A Milestone Moment For Diaz

Manuel Diaz didn't always dream of being a great tennis player one day.

As a boy growing up in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he showed great talent and potential on the court — and he would go on to be a two-time All-American at Georgia before becoming one of the best college coaches ever — but before that, it was baseball that really filled his dreams.

"I was a better baseball player and it was my dream all along," Diaz said Thursday while seated in his office at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex, where Diaz has been the Bulldogs' head coach since 1988.

He showed me a picture on his phone, of a 12- or 13-year-old baseball-crazy kid in his uniform, PANTHERS stenciled across the front of his jersey. His right arm was draped on the left shoulder of his father, Manuel Sr.

"Look at the size of my hands," he said.

Diaz remembered one time when he was pitching, the father of the boy in the batter's box started yelling at him because he was throwing too hard. If you think about it, it's an extraordinary compliment for a young pitcher, even if it was a dad just looking out for his boy's welfare.

"He was literally screaming frantically, almost crying, right at the fence, right behind home plate," Diaz said.

A multitalented boy that would grow into a tall and lean athlete, Diaz may have dreamt of diamonds and one day taking the field in a big-league uniform, but his mom, Avelina, had other ideas. She wanted him to be a tennis player — smart woman.

"My mom sort of gently nudged me toward tennis. She thought it was better for me," he said.

She wasn't wrong.

"No, she wasn't."

On a cold and windy Friday afternoon, many years after Diaz threw his last pitch, many years after earning All-America honors as a player in 1974-75, and many years after taking over for Dan Magill as the Bulldogs' head coach, Diaz earned a special victory.

Magill, who passed away in 2014, retired in 1988 with 706 career wins, the most in collegiate tennis history at the time. On Friday, when the Bulldogs took down No. 10 Tennessee, 4-2, Diaz earned career victory No. 706.

After Georgia earned the win by capturing the doubles point and singles wins at the top three spots in the lineup, Diaz sported a big smile and received a lot of handshakes and hugs.

Was he smiling about career win No. 706, which tied him with his coach, mentor and friend for more than 40 years? Or was he smiling because his young team had just picked up a very good win in the Bulldogs' SEC opener?

You don't get to 706 career wins — plus four NCAA team championships and two National Indoors titles — by thinking much about your legacy or what's happened in the past. You get there by thinking about the present and the future.

"Certainly 100 percent of our focus was on winning today in the first of what are two big matches this weekend — great opportunities for us," said Diaz, whose Bulldogs host No. 3 Ohio State on Sunday.

"I don't know what to think about the other," he added, referring to matching Magill with 706 wins.

That's OK, his most famous and accomplished former player does. John Isner led Georgia to an undefeated season and an NCAA title as a senior in 2007, before going on to a great pro career in which he's been ranked in the top 20 in the year-end world rankings for the past 10 years.

"They're two just absolute legends," Isner said of Diaz and Magill. "It's pretty crazy to think about everything they've done and it's a great thing to always have that stability at the head coach position. ...

"Manny, he meant everything to my career. I really don't think I would be where I am if I hadn't gone to Georgia and Manny was the big catalyst for that. My four years there and getting better under his tutelage, it's meant everything to me."

It's worth pausing here to point out that Diaz still has a Bulldog to chase. Jeff Wallace, who was a player for the Bulldogs when Diaz was the assistant coach, took over the women's program in 1985 and has 746 career victories heading into Saturday's match against Tennessee. Coaching legends abound in these parts.

When I walked into Diaz's office Thursday, I brought with me a copy of the 1988-89 Georgia men's tennis media guide. There on the cover is the man as a first-year head coach, flanked by that team's seniors, T.J. Middleton and Stephen Enochs.

On page 2, in Diaz's bio, is a quote from Magill that includes the following: "He was an outstanding player for four years and was equally great as an assistant coach. I don't see how he can fail as a head coach. He's got all the qualities for what it takes to be a successful coach."

Wise words.

I asked Diaz what he was thinking as he looked at that media guide from his first year.

"I used to be young," he said, laughing, "I used to be a little fitter."

What did that Manny not know?

"He thought he knew everything," followed by more laughter. "He didn't know how little he knew. ... It's been quick, the blink of an eye, really."

The Diaz era began with a win over Kansas and a 21-6 season that included an SEC regular-season championship (the first of Diaz' 19, plus 10 SEC tournament titles) and ended with a close loss to Stanford in the finals of the NCAA tournament.

Georgia reached the NCAA finals five times in Diaz's first 10 seasons as head coach, falling three times to Stanford and twice to USC. Then came 1999, when Diaz and the Bulldogs broke through, beating UCLA for the title in a 4-3 thriller.

Jack Frierson (yes, my brother) was the lone freshman on Diaz's first team and was Diaz's assistant coach from 1997-2000: "He knows the game, he knows technique, he knows strategy, and he's very flexible and keen to see the changes and evolution of the game. I think Manuel is extremely sharp and intelligent, and he could have been equally successful as a business person.

"As a coach, he's great at looking ahead and planning while also being very good at changing the play at the line of scrimmage. I think a lot of that does come back to him being a great player."

Senior Robert Loeb said he thinks Diaz's greatest strength as a coach is how he connects and communicates with his players: "I think he just relates to players so easily. I think he has a different relationship with every player."

During his final two seasons playing for Georgia, Diaz went 41-3 in dual matches, playing at either No. 1 or No. 2. Jim Childs, who played two seasons with Magill as his head coach and two under Diaz, said Diaz even in his mid-30s was still one of the best players on the court every day.

"I don't think he would have beaten straight-up somebody like Al Parker, but I was playing 5 or 6 for much of my career and I'm sure he would have beaten me," Childs said. "He probably would have made the lineup every year for quite a while."

Actually, Diaz said, through his mid-30s he used to play one set against each of the freshmen. Chris Garner was an All-American at Georgia in 1988, his one season in Athens, and Diaz said he beat him 6-4 in their one set.

"I think I stopped after that year," Diaz said. "I remember that one, that was the last set I played against a freshman."

The once-mighty player, now a few years from 70, with a brand-new knee, said he misses being able to get out on the court and really hit with the guys, something associate head coach Jamie Hunt, who wrapped up his great Georgia career in 2010, still does today.

"Of all the things that I used to do, that's the one thing I miss the most," Diaz said. "My ball doesn't carry the weight that it used to and I hurt too much afterward."

Diaz remains a fiery competitor, he still loves the game and he's still very much young at heart.

"One of the greatest things about Manny is how he has been able to evolve," Isner said. "Although Manny is approaching 70 years old, he's one of the youngest almost-70-year-old guys I've ever seen.

"He's been able to adapt with the times, he's super up-to-date with technology — he got an iPhone before everyone else did and he was real in-tune with everything that was going on."

Any person Diaz's age that still zips between his house in Five Points and the Magill Complex on a scooter the way Diaz does, that's someone with energy and a youthful spirit. That's someone that thought way more about achieving SEC win No. 1 of the 2020 season Friday than he did career win No. 706.

"I think at some point when I retire we'll sit around and reminisce and have a beer or whatever," Diaz said Thursday, "but as of right now we've got work to do."

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.

Players Mentioned

Robert Loeb

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