Butch Buchholz swept all four Junior Grand Slam titles, Australian, French, Wimbledon, and U.S, in 1958 and 1959. Ranked fifth in the world by 1960, he was a Davis Cup player and one of the best in the game. 

He was one of eight touring pros invited to play an exhibition on Center Court at Wimbledon. Fill the grandstands and professionals would be invited back to compete. They did. Six months later he was one of the WCT's Handsome Eight, young, stylish, charismatic, who cracked open the Open Era with bright yellow balls and a tiebreaker. 

A chronic elbow injury ended his playing career before he ever competed in a Grand Slam. He found another angle. 

He became Commissioner of World Team Tennis, Executive Director of the ATP, and founder of the Lipton International Players Championships, now the Miami Open, where men and women competed side by side for the first time outside the Grand Slams. Today it draws 420,000 spectators. Many consider it tennis' fifth Grand Slam. 

The question isn't what Butch did for tennis. It's what he didn't do.  

(1990)