It has grown and changed over the years, but as the Burnaby Tennis Club celebrates its 50th anniversary, a poignant history points to a promising future.
That’s because of the dedicated people who helped create it, and help keep it running through modern challenges.
Members of the club will gather tomorrow (Thursday) at the Burnaby Lake Rugby facility (7 p.m. at 3760 Sperling Ave.) to regale about the good old times, and schedule next week’s game.
For long-time members Larry Melnyk and Gary Sutherland, the club has been a place where skills were sharpened, friendships formed and hours were invested to help keep it running.
“The club has grown from humble beginnings on three courts adjacent to the old Burnaby South Secondary school to a year-round facility next to Burnaby Lake,” recalled Melnyk in an email. “The complex includes 17 courts – six of those are covered by a bubble (dome) during the winter season. The club is still run by a volunteer, unpaid board of directors who operate as a non-profit society.”
In the early days, the three South courts were a central meeting place for a core of Burnaby families who launched the club to encourage healthy activity.
“This was my second home growing up,” recalled Sutherland, who as a 17-year-old joined during the founding Centennial year. “(I) started playing at 15, was on my high school team and joined the Burnaby club when I was 17.”
He remembers how the gas station across the street served as the local bathroom, and how the ranks of members included the likes of the Leggs, Harts, Edwards and Jamesons, with John McKenzie, Barb Spitz, Bob Regan and Vic Lipp taking on large roles.
Players wore whites and wielded wooden racquets just like the sport's stars of the era Rod Laver and Billie Jean King, but eventually outgrew the South side’s three courts.
The leaders of the day plotted an expansion, fundraised by selling debentures and worked with the city of Burnaby to build a larger facility at Burnaby Lake, where the current club has thrived since the early 1970s.
When it made that move, Sutherland recalled, they relied upon students and staff from Burnaby Central Secondary to build the clubhouse, while local companies provided supplies and services to help the club continue in its growth. In the mid-70s, the number of people using the club hit 520, but there was a constant struggle to maintain the 51 per cent Burnaby residents membership, as demanded in the lease with the city.
That still remains a challenge today, with the club offering local residents an incentive through no initiation fee to join.
“I have the oldest membership but (I’m) not the oldest member,” said Sutherland, who served as operation and tournament director. “Ed Gladstone was 101 when he passed away a couple of years ago, and (he) still played at 100. … Many members over the years put in muscle and hard work to achieve what is there today.”
Making the sport a year-round activity involved adding a winter ‘bubble’ building in 1982 that covers six of the club’s 17 courts during the rainy months. The roof is in need of repairs but the games continue, while the board finds ways to tackle ongoing and future challenges.
Every year, the club attracts national and international talents to compete at the Burnaby Open, the second largest amateur tournament in western Canada, and has hosted B.C. high school tournaments, the World Junior tourney in 1997 and B.C. Senior Games in 2012.
While membership has regularly fluctuated, Melnyk said it currently sits above 300 people, and attracts new members from across the Lower Mainland.
He has served on the board for a number of years, and said the club’s focus on keeping the sport affordable and accessible to all remains a major accomplishment.
“I’ve been a member for a long time so this is a great opportunity to gather with friends, past and present,” he said. “(It’s) a time to relive the good old days and to look ahead. I feel fortunate to still play and share this great sport with others.”
