Learning that Fred Stolle passed away on March 5th at the age of 86 caused me to dust off memories…
Tony Trabert, with whom I had an exceptional relationship, brought about my friendship with Stolle.
Nicknamed “Fiery”… The word doesn’t define who he was… and is the reason I am setting out to explain why Stolle was so much more…
Our relationship went beyond his 6’3” height, his intelligence and competitiveness… It surpassed the 19 Grand Slam titles – two singles, ten doubles and seven mixed doubles – on his dance card. It wasn’t significant because of his place in tennis history having lost more major finals than any other man. It had nothing to do with his becoming a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985, the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1988, or receiving the Australian Sports Medal in 2000, the Officer of the Order of Australia in 2005 and the Philippe Chatrier Award in 2020.
It was about Fred always being true to who he was…
After his playing days, he coached Vitas Gerulaitis. When that came to an end, he easily transitioned to television commentary working for Channel 9, ESPN and Fox Sports Australia.
Trabert’s introduction may have come at Roland-Garros, or it could have been at The Championships… I don’t remember the “specific slam”, but I do know that it wasn’t Melbourne or New York.
The consummate Australian, Stolle expressed ideas that made people think… He was a keen observer and a richly colorful conversationalist. The adage “read between the lines…” is appropriate since often there was more to what he offered than what was said…
On one occasion after finishing a Roland-Garros television session, I joined Stolle and Trabert in their Court Centrale booth (before the location was named Philippe-Chatrier Court in 2001). It was one of those sweltering Paris days… Adding to the discomfort was the fact that the close friends were using the Fédération Française de Tennis (FFT) television feed… Though they were working for Channel 9, FFT provided what they were watching on the monitors…
This made my experience delightfully entertaining… FFT television, notorious for becoming “creatively” distracted by doing “crowd shots…” during matches, was playing to form… It would focus on an elegantly dressed man leaving Stolle asking, “Do you know who that is…” Trabert rarely did but by then the cameras had shifted attention to the bevy of women sitting courtside wearing striking “It’s a very warm day…” attire.
I must add that not only were there “Who is that…” out of nowhere crowd shots occasionally sandwiched into points being played, they dominated the side-change sequences… which resulted in the cameras returning late to the action on court after a new game had begun… This forced Trabert, who was the lead commentator, to talk around the score because he hadn’t seen what had just happened… Stolle, in turn, showed his broadcasting adeptness by bringing up something like the length of a slide one of the player’s had made in the previous game or the fact the heat was making the Terre Battue surface even more treacherous… all the result of not having seen what had taken place on the first point…
Situations like this, showcased the depth of their friendship. Being completely comfortable with who they were expanded their “Fun to be around…” senses of humor. I must add it was fortunate they were able to mute the microphones because the exchanges were mischievous, uproarious and regularly colorful… particularly when cameras treated ladies in the audience as if they were on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival… In my mind the repartee was better than the match commentary… and listening from where I sat… it was fantastic.
In “Memories Of My Friend – Tony Trabert”, that was posted on this site on May 20, 2021, I wrote about Stolle meeting Trabert when he was a ball boy at the 1952 Inter-Zonal final of the Davis Cup, played on the grass at White City Stadium in Sydney, December 18-20. Trabert, along with Vic Seixas and Ham Richardson, led the US to a 5-0 victory over Italy.
Stolle remembered, “I first met him when I was 13 at the Davis Cup. I was one of the ball boys and was small, barely came up to the top of the Davis Cup (when the trophy was on its plinth). He always had a kind word for us. He took care of us and even hit a few balls with the kids.” (Stolle had turned 13 on October 8th that year.)
Trabert, who held the position from 1976 to 1980, made his debut as the US Davis Cup captain, in October ‘76, at the Margaret Court Racquet Club Ranch, in Tucson, Arizona. Stolle, whose pro career was winding down, was the Director of Tennis… and, along with his wife, Pat, set a tie hosting Gold Standard for the Americas Zone match against Venezuela, which the US won 5-0.
Talking about Tucson, he fondly recalled that the club, with its 30 lighted courts, had been the home of the American Airlines Tennis Games in 1974 and ’75… and how late in the afternoon as the “cocktail hour” approached, the view from the clubhouse, with the mountains surrounding the location on three sides, was spectacular and resulted in picturesque sunsets.
Stolle noted, “… those were the days when you could learn to play in fifteen minute clinics…” and added how much he appreciated that the Foster’s cans were the same size as those used for Valvoline Motor Oil.
He cherished the time… saying that the friends he made was the reason his involvement memorable. As he told me, “Those were the days…”
Stolle played The Championships on 12 occasions but his tenure as a Channel 9 commentator was decades long. Recalling his collaboration with Trabert at SW19, he said, “We roomed together on Somerset Road sharing a house during The Championships. It was a short walk to the club. Russ Adams stayed with us. He was an unbelievable chef. He would go to the market every morning and get things and every night we would have a gourmet dinner”.
(Adams, “The Dean” of tennis photographers, was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2007.)
Trabert lived in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida and Stolle’s home was almost 350 miles away in Aventura… But they talked often…the last time was three days before Trabert passed away on February 3, 2021…
Stolle revealed, “I told him, ‘Trabes you’ve been down a break before in the fifth and come back…’
“He told me he was ready to go…
“Trabes had some good innings… “I’m going to be miss him immeasurably, he was very much part of my life…”
I am fortunate to have shared some good innings with Stolle….
Rod Laver said it best, “Again, that was Fiery – he was always making sure that everybody was going along all right, and happy for everybody to be successful…”
Indeed, that was the Fred Stolle… I knew.
Title photo: Mark Woodforde, Mark Winters, Fred Stolle and Tony Trabert in the Channel 9 Studio by Nine Media