Jean Hoxie

Jean Raymond Hoxie
Residence Hamtramck, Michigan
Born March 17, 1898
Grout Township, Gladwin County, MI
Died May 6, 1970
Midland, Michigan
College Columbia

Jean Hoxie was a Hamtramck, Michigan tennis player and coach.[1] In 1965, she was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.[2]

Biography

At the Class A level in Michigan under the banner of the Hamtramck Cosmos, Jean Hoxie and her husband Jerry Hoxie developed 16 state titleholders in singles tennis, and 13 state titleholders in doubles tennis. At all levels, members of their program won 18 boys state championships between 1949 and 1969 in high school competition.

Male players coached by the Hoxie program included Ken Angyal, Chuck Brainard, Pancho Castillo, Jerry Dubie, Al Hetseck, Ted Jax, George Korol, Fred Kovaleski, John Lamerato, Tony Lamerato, Jerry Parchute, Bill Petrick, Dick Potter, and Ray Senkowski. Winning national honors, Hoxie-coached female players included Peaches Bartkowicz, Elaine Lewicki, Joyce Pniewski, Stephanie Prychitko, Phyllis Saganski, and June Stack.[3]

In the 1940s, Jean Hoxie and her husband Jerry established the first tennis camp in the United States.[4]

Jean Hoxie, the first woman to coach a Michigan high school boys tennis team, was judged by consensus to be "the most successful tennis coach of teenage players in Michigan history". More than 200 national and international champions achieved their skills under her tutelage. From 1949 to 1965, her Hamtramck teams won 16 state titles in 17 years. She formed and ran successful tennis clinics in Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, Canada and the United States.[5]

Jean Hoxie was of Polish descent.[6]

The Hoxies' contribution has been summarized as: "If asked to name the dominating force in Michigan tennis history, any person even remotely aware of our sport would undoubtedly arrive at the names of Jean and Jerry Hoxie. Indeed, the list of state and national junior champions produced from that most unlikely location, Hamtramck, is a testament to the true greatness of what these two astonishing people achieved."[3] Hamtramck tennis was of such import that it has been treated in works of fiction.[7]

She coached more than 300 U.S. National tennis champions, and one world champion. Bartkowicz won the girls' Wimbledon singles title in 1964.[8]

Famous tennis clinic pupils included Spanish Chief of State Francisco Franco[8] and U.S. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. The Kennedy lessons were given at the White House.[5]

For the three final years of her career, Jean Hoxie taught at the Northwood Institute in Midland, Michigan. On 6 May 1970, she died in a “freak automobile accident” on the Northwood campus.[8] Her remains are buried at White Chapel Memorial Cemetery in Troy, Michigan.[9]

Notes

  1. ↑ Pitrone, Jean. (1985) Jean Hoxie, the Robin Hood of Tennis. (Avenue Pub Co.) ISBN 978-0-910977-01-2; 129 pages.
  2. ↑ Michigan Sports Hall of Fame Inductees.
  3. 1 2 Class of 1986 Michigan Tennis Hall of Fame, Tribute to Jean Hoxie and Jerry Hoxie.
  4. ↑ History of the USTA/Midwest Section United States Tennis Association.
  5. 1 2 Michigan's Finest: Profiles of previous inductees: Jean Raymond Hoxie February 6, 2008. The Detroit News
  6. ↑ "American People of Polish descent". Retrieved October 24, 2012.
  7. ↑ Rochelle, Larry (2007) Ten Mile Creek (BookSurge Publishing) ISBN 1-4196-6665-7; ISBN 978-1-4196-6665-0, 190 pages, a novel about Toledo, tennis and Hamtramck.
  8. 1 2 3 Jean Hoxie obituary, May 7, 1970. Victoria Advocate.
  9. ↑ Jean Hoxie memorial at Find a Grave.
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