Jim Baughman and Henry Baughman may not be among the athletes competing for gold, silver and bronze in the 2012 Olympics, but the brothers have proven themselves as champions – they have the silver to show for it.
Jim, 73, of Stanford and Henry, 75, formerly of Stanford, collected silver trays on a recent tennis trip out west by winning national titles in the 86th Annual National Public Parks (NPP) Tennis Championships at Denver, Colo.
The Baughman brothers – whose father built the first tennis court in Stanford on the family farm – teamed up on the Denver courts to win the 70 & Over Doubles championship and Henry claimed an individual victory by taking the 75 & Over Singles title.
The Baughmans received a bye in the opening round, then cruised to victory with a 6-3, 6-0 semifinal win and a 6-2, 6-2 win the final match. Height Redmon of Colorado, who had defeated Jim earlier in the tournament and gone on to win the 70’s Single title, was one-half of the runner-up doubles pair.
“Both of (our) doubles’ final opponents were better than (me) in singles, but as a team (me) and Henry were better,” commented Jim Baughman.
Henry gave up only one game en route to his singles title win. The Stanford native, who had a bye in the opening round, defeated David Brickson (CO) 6-1, 6-0 in the semifinals then shut out John Doidge, the No. 1 ranked player in Colorado, 6-0, 6-0.
“John did not win a point and Henry made only six errors in the two sets,” Jim boasted of his older brother.
Jim, who won several regional tennis titles in high school and went on to play at the University of Kentucky, is no newcomer to tennis although he did take an extended hiatus from the sport. He was, however, a newcomer to the NPP circuit this year.
But Henry, who also won regional tennis titles in high school and was a letterman at UK and Murray State University, is a seasoned veteran in the summer tennis circuit. The 2012 NPP doubles title win with Jim and his singles victory in Denver bring Henry’s total of National Public Parks’ tennis championships to 20 – more than anyone in the history of the nation’s oldest tournament.
Henry, a 1996 inductee in the Kentucky Tennis Hall of Fame and a 2011 inductee into the USTA Southern Tennis Hall of Fame, has traveled a great distance to court victory, having won those 20 titles in Wisconsin, South Dakota, Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky, South Carolina, Louisiana, Texas, Minnesota, Florida and Colorado.
