Like all 12-year-olds, Jimmy Connors dreamed big. “My real goal in tennis,” the ambitious boy from Belleville, IL, told Dave Wohlfarth for the June 1965 issue of TENNIS Magazine, “is to play in England and to play on the Davis Cup team. I want to play for my country.”
Unlike many adolescent visions of grandeur, Connors’ became a reality. The subject of this magazine’s junior player profile in just its second issue, Connors sported a crew cut, wore a traditional V-neck sweater and had already lined his shelves with tennis trophies. When he traveled to sunny Florida for the 1964 Orange Bowl, Connors was in a different world than his hardscrabble upbringings. But it didn’t change his approach to the task at hand.
“I played tennis, ate and slept,” said Connors of the all-business trip.
After winning the prestigious 12-and-under tournament, Connors immediately set his sights on winning the 14s. He did. College success followed, with an NCAA singles title as a freshman, at UCLA. He turned pro at 19.
When Connors graced the cover of our May 1980 issue, his hair fell on his neck and over his eyes, he wore a tight-fitting polo—and his trophy haul now included Wimbledon’s golden chalice, not to mention an Australian Open title and three US Open trophies. Connors hoarded hardware in his career, winning 109 tournaments (eight of them majors) between 1972 to 1989. He also got to play for the United States, taking part in Davis Cup in 1976, 1981 and 1984.
But Connors didn’t stop dreaming.
In 1991, two years after his last title run and at age 39, Connors targeted one final push at the US Open, the tournament that defined him as a player.
“I had only one goal in mind: New York,” Connors said during a middling season in which he had failed to reach so much as a semifinal.
In one of the sport’s most iconic performances, Connors reached the semifinals in Flushing Meadows to the roaring delight of the New York crowds. He was still living the dream.
Like Connors, each person featured in this year’s Heroes Issue dreamed big. Few of them lived out those dreams on the stages Connors did, or for such an extended amount of time. But whether you were a fan of the relentless competitor or rooted against the Brash Basher from Belleville, whose aggressive playing style mirrored his combative persona, Connors is undeniably tennis—the sport of a lifetime.
Enthralled by the game at 12, Connors went on to enjoy a Hall of Fame playing career, coaching stints in the pros and time spent in the broadcast booth. His life has illustrated his deep connection to the sport, one that ignores age.
“Jimmy’s been around tennis all his life,” Gloria Connors, Jimmy’s mother and coach, said in 1965. It’s a statement that remains true to this day.
