Gustavus Adolphus College boasts a strong athletic reputation, stemming from a long history of dominant coaches. From the Gusties’ humble beginnings with baseball coach George Myrum to the wartime powerhouse Lloyd Hollingsworth to Don Roberts, the recent Hobey Baker Legends of Hockey Award winner, many prominent coaches stick out in the school’s history. While the history of Gustavus Athletics has a distinguished past, no individual has heightened the prowess of Gustavus athletics more than Steve Wilkinson.
Hired to coach Men’s Tennis in 1971, Wilkinson inherited a team with a 14-3 record. In the last 39 years, Wilkinson now boasts an overall 923-278 record with an astonishing 334 wins in MIAC play, with only one loss. The truest champion, he boasts a coaching resume that includes six national doubles champions, four singles champions, 35 conference titles and two NCAA championships in 1980 and 1982.
“Coach Wilkinson has been the most influential coach in my entire tennis career,” Senior Management Major John Kauss said.
Kauss has excelled under Wilkinson’s coaching and is currently the top-ranked division three NCAA tennis player in the country. “His approach to coaching the game has dominated NCAA tennis in the midwest. His Match win records are now the best ever in any division of tennis. That speaks volumes to how good of a coach he really is,” Kauss said. Wilkinson was nothing short of spectacular as a player, either, finishing second in the Big Ten Conference in number one doubles his senior season at the University of Iowa.
His career on the court did not end with college, however. He played competitively well past his days as a student, winning the number one title nationally in the 45, 50, 55 and 60-plus age divisions. He also won a World Championship in 1989 and was the runner-up in 1992.
Wilkinson has a place in both the Iowa Tennis Hall of Fame (1974) and the Northern Tennis Association’s Hall of Fame (1983), as well as the United States Tennis Association Missouri Valley Hall of Fame (1999).
Aside from his extensive work on the court, Wilkinson is very involved in the national tennis community. He served on the executive boards of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, the United States Tennis Association and the United States Professional Tennis Association, a position he held for over 20 years, working side-by-side with tennis legend Arthur Ashe.
Wilkinson not only sat on committees with Ashe, but was also lucky enough to call him a personal friend. Before Ashe died of AIDS following a long battle with the disease, having contracted HIV from a blood transfusion years earlier. Wilkinson continually found inspiration in Ashe’s life throughout his own career, recalling a time in his youth when he competed against Ashe. Upon playing him for some time, Wilkinson noticed that Ashe never disputed a line call, whether it was from the judgment of a referee or the opposing player.
“When I was in my twenties, he explained to me why he never challenged an opponent’s line call. The opponent needed to be respected and trusted, no matter how much [he] might disagree. This insight has been transformational for me. His approach to tennis has kept the game fun and life itself meaningful,” Wilkinson said.
Arthur Ashe’s impact on Wilkinson stretches beyond line calls, transcending even the game of tennis. Wilkinson bases his coaching, as well as his life, upon the wisdom preached in the words of the Serenity Prayer, an ideology promoted by Ashe before his death.
Along with the guidance of that prayer, Wilkinson entrusts his players to three ideals, or “crowns”: positive attitude, full effort and good sportsmanship.
“My players truly succeed when they play with good sportsmanship and attitude. When they aren’t challenging line calls or bad-mouthing the referee is when they are at their best,” said Wilkinson. “We don’t all have a referee in our back pocket, going along wherever we go. We have to rely on our inner conscience to be our referee, and in that sense, tennis is analogous to life.”
Those principles propel the Tennis and Life Camps that Wilkinson and his wife Barb run every summer. Between graduation and the beginning of fall semester, the Wilkinsons host 1,800 individuals for a four-day, three-night stay in Norelius Hall filled with tennis instruction as well as coaching for one’s spirit.
The camps, combined with the tennis program’s annual gala, allow the program, including the Swanson Indoor Tennis Center, to self-sufficiently maintain its own facilities. The gala is an event in which various alumni and supporters of the program, as well as the current Gustavus roster, come together to raise money to repair cracked courts. Last year, the group raised $20,000 for its cause.
Senior tennis player Nick Hansen has enjoyed playing on Wilkinson’s team and believes the his success in developing the school’s tennis program is impressive. “Like all legends, Coach had a vision and he followed through with it. Nobody would have guessed it possible to build a tennis mecca in the corn fields of Southern Minnesota, but he did. It’s like “Field of Dreams” with Kevin Costner and the guy who plays Darth Vader, I believe the quote is: ‘If you build it, they will come,’” Hansen said.
While Wilkinson will bid farewell to the title of head coach, he will relinquish little else. Gustavus has certainly not seen the last of Wilkinson. He will still be heavily involved in the tennis program, helping to run the Swanson Tennis Center and Tennis and Life Camps in the summer. According to Wilkinson, retirement hardly describes what will follow this tennis season.
“My retirement is kind of a misnomer. Yes, I am retiring, but I will be involved in almost all of my current responsibilities, aside from coaching,” Wilkinson said. “This decision for me to retire has really been a two-year decision, but last summer I had a kidney removed because it was cancerous. I then found out later that the cancer had metastasized itself, and [I] am currently on chemotherapy treatments that I will stay on for the rest of my life. … It’s only appropriate that I should be faced with such a challenge.”
Wilkinson’s reference is a tribute to Ashe, but also former Gustie tennis player Karen Gibbs, whose story is a focal point of inspiration for his Tennis and Life (TLC) Camps. Gibbs lost her right arm to cancer after her first year at Gustavus but persevered, learning how to play with her left hand. She won a number three doubles match against competitors from the University of Minnesota in her senior season.
Wilkinson’s wife Barb also has braved the disease. Diagnosed with an incurable form of cancer seven years ago, the second punch to the Wilkinson TLC duo has done remarkably well after a bone marrow transfusion. Steve and Barb have worked together at the camp for the past 33 years.
As far as Wilkinson’s replacement goes, the head coach has an assistant that will undoubtedly be at the forefront of consideration. Tommy Valentini, one of Wilkinson’s two top assistants, is the early candidate. Valentini is currently pursuing his doctorate as a student at the University of Minnesota, on track to receive his PhD in Kinesiology and Sports Ethics. He has worked for Wilkinson at his TLC Camps since 1999. Kevin Whipple, Wilkinson’s second first-rate assistant, will assumedly be in consideration as well.
Above all else, a legend walks away from the helm of the most dominant program competing atop the hill. Coach Wilkinson will be missed but will continue to have a great impact on the game of tennis. Steve Wilkinson is a living icon, transcending the white lines painted on green concrete, to a hightened level of professional success that very few coaches in the collegiate ranks have ever even sniffed. While his presence will not be stripped entirely from campus, he moves into a higher eschelon of iconocized individuals, the finest to ever call Gustavus home.
Kauss reflected the sentiments of many of his teammates in his attitude towards Wilkinson’s retirement. Kauss said, “Coach Wilkinson will be missed but will continue to have a great impact on the game of tennis.