Vic Seixas, hall of fame tennis champion and World War II test pilot, has died at 100

Vic Seixas, 100, formerly of Philadelphia, the 1953 Wimbledon men’s tennis champion, 1954 U.S. Open men’s champion, member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame and Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame, World War II Army Air Corps test pilot, and former star athlete at William Penn Charter School, died Friday, July 5, of complications from age-associated ailments at his home in Mill Valley, Calif.

Mr. Seixas (pronounced SAY-shus) began his tennis career as a weekend ball boy for his father in West Philadelphia. Turns out, he was a natural at tennis and baseball, and he became a teenage tennis star in the 1930s at Penn Charter on School House Lane. Forty years later, when he retired in 1970, he had 15 major tournament championships, 56 amateur singles titles, and near misses in dozens of other quarterfinal, semifinal, and final rounds.

He won two major singles titles, five major doubles championships, and eight major mixed-doubles titles. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1971 and the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame in 2005, and his profile on the international hall of fame website opens with: “It could be argued, and with factual documentation, that, from 1940 to 1968, Vic Seixas was the face of American tennis.”

In addition to winning Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, he captained the 1954 U.S. Davis Cup team to a dramatic upset victory over four-time defending champion Australia. He played amateur tennis before the professional game offered huge purses and, even though his prize was a $75 voucher, considered his championship win at Wimbledon his greatest on-court achievement.

“I remember the tournament like it was yesterday,” Mr. Seixas said in a recent online video interview. “It was the thrill of my life in tennis, and I still think that’s the greatest tournament of them all.”

Tennis experts called his game “complete” and especially lauded his fitness, speed, agility, and net game. He was ranked as one of the country’s top 10 amateur players more than a dozen times between 1942 and 1966, and beat players half his age well into his 40s. Some opponents joked ruefully that playing Mr. Seixas was “vexatious.”

At Penn Charter, he was a basketball, baseball, track, squash, and tennis star, and he dominated local, regional, and national junior tennis tournaments in the 1930s and ‘40s. He played in amateur events around the country for the Cynwyd Club, and The Inquirer praised his “strong diversified attack” in an article about his victory in the 1940 Middle States junior championships.

After high school, he went on to star as team captain at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, winning 63 of 66 college singles matches and being named all-American before graduating in 1949. He interrupted his second year in college to enlist in the Army Air Corps in 1943 and served three years as a test pilot and flight instructor in the South Pacific during World War II.

Off the court, he worked for years as a stockbroker for Goldman Sachs in Philadelphia and was active with the old Philadelphia Tennis Association. He hosted tennis camps in Wayne and Cherry Hill in the 1970s, played local exhibitions and seniors events around the region, and later became director of tennis at a resort in West Virginia and hotel in New Orleans.

He cowrote Prime Time Tennis: Tennis for Players Over 40 in 1983 with Joel H. Cohen, moved to near San Francisco in 1989, and worked at the Club at Harbor Point in Mill Valley until he retired. He was always popular with other players and fans, and he won the 1948 William M. Johnston Trophy from the U.S. Tennis Association for “character, sportsmanship, manners, spirit of cooperation, and contribution to the growth of the game.”

Tennis stars from around the world posted sentimental birthday greetings online for his 95th and 100th birthdays, and current world No. 2 player Novak Djokovic said in a 2018 video: “Hopefully one day we can meet in person, and I can pick up some of your great experience and wisdom.”

Elias Victor Seixas Jr. was born Aug. 30, 1923, in Philadelphia and grew up in Overbook Park. He beat tennis players twice his age as a 10-year-old and was compared favorably to fellow Philly tennis prodigy Big Bill Tilden. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business at North Carolina and chose life on the court over joining his father’s plumbing supply company.

He married Dolly Ann Dunaway, and they divorced later. He married Toinette Alford, and they had daughter Victoria. They divorced later.

Mr. Seixas liked to play cards, solve puzzles, and read the newspaper every day. “You’re the best,” former world No. 1 player Chris Evert told Mr. Seixas in last year’s birthday video. “You’re a great role model to me.”

» READ MORE: Penn Charter alum Vic Seixas, the oldest living Wimbledon champ, is turning 100.

His daughter said: “He was gentle and caring and vibrant.”

Mr. Seixas is survived by his daughter and former wives.

A celebration of his life is to be held on Thursday, Aug. 29, at the Lighthouse Bar and Grill, Club at Harbor Point, 475 E. Strawberry Dr., Mill Valley, Calif. 94941.

Donations in his name may be made to the Harbor Point Charitable Foundation, 475 E. Strawberry Dr., Mill Valley, Calif. 94941.