University of Georgia Athletics
’It Was Just A Chance To Play’
December 06, 2020 | Men's Tennis, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Becky Birchmore didn't set out to be any kind of trailblazer. In fact, she initially didn't want to play on the Georgia men's tennis team in 1963, her senior year at UGA, when coach Dan Magill asked her to join the Bulldogs.
"I was not for it," she during a phone interview Friday, almost a week after Vanderbilt's Sarah Fuller, the goalkeeper on the Commodores' women's soccer team, made history and headlines by becoming the first woman to play in an SEC or Power 5 conference football game.
"I didn't want to play on the men's team because I was dating someone who became my first husband and I thought he would think it sort of funny for his girlfriend to be playing on the men's team. That was back in the days when you kind of didn't show any masculine side [laughs] to your boyfriend."
Becky Birchmore is now Dr. Rebecca Campen, a dermatologist in Savannah, Ga. She has an undergraduate degree from UGA and years later graduated from UGA's School of Law, before going on to the Medical College of Georgia and beginning her medical career. She also spent 30 years on the faculty at Harvard Medical School.
The Birchmore name is a well-known one in Athens and around the Georgia men's tennis program. Campen's father, Fred Birchmore, was a legendary figure in town. A man of endless energy, interests and talents, the first sentence of his Wikipedia biography describes him as a "renowned adventurer."
Fred Birchmore is likely best known for riding his bicycle around the world in the 1930s — his bike, named Bucephalus, is in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. He also was, among many other pursuits and professions, a gymnast, Southern Conference boxing champion and a member of the Redcoat Marching Band while in school at Georgia, and later a lawyer, author, infamous wall builder, professor, and head of Athens Realty Company.
He was also a tennis coach, with three children that played for Georgia: Fred Jr., Danny, a two-time All-American, and, yes, Becky. It was her father and her boyfriend, Campen said, that finally got her to play for the Bulldogs.
"I told my father I just didn't feel right about that (playing on the men's team). He said, 'I tell you what, I'll pay you $100 if you'll play on the men's team.' And I said no, no way, and I told my boyfriend, laughingly, and my boyfriend said, 'Take the money, we'll take a trip with it.' That's how I got to play on the men's team," Campen said.
"I loved to watch Becky play," said Danny, who was 11 when his oldest sister played for the Bulldogs. Now a doctor in Nashville and a professor in the Vanderbilt School of Medicine, Danny was one of Georgia's first star players, earning All-America honors in 1972 and '72.
When Campen was in school at Georgia there was no women's tennis program — its first official season was in 1974 — but the previous winter the SEC had ruled that women could compete in the conference's sports programs. One of Campen's friends and competitors on the tennis circuit, Roberta Alison, had already started playing for the Alabama men's team.
"She had won about five state tournaments and I had won about five, so we were big competitors," Campen said.
Magill decided that he wanted a woman on his team, as well. He had helped coach Campen and her siblings over the years and knew the kind of person and player she was. In high school and college, Campen had practiced with the Bulldogs to stay sharp between tournaments, so joining the team wasn't really a big change since she was there a lot of the time anyway.
"I loved it," she said. "They were all my friends that I'd see at all the tournaments and hang out with. It was a wonderful thing that came about in sort of a roundabout way. But once I was on the team it was great."
Campen didn't always make the lineup on the talented Georgia squad, but she appeared in doubles with partner Anthony Arnold three times and played singles once. And she won every match she played.
Her lone singles victory came at the No. 5 spot, against Emory. She beat her opponent 6-3, 6-0. It was nice to win, but it created a problem.
"Once I won that first match, nobody would play me again, they all defaulted," Campen said. "I would come to the courts ready for the match and they would say they didn't want to be beaten by a girl. So I would sit up in the stands and drink a Coke, and then we would go back and practice the next week, and the same thing would happen."
"I remember feeling like, that's too bad, because I'd come to watch Becky play," Danny said.
Rather than be frustrated by the defaults, Campen took them as a compliment.
"I loved it. I got to practice with the team. If somebody defaults to you, you win, so why not? I'd take it," she said. "It was not frustrating, I never have had any resentment at all about that."
Being a trailblazer for women wasn't on Campen's mind back then. She was simply a very good tennis player that wanted to play and compete.
"I was just with my friends, with the people that I'd grown up with and played tennis with. I think Dan Magill and my father thought of it as a trailblazing event, but it was just a chance to play," she said.
"I will say that women did come up for years afterwards and say, 'We're proud of you, we're going to start a women's team and this is going to help women's sports,' so I saw that feedback, and of course it made me happy. But I don't think I felt like I was a trailblazer, I just was playing tennis like I always wanted to."
In his book "Match Pointers," about his lifetime in tennis, Magill devotes a section to Campen and her season with the team. He ended it with these words: "Being the first female varsity tennis player at the University of Georgia was merely a stepping stone in an illustrious career for Becky Birchmore, truly a 'Wonder Woman.'"
"She just had a wonderful time on the team, and Coach Magill loved having her on the team," Danny said. "I got the sense through all the years that she was his all-time favorite player, up until Big John Isner, who became his favorite there towards the end."
In 2000, Campen was the recipient of the Bill Hartman Award, which is given annually to a former student-athlete that has demonstrated excellence in their profession or in service to others. As a longtime doctor and 30-year faculty member at Harvard Medical School, Campen has done both.
If Georgia had fielded a women's team when she was in school, Campen no doubt would have been a star player. When as a senior she got the chance to play for Magill's men's team, she made the most of it and had a wonderful time. And the things she learned throughout her years as a tennis player have served her well the rest of her life.
Not only is Campen still working full-time as a dermatologist, she's also taking writing classes at Stanford and the University of Iowa, and wants to start writing novels.
"The determination that you learn when you're training for something," she said, "I remember those tennis days and my father saying 'Bend your knees, keep your weight forward, growl like a bulldog,' all that sort of stays with you in life."
Staff Writer
Becky Birchmore didn't set out to be any kind of trailblazer. In fact, she initially didn't want to play on the Georgia men's tennis team in 1963, her senior year at UGA, when coach Dan Magill asked her to join the Bulldogs.
"I was not for it," she during a phone interview Friday, almost a week after Vanderbilt's Sarah Fuller, the goalkeeper on the Commodores' women's soccer team, made history and headlines by becoming the first woman to play in an SEC or Power 5 conference football game.
"I didn't want to play on the men's team because I was dating someone who became my first husband and I thought he would think it sort of funny for his girlfriend to be playing on the men's team. That was back in the days when you kind of didn't show any masculine side [laughs] to your boyfriend."
Becky Birchmore is now Dr. Rebecca Campen, a dermatologist in Savannah, Ga. She has an undergraduate degree from UGA and years later graduated from UGA's School of Law, before going on to the Medical College of Georgia and beginning her medical career. She also spent 30 years on the faculty at Harvard Medical School.
The Birchmore name is a well-known one in Athens and around the Georgia men's tennis program. Campen's father, Fred Birchmore, was a legendary figure in town. A man of endless energy, interests and talents, the first sentence of his Wikipedia biography describes him as a "renowned adventurer."
Fred Birchmore is likely best known for riding his bicycle around the world in the 1930s — his bike, named Bucephalus, is in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. He also was, among many other pursuits and professions, a gymnast, Southern Conference boxing champion and a member of the Redcoat Marching Band while in school at Georgia, and later a lawyer, author, infamous wall builder, professor, and head of Athens Realty Company.
He was also a tennis coach, with three children that played for Georgia: Fred Jr., Danny, a two-time All-American, and, yes, Becky. It was her father and her boyfriend, Campen said, that finally got her to play for the Bulldogs.
"I told my father I just didn't feel right about that (playing on the men's team). He said, 'I tell you what, I'll pay you $100 if you'll play on the men's team.' And I said no, no way, and I told my boyfriend, laughingly, and my boyfriend said, 'Take the money, we'll take a trip with it.' That's how I got to play on the men's team," Campen said.
"I loved to watch Becky play," said Danny, who was 11 when his oldest sister played for the Bulldogs. Now a doctor in Nashville and a professor in the Vanderbilt School of Medicine, Danny was one of Georgia's first star players, earning All-America honors in 1972 and '72.
When Campen was in school at Georgia there was no women's tennis program — its first official season was in 1974 — but the previous winter the SEC had ruled that women could compete in the conference's sports programs. One of Campen's friends and competitors on the tennis circuit, Roberta Alison, had already started playing for the Alabama men's team.
"She had won about five state tournaments and I had won about five, so we were big competitors," Campen said.
Magill decided that he wanted a woman on his team, as well. He had helped coach Campen and her siblings over the years and knew the kind of person and player she was. In high school and college, Campen had practiced with the Bulldogs to stay sharp between tournaments, so joining the team wasn't really a big change since she was there a lot of the time anyway.
"I loved it," she said. "They were all my friends that I'd see at all the tournaments and hang out with. It was a wonderful thing that came about in sort of a roundabout way. But once I was on the team it was great."
Campen didn't always make the lineup on the talented Georgia squad, but she appeared in doubles with partner Anthony Arnold three times and played singles once. And she won every match she played.
Her lone singles victory came at the No. 5 spot, against Emory. She beat her opponent 6-3, 6-0. It was nice to win, but it created a problem.
"Once I won that first match, nobody would play me again, they all defaulted," Campen said. "I would come to the courts ready for the match and they would say they didn't want to be beaten by a girl. So I would sit up in the stands and drink a Coke, and then we would go back and practice the next week, and the same thing would happen."
"I remember feeling like, that's too bad, because I'd come to watch Becky play," Danny said.
Rather than be frustrated by the defaults, Campen took them as a compliment.
"I loved it. I got to practice with the team. If somebody defaults to you, you win, so why not? I'd take it," she said. "It was not frustrating, I never have had any resentment at all about that."
Being a trailblazer for women wasn't on Campen's mind back then. She was simply a very good tennis player that wanted to play and compete.
"I was just with my friends, with the people that I'd grown up with and played tennis with. I think Dan Magill and my father thought of it as a trailblazing event, but it was just a chance to play," she said.
"I will say that women did come up for years afterwards and say, 'We're proud of you, we're going to start a women's team and this is going to help women's sports,' so I saw that feedback, and of course it made me happy. But I don't think I felt like I was a trailblazer, I just was playing tennis like I always wanted to."
In his book "Match Pointers," about his lifetime in tennis, Magill devotes a section to Campen and her season with the team. He ended it with these words: "Being the first female varsity tennis player at the University of Georgia was merely a stepping stone in an illustrious career for Becky Birchmore, truly a 'Wonder Woman.'"
"She just had a wonderful time on the team, and Coach Magill loved having her on the team," Danny said. "I got the sense through all the years that she was his all-time favorite player, up until Big John Isner, who became his favorite there towards the end."
In 2000, Campen was the recipient of the Bill Hartman Award, which is given annually to a former student-athlete that has demonstrated excellence in their profession or in service to others. As a longtime doctor and 30-year faculty member at Harvard Medical School, Campen has done both.
If Georgia had fielded a women's team when she was in school, Campen no doubt would have been a star player. When as a senior she got the chance to play for Magill's men's team, she made the most of it and had a wonderful time. And the things she learned throughout her years as a tennis player have served her well the rest of her life.
Not only is Campen still working full-time as a dermatologist, she's also taking writing classes at Stanford and the University of Iowa, and wants to start writing novels.
"The determination that you learn when you're training for something," she said, "I remember those tennis days and my father saying 'Bend your knees, keep your weight forward, growl like a bulldog,' all that sort of stays with you in life."
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
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