(This is from the most recent edition of West Newsmagazine.)
A special proclamation was the
sweetest way to kick off the Sept. 26 Creve Coeur Council Meeting. That’s
especially true because it honored long-time Creve Coeur citizen Justina
Bricka, born on Valentine’s Day in 1943.
Mayor Robert Hoffman
stepped to the podium with Bricka to deliver a seven-paragraph declaration of
her incredible tennis feats as a player, referee and instructor. Most prominent
of the items mentioned were Bricka’s No. 5 U.S. women’s ranking in 1961, her
major role in helping secure a national Wightman Cup Team title and a myriad of
top doubles tennis finishes.
He noted that Bricka was inducted
into the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame on Thursday, Sept. 14, an honor
she acknowledged in her acceptance speech at the Creve Coeur board meeting. The
Fall 2023 Hall of Fame class also featured Frank Viverito, Jimmy Collins, Curtis
Francois, Rick Gorzynski, John Ulett, Jason Motte, Chris Pronger, Carolyn
Kindle, Rex Sinquefield and David Lee.
“I want to thank the
Creve Coeur City Council for this recognition. I’ve enjoyed living here in
Creve Coeur for some 27 years. So, this means a great deal to me,” Bricka said.
“Not only is it special to be honored and recognized for my career in tennis,
but it’s very special to be inducted alongside many great athletes across all
of our great sports. St. Louis is truly the greatest sports town in America,
and to be inducted alongside these many athletes is truly humbling.”
Again, I want to thank
you all for this special recognition this evening. Thanks!”
Bricka told West Newsmagazine that when she received a letter from Creve Coeur
City Clerk Kellie Henke asking if she and any of her family would be interested
in attending, she responded immediately.
“I called back right
away and said I am thrilled, appreciate the honor and will definitely be
there.”
She was accompanied by
her son, Lou Horwitz, a criminal defense attorney in St. Peters.
As for her Hall of Fame
induction, she said, “That was fabulous! It was unbelievable! I turned 80 this
year. So, you don’t expect it to still happen when you’re that old. But also,
St. Louis is a great place to live, to grow up and to grow old, and it’s also
the best sports city in the United States.”
Bricka made it clear she was
referring to all sports, not just the nation’s most well-known team
sports. Referencing local author Ed Wheatley’s book “St. Louis Sports Memories:
Forgotten Teams and Moments from America’s Best Sports Town,” Brick noted that
13 pages are devoted to tennis and much is said about the local prominence of
bowling. In fact, Bricka is featured prominently in Wheatley’s book along with
Carol Hanks Aucamp and Mary-Ann Eisel Beattie, who were collectively known as
the “Golden Girls of Tennis,” when they played in the 1960s.
“These three women …
[did some] outstanding stuff. They played at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the
French Open, the Australian Open,” Wheatley told St. Louis Public Radio’s Emily
Woodbury in a December 2022 interview.
In her own recollection of St. Louis
sports, Bricka said she has great memories of watching Wrestling at the Chase
and noted the fact that corkball was invented here with its popularity going
back to the 1890s.
Bricka was in the very
first class of inductees into the U.S. Tennis Association’s St. Louis Hall of
Fame back in 1990. But she said she had no idea she would develop such prowess
in tennis as a mere 9- or 10-year-old left-hander.
“When I went to grade
school at Flynn Park in U.City, I also went to camp. My mom dropped me off
there and it was just swimming and tennis. After the first day of swimming, I
hated it for things like just putting my face underwater. So I started getting
dropped off just for tennis. There were handball courts in Heman Park, and when
I got a little better, I could hit against the wall.”
She said the clinic, run by Earl
Buchholz Sr., was really fun.
It didn’t take long for
pure enjoyment to translate into exceptional performances. At the tender age of
16, Bricka won the deciding match for the U.S. by besting Britain’s Angela
Mortimer. What was most thrilling and shocking about that match was that
Mortimer had recently become the Wimbledon champion.
Her most prominent
singles victory occurred the very same year when, at the 1959 U.S. Nationals,
Bricka fought off three first-round match points to defeat the long-time,
world-famous Bille Jean Moffitt King. That controversial result is worth reading
about on several tennis sites.
Other highlights include winning the
national clay court doubles title with Hanks Aucamp, who is also in the local
sports hall of fame, and winning the Irish doubles with Eisel Beattie. She also
combined with Margaret Smith Court to win the Swiss Open and finish runner-up
in the French Open.
Twice Bricka and mixed
doubles teammate Frank Froehling reached the semifinals at Wimbledon. She won
the mixed doubles with Gene Scott at the Merion Cricket Club.
Her tennis career would
have lasted much longer, but the rewards back then paled in comparison to those
of today.
“When you went to a
tournament like the Southern Circuit, you had to find someone with a car and
you went from one place to another. When you were at the tournament, people
affiliated with the tennis club or with tennis in that area would house the
players. You’d stay at their homes and get breakfast and dinner there, and you
were on your own for lunch. Also, there was no money back then. If you won, all
you got was a trophy. They weren’t allowed to give money as an amateur sport.”
Shortly after retirement, Bricka
married Dick Horwitz and later became a referee for the Women’s Pro Tour.
“The WTA, Women’s
Tennis Association, asked me to be the tournament referee for the Avon Tour,
which was mostly called the Virginia Slims Tour. It was the only women’s tour
in the winter. It was held in about 10 different cities, then the finals were
in Madison Square Garden. That was very exciting because I had never been a
ref,” Bricka said. “I was getting to do all the things in the sport that I
really loved.”
She subsequently
accepted a job at Triple A in Forest Park as the first female head tennis
professional in St. Louis.
“I had played at Triple A most of my
life, so I guess it was natural that I fell into getting the job there. I was
also teaching clinics in area schools,” she said. “But at Triple A, there was
no money in it. How would you tell that to your parents? That’s why I started
teaching.
“If you were teaching,
you had an income. I knew I would always have a job teaching. I also taught
some at John Burroughs. That was years ago!”
After her sons, Lou and
Joe, were born two years apart, Justina was offered work at the brand-new
Frontenac Racquet Club. That’s where she was for 30 years, including stints as
manager and owner.
Unfortunately, the last time she
played tennis was some 15 years ago, having suffered through “a hip
replacement, torn rotator cuff, issues with her left hand, spinal stenosis and
really bad arthritis.”
Still, detailed
memories of tennis highlights from the past 70 years resonate through her mind
and heart.
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