Love All at the Courts
Tennis was popular in Wolfville with both residents and students. In the late 1800s, students at Acadia, Horton and the Ladies Seminary had the use of courts on campus. For the young ladies of the Sem, tennis, played on the court just outside their building, was one of the few sports they were allowed to participate in, if only in a “lady-like” fashion. From 1901, the AAAA staged a singles tennis championship in the spring for male students. By the late 1910s women were playing in campus-wide tournaments and, by the 1920s, representing Acadia in intercollegiate competitions. For a time, women and men could earn their athletic “As” in tennis.
In Wolfville itself, tennis clubs came and went. Soon after the end of WWI, however, the Wolfville Lawn Tennis Club became the centre of activity for tennis. Leslie Eaton and Avery deWitt were active in the Wolfville club and in the provincial tennis organization. The men and women who played for the club in the 1920-1935 era represent some of Wolfville’s most active and accomplished athletes, including Marion Eaton, Gertrude Phinney and Neil Sanford. Leslie Eaton frequently reached the final rounds of the provincial men’s competitions and other Wolfville players are named in reports of the provincial tournaments. Wolfville’s women athletes were often active tennis players and most began as school girls, playing though their university years and beyond. In the same period, the Wolfville Club belonged to the Valley Tennis League and played competitive tennis against clubs from Middleton, Kentville, Windsor, and Annapolis Royal as well as teams from Truro, Halifax and Parrsboro.
