Lincoln's Rick Harley built his own tennis court — and still competes in his 80s

Many people in the Lincoln community know Rick Harley. Either as a former tennis and golf coach at Nebraska Wesleyan University, a family practitioner or the guy who built a full-size tennis court in his yard.

Now in his 80s, Harley continues to play tennis, even singles matches, and is a National Senior Games competitor.

The Nebraska Senior Games are coming up on Aug. 5-9. The tennis competition, which includes singles, doubles and mixed doubles divisions, is taking place indoors at Ernest Grundy Tennis Center in Kearney.

Harley has played in the Nebraska Senior Games three times and the National Senior Games twice, in Florida and Iowa. Last year when the National Senior Games were held in Des Moines, he placed third in 80 & Over singles and third in 75 & Over doubles.

“My experiences playing in the NSGs — both state and nationals — have been a lot of fun,” he said. “Especially at nationals meeting players from other parts of the country and getting to play against many different styles of tennis.

“Last year my singles matches were all inside a beautiful facility. One drawback was I played five days in a row at 7:30 a.m. One nice aspect of the format was everyone continued to play every day, win or lose.”

Growing up in Grand Island, Neb., Harley said there were no tennis teaching pros and not many courts. When he was introduced to the sport in a P.E. class, he took to it right away.

He and a couple friends decided they would be tennis players. They read some books and basically learned the sport on their own. After playing in the top singles spot in high school, Harley lettered at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.