In St. Louis, the name Ted Drewes is synonymous with one thing: frozen custard. But that came later. Ted Drewes Sr. was a tennis player first. 

He dominated St. Louis public parks tennis for more than a decade, winning the Municipal Championship every year from 1925 through 1936. Eleven straight titles. On the national stage he was just as formidable, capturing the National Public Parks Singles title four times in the 1920s. Journalists called him the Bill Tilden of municipal tennis. It wasn't hyperbole. 

He didn't want winter to stop him. So he moved his family to Florida every winter to train and compete. To pay for it, he learned the frozen custard trade from a carnival operator and opened a stand in St. Petersburg. It worked well enough that he brought the idea back to St. Louis. In 1930 he opened on Natural Bridge Avenue. 

The custard business was supposed to be a side hustle. 

When he died in 1968, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran his obituary in the sports section. It focused on his tennis. The custard stands got a mention. 

(1991)