LuckyR
Legend
Dinner to honor retired Courier
The tennis star says it is he who should honor his hometown. The event will raise money for the Dade City YMCA.
By JAMAL THALJI
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 12, 2000
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DADE CITY -- Tonight, Dade City honors one of its own, professional tennis great Jim Courier.
Ask Courier, though, and it is he who is honoring Dade City.
To celebrate his recent retirement from the sport he dominated in the early 1990s, an exclusive dinner will be held at First United Methodist Church at 7 p.m. to raise money for the Dade City YMCA.
YMCA boosters will donate thousands of dollars for the chance to eat barbecue from George and Gladys' restaurant alongside Courier and his family and friends. Courier also will sign autographs and pose for pictures.
A video tribute to his career will be shown, and his many accomplishments will all be noted.
But Courier is more concerned with a good cause than celebrating his own career. Dade City is where he grew up, honing his skills in the famous tennis court alongside his childhood home on Southview Avenue.
To Courier, it is his "reality pool" away from a lifestyle and the pressures of the game that has made him a world-renowned celebrity.
"People there are real," he said. "Everyone knows everyone, and everyone there's really genuine, which is nice. But go to New York or L.A., and people have a lot of ulterior motives, using everybody for their own gains.
"People in Dade City are a lot more gentler, a lot more kinder."
Courier's mother, Linda, said she tried to teach her eldest son to appreciate the small-town appeal of Dade City.
"Not everything is the (tennis) life he lived," she said. "What goes on in a little town, that's the reality of life. Families and friends and community and school and all those kinds of things."
Which is why Courier, who now lives in Orlando, still cares enough to make the trek back to Dade City, past the sign at the county line that bears his name.
Then again, it's not like he's actually retiring.
Not at the age of 29. Not after a hugely successful 12-year career in professional tennis, with a legacy of hard work and physical play assured after 506 career wins, 23 singles titles -- including four Grand Slams -- and two Davis Cup victories. Not with a financial future secured by a powerful forehand that reportedly earned him more than $50-million in prize money and endorsements.
Courier is retiring from tennis only. He said his life will be as active, as full, as it has ever been.
He will get to spend more time with his girlfriend, composing music in his home studio, studying his financial investments and laying out plans for the future, playing golf and tennis -- just to stay in shape, of course -- and hanging out with the legion of good friends he has amassed through his remarkable career.
The tennis star says it is he who should honor his hometown. The event will raise money for the Dade City YMCA.
By JAMAL THALJI
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 12, 2000
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DADE CITY -- Tonight, Dade City honors one of its own, professional tennis great Jim Courier.
Ask Courier, though, and it is he who is honoring Dade City.
To celebrate his recent retirement from the sport he dominated in the early 1990s, an exclusive dinner will be held at First United Methodist Church at 7 p.m. to raise money for the Dade City YMCA.
YMCA boosters will donate thousands of dollars for the chance to eat barbecue from George and Gladys' restaurant alongside Courier and his family and friends. Courier also will sign autographs and pose for pictures.
A video tribute to his career will be shown, and his many accomplishments will all be noted.
But Courier is more concerned with a good cause than celebrating his own career. Dade City is where he grew up, honing his skills in the famous tennis court alongside his childhood home on Southview Avenue.
To Courier, it is his "reality pool" away from a lifestyle and the pressures of the game that has made him a world-renowned celebrity.
"People there are real," he said. "Everyone knows everyone, and everyone there's really genuine, which is nice. But go to New York or L.A., and people have a lot of ulterior motives, using everybody for their own gains.
"People in Dade City are a lot more gentler, a lot more kinder."
Courier's mother, Linda, said she tried to teach her eldest son to appreciate the small-town appeal of Dade City.
"Not everything is the (tennis) life he lived," she said. "What goes on in a little town, that's the reality of life. Families and friends and community and school and all those kinds of things."
Which is why Courier, who now lives in Orlando, still cares enough to make the trek back to Dade City, past the sign at the county line that bears his name.
Then again, it's not like he's actually retiring.
Not at the age of 29. Not after a hugely successful 12-year career in professional tennis, with a legacy of hard work and physical play assured after 506 career wins, 23 singles titles -- including four Grand Slams -- and two Davis Cup victories. Not with a financial future secured by a powerful forehand that reportedly earned him more than $50-million in prize money and endorsements.
Courier is retiring from tennis only. He said his life will be as active, as full, as it has ever been.
He will get to spend more time with his girlfriend, composing music in his home studio, studying his financial investments and laying out plans for the future, playing golf and tennis -- just to stay in shape, of course -- and hanging out with the legion of good friends he has amassed through his remarkable career.
