Back in Time #6 – 1980 Wimbledon Final Borg-McEnroe

(About the Series: Based upon my Conversation with guest Derek Meinecke, I’m going back in time to be in the stands at 10 sporting events. This week, it’s #6. You’re able to find links to the previous installments below.)

1980 Wimbledon Championship
Bjorn Borg celebrates the final point of the 1980 Wimbledon Championship against John McEnroe.

I’ve written previously about the special place the Wimbledon Championships hold in my heart. It’s neither because I’ve ever been there nor because I’m a hardcore tennis fan. Basically, my fondness was borne of tennis being about the only thing on the television each Fourth of July weekend at my grandmother’s lake cottage in northern Indiana before frolicking in the water was allowed.

Strawberries and cream nothing; more like Fruit Loops and 2% milk for me!

Anyhow, on July 5, 1980, I was a 13-year-old rising eighth grader. I may have been camped in front of my grandmother’s 19-inch color RCA TV along the shores of Oliver Lake, watching Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe battle for the Championship. Honestly, I can’t remember.

Borg celebrates the win on his knees while McEnroe laid out in an effort to salvage a point in the fourth-set tiebreaker.

The point is, I wish I was. Heck, I wish I was at Centre Court at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club which is why I’m climbing into the way back machine to head back in time to witness this epic 3 hours, 53 minute 5-set masterpiece.

As much as anything, I want to be there for the fourth-set tiebreaker that McEnroe won, 18-16. The tiebreaker alone lasted over 20 minutes. It was like watching the final round of Rocky on repeat. McEnroe fended off championship point after championship point before ultimately prevailing to force the fifth set.

Check out the fourth-set tiebreaker seen here in its entirety.

I’ve never been a spectator at a professional tennis match, but I suspect this one would’ve kept me in my seat and engaged. Seeing two future Hall of Famers at the height of their game playing in a Grand Slam final on what has to be considered the sport’s most iconic venue on the planet (sorry, Roland Garros) seems a no-brainer for me to head back in time to witness in person.

The full final match of the 1980 Wimbledon Championship.

Previous Installments

Get Off My Lawn!

As I slowly got sucked in for all 4 hours and 42 minutes of the Wimbledon Men’s Championship this weekend, a random thought crossed my mind.

Is the groundsman at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club reacting the same way to the huge swaths of dirt patches that have developed in their treasured patch of grass the same way our parents did when, through repeated front yard summer baseball/Wiffle ball games, similar dirt patches developed where the batter’s box was?

And, if so, what are the consequences for the players? Do they need to change their position for service/return as we did for homeplate? Are they obligated to help with reseeding/regrowing next spring?

Just wondering:-)

Cheers to Carlos Alcaraz and Marketa Vondrousova on their victories and helping provide the viewing world with a remarkable fortnight.

The Fan Teaser: Week 38 Solution

Back when headbands were a thing.

The headband game was strong with John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg on the grounds of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club back in the day.

John McEnroe & Bjorn Borg
In many ways, John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg were Wimbledon for the better
part of a decade.

Between the two they won eight of the nine Wimbledon Championships contested between 1976-1984. (Borg won five straight [’76-’80]). Perhaps the most memorable of all the matches contested (they met in only two Wimbledon finals, 1980 and 1981) was the fourth-set tiebreaker of that 1980 championship. With Borg leading the match two sets to one, McEnroe prevailed 18-16 in this epic 20-plus minute tiebreaker, before falling 8-6 in the decisive fifth set. (See the entire tiebreaker below.)

Just for fun, here is John McEnroe’s commencement address to the Stanford University Class of 2023 from last month. It is, shall we say, on brand for Johnny Mac.

Just to review, The Fan Teaser comes courtesy of longtime buddy, Pat Schutte. The cropped photo below and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.

Collecting Rejections

I’ve written in this space before about my repeated rejections from the fine folks at Augusta National in my annual sisyphean pursuit to win the drawing for The Masters tickets.

In an effort to enhance my chances of seeing one of these “must see” events I added to my annual lottery pursuits the “Wimbledon Ticket Ballot.”

Last week I received the image below and, in the words of Ian Eagle – the new voice of NCAA March Madness on CBS and Turner: “Rejected!”

Wimbledon Graphic

But at least I have this going for me … if I’m so inclined.

Ticket Exchanges

There’s always next year, right?

An Absence of Sports

Based upon the name of this website, one would think our weekly blog posts would be about sports, sporting events, or the like.

This week my family and I are traveling and I had nothing in the hopper nor anyone to pinch-post (if you’re interested in contributing, let me know) so you get what you get:-)

As our travels last weekend took us to London, one might also surmise there’d be some grand bloviation about watching the Wimbledon finals in London. Sorry to disappoint, but the sum total of my Wimbledon viewing was about three service games of the men’s wheelchair doubles semifinal action Friday night that was airing in the pub we were visiting.

It has been, rather refreshingly, time spent away from sport. Oh, I’ll still check in on the Tigers (bloody White Sox!) and it seems like Red Wings’ GM Steve Yzerman continues to execute the YzerPlan in order to rebuild. (The early reports on the draft have been solid as are those of the acquisition of goalie Villie Husso.)

This might all change tomorrow. A scheduled trip to The Old Course at St. Andrews may yield some word-worthy moments. Here’s hoping ongoing rail worker labor issues don’t scuttle those plans!

I’m Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs (and Wimbledon)

In my teen years it was not uncommon for our family to travel to Lagrange County, IN, from our Michigan home and spend at night or two at my maternal grandmother’s family’s cottage on Oliver Lake in conjunction with the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

Oliver Lake
The view from the center of Oliver Lake in Lagrange, IN.

It was a small cottage on a small lake in northcentral Indiana. Rustic in nature, there was no heat, no air conditioning, and no indoor bathing facilities. … Um, grab your soap and shampoo and head to the lake if you want to get clean, pal!

There also wasn’t much of an entertainment center, but then again, when you’re young and you have a lake at your disposal, indoor entertainment was only necessary in the event of lightning. That said, the cottage featured an old clock radio with access to a few AM stations (Fort Wayne’s WOWO, for sure) and a local FM channel or two. There was also an old 19-inch black and white TV (resplendent with an antenna shooting up out of the back). Beyond these, your best bet for indoor entertainment was a deck of cards, a coloring book, or a good nap.

On those early July weekends when our family was there, invariably I’d wake up Saturday and Sunday mornings and make my way downstairs and enjoy whatever box of cereal was available (Please be Cocoa Puffs, please be Cocoa Puffs!). Inexplicably, to me at least, the television was usually on and tuned to NBC’s coverage of Wimbledon. To this day I’m unsure who the tennis fan was in my cousins’ family (perhaps it was just plain laziness to not go change the channel?), but it was in this crampled little cottage that I received my first exposure to the game.

I wouldn’t classify myself as a tennis fan in those days, but I began to learn the players and some of the rules. Trying to track the action on that tiny B&W TV was challenging, but it provided something to occupy my time until the outdoor temperature had sufficiently warmed and I’d waited the requisite 20 minutes after eating before hitting the water.

Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova
Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova circa 1980 at Wimbledon.

Looking back on it, it was certainly the salad days of Wimbledon on television. Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova seemed to face each other in the Ladies Finals annually (in fact, from 1976 to 1988, they played for the title nine of 13 times, advantage Navratilova, 7-2). On the Gentlemen’s side, it always seemed to be Bjorn Borg or John McEnroe in the final. In fact, one of – or both of – them were in the final every year from 1976-1984. Borg won five straight (1976-80) and McEnroe three of four beginning with his victory over Borg in 1981.

Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe
Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe at Wimbledon in 1981.

This year I’ll be in London for both the Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s semifinal and championship matches. There are no current plans to try and score a ticket. I don’t suspect my discretionary income reaches the level it will take to gain entry. Nor, for that matter, do I anticipate having the sort of wardrobe that appears to be necessary to cohabitate in the same space as the Royal Family.

That said, if we happened to be in the neighborhood it’d be pretty cool to experience the vibe.

In a nod to knowing that we’ll be there, I did sign up to the All England Lawn and Tennis Club (AELTC) email list. Over the weekend, in anticipation of action beginning this week, AELTC sent along a variety of ways to experience the event without actually attending. To wit:

  • Chefs from the club share recipes regularly that the ambitious among us are able to replicate at home.
  • A game for your cellphone, Break Point, that fans are able to download.
  • The Virtual Hill is a way to actually be there … more or less.
  • All the video from a days action may be found here.

A far cry, it would seem, from peering at that old black and white television trying to make out the ball while listening for the current score, but nonetheless the same lines painted on the same patch of grass in London. Pretty neat how far this fortnight has come yet still remained the same. I’m looking forward to it.