University of Georgia Athletics
1985: The Bulldog Breakthrough
May 27, 2017 | Men's Tennis, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
Among all the years and all the big NCAA Championships matches played at Henry Feild Stadium, the moment of the Georgia men's tennis team's first triumph, in 1985, stands above the rest.
For years coach Dan Magill had been building Georgia into one of the nation's top programs, while also pushing to grow the game he loved and the NCAAs then held in Athens each year. Led by four stalwart (to use a Magill word) seniors and two tough-as-nails younger players, the Bulldogs won the program's first NCAA title on May 21, 1985.
Georgia had reached the semifinals of the NCAAs three times in the preceding four years, and produced the 1983 NCAA doubles champions (Allen Miller and Ola Malmqvist) and the 1984 singles champion in Mikael Pernfors. And in 1985, the Dogs broke through for the team title, becoming the first team not named Stanford, USC or UCLA to win the championship since Trinity won the very first NCAA tournament in Athens, in 1972.
"We just had the ingredients for success," said George Bezecny, a senior and No. 2 singles player that year.
Playing before a rabid crowd of more than 5,200 at Henry Feild Stadium, nobody there that day had seen anything quite like it, the sixth-seeded Bulldogs in the final bested the defending champions and top seed, UCLA, 5-1. Sophomore Philip Johnson at No. 5 singles clinched the victory, earning himself and Coach Magill rides off the court on the shoulders of the other players.
"(Magill) finally had his national championship," Georgia coach Manuel Diaz said two years ago on the 30th anniversary of the win. "While he had been recognized as the most innovative promoter for college tennis and the biggest force for college tennis, for maybe the previous 10 or so years, and he was an icon, this actually validated it from the coaching side."
Magill, who died in 2014 at age 93, coached his beloved Bulldogs for 34 years and retired following the 1988 season as the winningest coach in NCAA Division I history, with 706 career wins. The NCAA title was the first for Georgia in any sport. Football had been voted No. 1 in 1942 and 1980, but this was the first championship won on the court.
Leading the way were seniors Pernfors, Bezecny, Miller and Deane Frey, who played Nos. 1-4 in singles, with Johnson at No. 5 and freshman Trey Carter at No. 6.
Among the many reasons winning it all in 1985 was so satisfying was the route the Dogs had to take. They beat Stanford in the quarterfinals, USC in the semis and UCLA in the final. The teams that had blocked their path in previous years, blocked every other school's path since the team tournament was established in 1977, the Dogs knocked off one after another.
"That was the challenge, to play against those teams and compete and win against them," Bezecny said.
Georgia beat the Bruins 5-1 (they played the six singles matches first back then), so the match was clinched without having to play the doubles. But it wasn't a day without drama. Bothered by a bad knee and badly dehydrated following a long, grueling match in the semifinals, Bezecny was in the hospital the morning of the championship match getting IVs.
"To this day, I don't know how I even played that match," Bezecny said.
In Georgia's pre-match warmup, Bezecny said he hit three balls and couldn't move. He slowly jogged around the parking lot for a little while and told Magill that he might not be able to play. Magill told him to give it a try and if he had to default, then default.
Facing UCLA's Jeff Klaparda, "the first set was over in about 20 minutes," Bezecny said. The Bruin had won 6-2 against a weary and immobile Bulldog. But gradually Bezecny got loose as the adrenaline kicked in, and Klaparda "started playing just to move me around and stopped going for his shots. That helped me and I worked my way back into the match," Bezecny said.
By the time Bezecny was in a third set, Pernfors, Miller and Carter had won their matches and Frey had lost on court 4, leaving just Bezecny at No. 2 and Johnson at No. 5.
"On the changeovers, Coach wouldn't tell me what was happening with Philip. He just always said, 'Stay on your match,'" Bezecny said. "He finally came over in the third set, at like 4-3, and he kicked my bucket and kicked my chair, and he said, '$%$%###!!!!, he blew a match point!'
"He was supposed to keep me calm and he's going crazy. It was kind of a funny thing, but I guess he had to let it out."
Bezecny prevailed in three sets, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, earning a big bear hug from Pernfors afterward and putting Georgia up 4-1, a win away from the title. The two were great friends, roommates, and though they didn't know it at the time, they were headed for a matchup in the finals of the singles tournament.
Before that, Johnson had to finish off Brett Greenwood. Johnson ultimately did, 7-5 in the third set, setting off a spectacular celebration. The crowds between courts 3 and 4 were so thick that Bezecny couldn't get through for several minutes,
"I finally got down to the lower courts and they were carrying Coach," he said. "The memory, really, is carrying Coach up to the upper courts."
Pernfors was the top seed in the singles tournament and defending NCAA champion, while Bezecny was seeded seventh. Pernfors and Miller were also one of the best doubles teams in the land and a "triple crown" — something nobody in the modern era had accomplished before — seemed a possibility.
But it wasn't to be. Pernfors and Miller lost in the semis of the doubles, but the Dogs were assured of a singles title after the roommates played their way into the final.
"That was the big moment, because Georgia was going to win the singles title, too," Bezency said.
It, frankly, wasn't a great final. Pernfors was already showing some of the form that would lead him to the finals of the French Open a year later and the physical toll of the NCAAs finally caught up to Bezecny. Also, the crowd, so spirited all tournament long, didn't know what to do with two Bulldogs facing each other.
"There was not that noise," Bezecny said. "They were clapping for him and for me, but there wasn't that raucous noise."
And the coaches?
"I glanced up [laughs] and Magill and Manny were just sitting there with their feet up, watching the match," he said.
Pernfors won, 6-2, 6-3, but he didn't show the joy that he did after beating Clemson's Lawson Duncan in the 1984 final.
"I just don't feel as emotionally happy as I did winning the championship last year. Having to play George in the finals took some of the fun out of the win. I believe we're still the best two college players in the country, but still it was awkward playing each other," Pernfors told reporters after the match.
The win, however awkward, wrapped up one of the best, most exciting weeks in Georgia and collegiate tennis history. The Dogs won the title again in 1987, and since Diaz took over for Magill in 1989, four more NCAA titles have been added to the collection.
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
UGAAA Staff Writer
Among all the years and all the big NCAA Championships matches played at Henry Feild Stadium, the moment of the Georgia men's tennis team's first triumph, in 1985, stands above the rest.
For years coach Dan Magill had been building Georgia into one of the nation's top programs, while also pushing to grow the game he loved and the NCAAs then held in Athens each year. Led by four stalwart (to use a Magill word) seniors and two tough-as-nails younger players, the Bulldogs won the program's first NCAA title on May 21, 1985.
Georgia had reached the semifinals of the NCAAs three times in the preceding four years, and produced the 1983 NCAA doubles champions (Allen Miller and Ola Malmqvist) and the 1984 singles champion in Mikael Pernfors. And in 1985, the Dogs broke through for the team title, becoming the first team not named Stanford, USC or UCLA to win the championship since Trinity won the very first NCAA tournament in Athens, in 1972.
"We just had the ingredients for success," said George Bezecny, a senior and No. 2 singles player that year.
Playing before a rabid crowd of more than 5,200 at Henry Feild Stadium, nobody there that day had seen anything quite like it, the sixth-seeded Bulldogs in the final bested the defending champions and top seed, UCLA, 5-1. Sophomore Philip Johnson at No. 5 singles clinched the victory, earning himself and Coach Magill rides off the court on the shoulders of the other players.
"(Magill) finally had his national championship," Georgia coach Manuel Diaz said two years ago on the 30th anniversary of the win. "While he had been recognized as the most innovative promoter for college tennis and the biggest force for college tennis, for maybe the previous 10 or so years, and he was an icon, this actually validated it from the coaching side."
Magill, who died in 2014 at age 93, coached his beloved Bulldogs for 34 years and retired following the 1988 season as the winningest coach in NCAA Division I history, with 706 career wins. The NCAA title was the first for Georgia in any sport. Football had been voted No. 1 in 1942 and 1980, but this was the first championship won on the court.
Leading the way were seniors Pernfors, Bezecny, Miller and Deane Frey, who played Nos. 1-4 in singles, with Johnson at No. 5 and freshman Trey Carter at No. 6.
Among the many reasons winning it all in 1985 was so satisfying was the route the Dogs had to take. They beat Stanford in the quarterfinals, USC in the semis and UCLA in the final. The teams that had blocked their path in previous years, blocked every other school's path since the team tournament was established in 1977, the Dogs knocked off one after another.
"That was the challenge, to play against those teams and compete and win against them," Bezecny said.
Georgia beat the Bruins 5-1 (they played the six singles matches first back then), so the match was clinched without having to play the doubles. But it wasn't a day without drama. Bothered by a bad knee and badly dehydrated following a long, grueling match in the semifinals, Bezecny was in the hospital the morning of the championship match getting IVs.
"To this day, I don't know how I even played that match," Bezecny said.
In Georgia's pre-match warmup, Bezecny said he hit three balls and couldn't move. He slowly jogged around the parking lot for a little while and told Magill that he might not be able to play. Magill told him to give it a try and if he had to default, then default.
Facing UCLA's Jeff Klaparda, "the first set was over in about 20 minutes," Bezecny said. The Bruin had won 6-2 against a weary and immobile Bulldog. But gradually Bezecny got loose as the adrenaline kicked in, and Klaparda "started playing just to move me around and stopped going for his shots. That helped me and I worked my way back into the match," Bezecny said.
By the time Bezecny was in a third set, Pernfors, Miller and Carter had won their matches and Frey had lost on court 4, leaving just Bezecny at No. 2 and Johnson at No. 5.
"On the changeovers, Coach wouldn't tell me what was happening with Philip. He just always said, 'Stay on your match,'" Bezecny said. "He finally came over in the third set, at like 4-3, and he kicked my bucket and kicked my chair, and he said, '$%$%###!!!!, he blew a match point!'
"He was supposed to keep me calm and he's going crazy. It was kind of a funny thing, but I guess he had to let it out."
Bezecny prevailed in three sets, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, earning a big bear hug from Pernfors afterward and putting Georgia up 4-1, a win away from the title. The two were great friends, roommates, and though they didn't know it at the time, they were headed for a matchup in the finals of the singles tournament.
Before that, Johnson had to finish off Brett Greenwood. Johnson ultimately did, 7-5 in the third set, setting off a spectacular celebration. The crowds between courts 3 and 4 were so thick that Bezecny couldn't get through for several minutes,
"I finally got down to the lower courts and they were carrying Coach," he said. "The memory, really, is carrying Coach up to the upper courts."
Pernfors was the top seed in the singles tournament and defending NCAA champion, while Bezecny was seeded seventh. Pernfors and Miller were also one of the best doubles teams in the land and a "triple crown" — something nobody in the modern era had accomplished before — seemed a possibility.
But it wasn't to be. Pernfors and Miller lost in the semis of the doubles, but the Dogs were assured of a singles title after the roommates played their way into the final.
"That was the big moment, because Georgia was going to win the singles title, too," Bezency said.
It, frankly, wasn't a great final. Pernfors was already showing some of the form that would lead him to the finals of the French Open a year later and the physical toll of the NCAAs finally caught up to Bezecny. Also, the crowd, so spirited all tournament long, didn't know what to do with two Bulldogs facing each other.
"There was not that noise," Bezecny said. "They were clapping for him and for me, but there wasn't that raucous noise."
And the coaches?
"I glanced up [laughs] and Magill and Manny were just sitting there with their feet up, watching the match," he said.
Pernfors won, 6-2, 6-3, but he didn't show the joy that he did after beating Clemson's Lawson Duncan in the 1984 final.
"I just don't feel as emotionally happy as I did winning the championship last year. Having to play George in the finals took some of the fun out of the win. I believe we're still the best two college players in the country, but still it was awkward playing each other," Pernfors told reporters after the match.
The win, however awkward, wrapped up one of the best, most exciting weeks in Georgia and collegiate tennis history. The Dogs won the title again in 1987, and since Diaz took over for Magill in 1989, four more NCAA titles have been added to the collection.
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
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