They called him the Iron Man of St. Louis tennis. Karl Hodge played regularly until his death at 95 in 1986. His nickname was well earned. 

Hodge was the first St. Louisian to win National Senior titles on clay and indoors, doing it in 1946, 1947, and 1951, when all seniors 45 and older competed in the same event. He carried high rankings locally and in the Missouri Valley for years, and served as the official in charge of those rankings. Surprisingly, nobody thought that was weird. 

In 1934 he founded one of the first tennis patrons' organizations in the country, here in St. Louis. Five years later he became the guiding force behind converting the old indoor Armory into a tennis training and development center, a project that would shape the game at home and across the world for decades. 

(2000)