance as the trials with grace and humility. It’s such a beautiful analogy of life. It challenges not only your physical aspects, but your mental and emotional components in how you handle yourself, whether you win or lose or people treat you fairly or not. We can’t control it all, so we stay true to ourselves and make sure every day, we are taking care of those closest to us. My parents taught and modeled these values and attitudes and insisted we follow them so that we could be the best citizens possible.”