Brad Parks, the pioneer of wheelchair tennis

Together, the pair built the chair, and created a sport that has impacted ten of thousands of people over the past 50 years, from those who play recreationally when their schedule allows, to dedicated players who travel around the country for tournaments, and elite athletes who compete at the Grand Slams and the Paralympic Games.

Pioneering the sport, however, took more than the two-bounce rule and building a wheelchair. Early tournaments were run by people who worked in rehabilitation facilities and were involved in wheelchair sports, but had no tennis expertise. Few players would show up wearing athletic attire, most participants borrowed old racquets, and matches were played on poorly-maintained courts.

Parks envisioned playing at clubs with nice courts, with players dressed in tennis clothes and a roaming umpire on-site—just like able-bodied tennis tournaments, with the only difference being that these athletes played in wheelchairs. Joining forces with other players, Parks formed the National Foundation of Wheelchair Tennis (NFWT) in 1980, which ran a 10-tournament circuit across the country, culminating in national championships in Irvine, Calif.

He recalls sitting upstairs at an indoor facility in Grand Rapids, Mich., during a tournament in 1985, just eight years after the first wheelchair tennis tournament. He was watching 24 wheelchair athletes playing on 12 courts in sport wheelchairs, dressed in tennis gear and carrying multiple racquets, with a couple of roaming umpires walking around, and a clubhouse full of other players.

“I thought, ‘wheelchair tennis is going to succeed. It’s going to be something and it’s growing and we are a sport. This is legit now,’” Parks said.

He has seen the sport evolve from a couple of guys on a public court to one of the most professional wheelchair sports in the world. Since then, the World Team Cup (a wheelchair equivalent to the Davis Cup and BJK Cup) has been created, and wheelchair tennis has been integrated into all four majors and the Paralympic Games. World Tennis (formerly the ITF) took over international management of the sport, and in 1998, the NFWT was absorbed by the USTA, the first national governing body to absorb wheelchair tennis.

Parks won the first wheelchair men’s doubles gold medal at the 1992 Paralympic Games alongside Randy Snow, and he was the first wheelchair athlete inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2010, which now has a specific category for wheelchair tennis inductees. Back in June of 1976, he never expected the sport to grow into the worldwide phenomenon it is today.

“What it was all about, back in our day, was finding community, and that’s where all wheelchair sports are so great. What I found so attractive early on in wheelchair sports, but mainly tennis, was the community. You meet other people, you learn from them—especially if you’re newly injured, you see what other guys and girls are doing,” Parks said.

“A couple of years ago, I was sent a video from Wimbledon and there was a huge crowd watching the wheelchair tennis finals, cheering and raucous, and at the Paralympics in Paris, there was a huge crowd at Roland Garros watching wheelchair tennis. Those are the most recent ‘wow’ moments for me, and they’re each thrilling. It’s very exciting to see, to have been a pioneer, and I think many of the pioneers, the early wheelchair tennis players, feel the same way.”