Peggy Bohne retires after promoting and coaching tennis in Charleston

Peggy Bohne and 15-court Charleston Tennis Center (CTC) have a lot in common. Of course, they have been together for a long time.

Now, they have split. Bohne’s last day as Charleston’s tennis manager was Feb. 4. She has retired after 49 years on the job.

“Jan. 26, 1976, is when it opened,” she said.

One of Bohne’s biggest jobs was starting and running the city’s Elementary and Middle School Tennis Program for about 45 years.

“We started out with seven teams, maybe 50 kids. Last year we had 162 teams and over 1,600 kids, kindergarten through eighth grade,” she said proudly.

“It’s mostly Charleston County with Berkeley County, with Daniel Island. Almost every public and private school in Charleston County is in the league. Some of the teams have 10 teams. We used 70 tennis courts and 15 sites.

“I was over that until today,” she reported.

Establishes Courting Kids and other programs

And then there was the extraordinary Courting Kids Program that also still exists, but not quite with the zest it had in its heyday. Not only did the program give kids a start in tennis, it also stood out nationally for its participation in the NJTL Essay Contest, which was named after founder Arthur Ashe for many years.

Bohne said five or six kids from Courting Kids won national essay contest honors and participated in Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day at the US Open and was housed by the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

 “A lot of kids who came through Courting Kids ended up playing high school and college tennis,” Bohne said. One of those was Mikola Cooper, who received a scholarship to prestigious Porter-Gaud School, and later played tennis for Charleston Southern University.

“Delores Jackson, an African American woman, came to me and said, ‘There are not that many African American kids playing. And we need to get something going for African American kids.’ And I said, “You are absolutely right,” Bohne said about Jackson who worked at CTC and directed Courting Kids.

“The only problem is we don’t have very much money. We will have to figure that out. So Delores said, ‘How about if I write some letters.’ ”

The result included a donation from renown movie star and Academy Award winner Paul Newman for $12,000.

With that funding, Courts Kids survived, of course.

College of Charleston connection

Women’s tennis was a slim program when Bohne arrived at the College of Charleston.

“We just had our 50^th anniversary two weeks ago,” she said. “We were the first College of Charleston women’s (tennis) team. There were nine on the team and there were seven of us there, plus the coach, Joan Cronan (who later became athletic director at the University of Tennessee).

“I started tennis lessons at the College of Charleston when I was nine years old. They had tennis in the morning and all kind of stuff at the gym in the afternoon. Then I went off to Converse College and played tennis there for a year and then decided I wanted to transfer back to the College of Charleston.”

Bohne, who also directed the popular Maybank Tennis Center on James Island, stood out as a manager.

“Peggy’s joy was getting young and old introduced to tennis,” longtime CTC recreation specialist Marian Greely said. “She was a master at organizing and running round robins and tournaments.

“When there were more players than USTA League teams (to accommodate them), Peggy found captains and created new teams. She wanted any person interested in tennis to find a home at Charleston Tennis Center.”

Peggy Bohne will be missed at CTC.

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James Beck was the 2003 winner of the USTA National Media Award  for print media. A 1995 MBA graduate of The Citadel, he can be reached at Jamesbecktennis@gmail.com.