University of Georgia Athletics
Quick Chat: John Mangan
July 17, 2020 | Men's Tennis, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
John Mangan arrived in Athens for the first time as a high school senior from Rye, N.Y., a suburb of Manhattan. Tall and lean and curious about this place far from home he was visiting on a recruiting trip, the 6-foot-5 Mangan met the man who would shape his life in so many different ways in an unlikely place: ADD Drug in Five Points.
Sitting on one of the stools at the counter was Georgia men's tennis coach Dan Magill. It was the beginning of a fruitful and wonderful relationship that lasted for more than 40 years, until Magill passed away in 2014. It was also the beginning of Mangan's ongoing love for Athens and the University of Georgia.
As a player, Mangan helped lead the Bulldogs to a pair of NCAA semifinal appearances and in 1981 he and partner Bill Rogers reached the semis of the NCAA doubles tournament, earning All-America honors. Mangan has gone on to have great success in the money management business and his family has established numerous scholarships at Georgia. In addition, the 2018 Bill Hartman Award honoree serves on the University of Georgia Foundation Board of Trustees.
All of that became possible as a result of not just Mangan's great recruiting trip to Athens, but because one of Magill's daughters, Mollie Sloan, who was living on the same street as the Mangans at the time, had seen Mangan play tennis and told her dad about him. During a recent Quick Chat via phone from Charlotte, N.C., where he now lives, Mangan talked about all of that and a lot more.
Here's some of what he had to say:
Frierson: When you think back to your playing days here and how much the equipment has changed, particularly the rackets, does it kind of feel like a different sport from the one you played in the late '70s and early '80s?
Mangan: I would say that the sport has become focused on the back of the court and there was more serve-and-volley and more attacking the net when we were in school. But the sport is still very much the same. I think the grips (how players hold the racket) are slightly different, but the game is really the same.
I think the rackets have made it easier to hit very penetrating groundstrokes, but I also think the rackets have made it easier to volley. If I was playing today, I'm sure I'd still be serving and volleying.
Frierson: I was looking at a photo of you from your career earlier today and you were playing with a wooden racket, a Dunlop Maxply Fort, I think. Do you ever think about how much more powerful your game could have been if you'd played in the era of the more advanced graphite rackets?
Mangan: I think the graphite, larger-headed rackets probably would have been a positive, but 90 percent of the guys when I was playing played with wood rackets. I think if you gave those guys the upgraded technology, they would be just as successful, if not more.
(Roger) Federer does things with the ball because of the racket now that you couldn't conceive of years ago with the wood racket, the ability to hit really sharp-angled groundstrokes, which you really couldn't do as well with the wood racket. But you didn't know it at the time.
Believe me, the extra power from the graphite racket would have been fantastic. There were just lots of very big, strong, 6-3, 6-4, 6-5 players in the country when I was a junior and a senior, who were all big serve-and-volleyers, playing with a lot of power. Bill Rogers on our team was like that.
Frierson: You got to the semis of the NCAA team tournament twice in your career and a couple of years later, in 1985, Georgia won its first NCAA team championship. Georgia has been one of the top teams in the country ever since, with six NCAA titles now, so how much pride do you take in helping the program get to where there was only one more step to go before becoming one of the elite programs in college tennis?
Mangan: I would say that my teammates those four years take immense pride in taking the program to another level and in a way trying to help set the table for the first championship. My senior year in 1982, as captain, Allen Miller, George Bezecny, Deane Frey, who were all members of our first championship team in '85, were freshmen.
I would say the members of the '80 team, '81 and '82, we take a ton of pride in it and are just thrilled with where the program has gone since then. That was Dan Magill's dream and we were happy and privileged to be part of it.
Frierson: When you think about Coach Magill, is there one story or moment in particular that comes to mind?
Mangan: There are a million stories and I'm sure you've heard them all from the guys. When I think about Coach, he was an incredible leader and he knew how to motivate young men, and he taught us so many lessons that stay with us today. And as young men, we didn't really know we were learning a lesson. It was just his incredible way of speaking, leading, pushing, cajoling, challenging — he was a master motivator.
Frierson: You come down here for the first time when you take your visit and you're 17, from Rye, N.Y. What does a young John Mangan make of his first interaction with somebody as unique and eclectic and interesting as Coach Magill?
Mangan: Mollie and her husband, Steve, had moved on our street and she had seen me play, so she called Coach, her dad, and said, you ought to recruit this guy — she'd seen me play tennis and basketball in high school. He sent me a plane ticket and I fly Eastern Airlines to Atlanta and then take a puddle jumper over to Athens. That was when it was only a tarmac (at the Athens airport), there was no building there.
Coach had a person pick me up, show me the campus and drop me off at ADD Drug. I had my duffle bag and I walked in and met Coach for the first time. I said, "Hello, Mr. Magill, and he said, "You can just call me Coach." I sat down at the counter there, on the stools that spin, and he looked at the guy behind the counter and said, "We'll have two pimento cheese and a Coke."
I said, "Coach, what's a pimento cheese?" And he said, "Don't worry, son, you're going to get used to it." I spent the weekend there and Georgia played Duke and South Carolina in matches and won them both handily.
I loved him, he really was determined to build a championship team, and he didn't have a scholarship at the time because he'd given two scholarships to Peter Lloyd and Stephen Maloney, two top Australian players. Peter wound up being my roommate and he's a great guy.
Coach said he wanted me to walk on and the challenge-match system is set up that if you earn your way into the top six (singles), you'll receive a scholarship. And I was able to do that my freshman year, playing six, and I had a scholarship my last three years.
That was really one of the beauties of Magill, the challenge-match system. You talk to any of those players, it was brutal but it made you incredibly match tough and razor sharp.
Frierson: You're a guy arriving from Rye, N.Y., and Peter Lloyd is coming from Australia. You're 6-5 and Peter is maybe 5-8 or 5-9, if my memory is correct — you two make quite the pairing. What was it like entering a new world, going from Westchester County to Athens, while also having a roommate from Australia? Did you both sort of feel like fish out of water for a while?
Mangan: It was an incredible learning experience. I tell my children and friends when they ask me, I say I learned more outside the classroom than I did in it, just about getting along with people. The Georgia tennis family and the UGA family welcomed us with open arms and made us feel at home every single day. It was fantastic, it's one of the reasons I love UGA so much.
Frierson: You've obviously maintained a deep connection to the university and the tennis program, so why has it been so important for you to keep those relationships going?
Mangan: My experience at UGA was life-changing, the relationships were incredible, being a member of the men's tennis program was a privilege, exciting and a ton of fun. And we did some great things — we won three SEC championships while I was there.
I love the university, I love being a Dawg, I love being a tennis Dawg, and trying to give back a little bit wherever I can, I view it as a privilege. I think it's the greatest university in the country.
Frierson: What was it like being a student at Georgia in 1980, when the football team won the national championship?
Mangan: It was incredibly exciting. Every week we were on pins and needles. We were all huge fans and still are huge fans, I've been a season-ticket holder for 20 or 25 years now. It was an incredible experience every week.
We listened to the away games on the radio and we went to several away games — I went to the Auburn game, Florida that year with Lindsay Scott and all that — it was a magical year. We had a great football team and a lot of those guys are friends of mine.
It was an incredible accomplishment and it made every other program want to reach the pinnacle, for sure.
Frierson: What can you tell me about being in Jacksonville, Fla., for that game, watching Buck Belue throw the pass to Lindsay Scott and Scott running for the 93-yard touchdown?
Mangan: We were in the end zone where Lindsay was running to, in that corner. He was running at us [laughs[; that was a Georgia section down there and it was just so exciting. There was a huge crush of bodies — bodies and water and liquor flying in the air. It was crazy, it was really fun.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
Staff Writer
John Mangan arrived in Athens for the first time as a high school senior from Rye, N.Y., a suburb of Manhattan. Tall and lean and curious about this place far from home he was visiting on a recruiting trip, the 6-foot-5 Mangan met the man who would shape his life in so many different ways in an unlikely place: ADD Drug in Five Points.
Sitting on one of the stools at the counter was Georgia men's tennis coach Dan Magill. It was the beginning of a fruitful and wonderful relationship that lasted for more than 40 years, until Magill passed away in 2014. It was also the beginning of Mangan's ongoing love for Athens and the University of Georgia.
As a player, Mangan helped lead the Bulldogs to a pair of NCAA semifinal appearances and in 1981 he and partner Bill Rogers reached the semis of the NCAA doubles tournament, earning All-America honors. Mangan has gone on to have great success in the money management business and his family has established numerous scholarships at Georgia. In addition, the 2018 Bill Hartman Award honoree serves on the University of Georgia Foundation Board of Trustees.
All of that became possible as a result of not just Mangan's great recruiting trip to Athens, but because one of Magill's daughters, Mollie Sloan, who was living on the same street as the Mangans at the time, had seen Mangan play tennis and told her dad about him. During a recent Quick Chat via phone from Charlotte, N.C., where he now lives, Mangan talked about all of that and a lot more.
Here's some of what he had to say:
Frierson: When you think back to your playing days here and how much the equipment has changed, particularly the rackets, does it kind of feel like a different sport from the one you played in the late '70s and early '80s?
Mangan: I would say that the sport has become focused on the back of the court and there was more serve-and-volley and more attacking the net when we were in school. But the sport is still very much the same. I think the grips (how players hold the racket) are slightly different, but the game is really the same.
I think the rackets have made it easier to hit very penetrating groundstrokes, but I also think the rackets have made it easier to volley. If I was playing today, I'm sure I'd still be serving and volleying.
Frierson: I was looking at a photo of you from your career earlier today and you were playing with a wooden racket, a Dunlop Maxply Fort, I think. Do you ever think about how much more powerful your game could have been if you'd played in the era of the more advanced graphite rackets?
Mangan: I think the graphite, larger-headed rackets probably would have been a positive, but 90 percent of the guys when I was playing played with wood rackets. I think if you gave those guys the upgraded technology, they would be just as successful, if not more.
(Roger) Federer does things with the ball because of the racket now that you couldn't conceive of years ago with the wood racket, the ability to hit really sharp-angled groundstrokes, which you really couldn't do as well with the wood racket. But you didn't know it at the time.
Believe me, the extra power from the graphite racket would have been fantastic. There were just lots of very big, strong, 6-3, 6-4, 6-5 players in the country when I was a junior and a senior, who were all big serve-and-volleyers, playing with a lot of power. Bill Rogers on our team was like that.
Frierson: You got to the semis of the NCAA team tournament twice in your career and a couple of years later, in 1985, Georgia won its first NCAA team championship. Georgia has been one of the top teams in the country ever since, with six NCAA titles now, so how much pride do you take in helping the program get to where there was only one more step to go before becoming one of the elite programs in college tennis?
Mangan: I would say that my teammates those four years take immense pride in taking the program to another level and in a way trying to help set the table for the first championship. My senior year in 1982, as captain, Allen Miller, George Bezecny, Deane Frey, who were all members of our first championship team in '85, were freshmen.
I would say the members of the '80 team, '81 and '82, we take a ton of pride in it and are just thrilled with where the program has gone since then. That was Dan Magill's dream and we were happy and privileged to be part of it.
Frierson: When you think about Coach Magill, is there one story or moment in particular that comes to mind?
Mangan: There are a million stories and I'm sure you've heard them all from the guys. When I think about Coach, he was an incredible leader and he knew how to motivate young men, and he taught us so many lessons that stay with us today. And as young men, we didn't really know we were learning a lesson. It was just his incredible way of speaking, leading, pushing, cajoling, challenging — he was a master motivator.
Frierson: You come down here for the first time when you take your visit and you're 17, from Rye, N.Y. What does a young John Mangan make of his first interaction with somebody as unique and eclectic and interesting as Coach Magill?
Mangan: Mollie and her husband, Steve, had moved on our street and she had seen me play, so she called Coach, her dad, and said, you ought to recruit this guy — she'd seen me play tennis and basketball in high school. He sent me a plane ticket and I fly Eastern Airlines to Atlanta and then take a puddle jumper over to Athens. That was when it was only a tarmac (at the Athens airport), there was no building there.
Coach had a person pick me up, show me the campus and drop me off at ADD Drug. I had my duffle bag and I walked in and met Coach for the first time. I said, "Hello, Mr. Magill, and he said, "You can just call me Coach." I sat down at the counter there, on the stools that spin, and he looked at the guy behind the counter and said, "We'll have two pimento cheese and a Coke."
I said, "Coach, what's a pimento cheese?" And he said, "Don't worry, son, you're going to get used to it." I spent the weekend there and Georgia played Duke and South Carolina in matches and won them both handily.
I loved him, he really was determined to build a championship team, and he didn't have a scholarship at the time because he'd given two scholarships to Peter Lloyd and Stephen Maloney, two top Australian players. Peter wound up being my roommate and he's a great guy.
Coach said he wanted me to walk on and the challenge-match system is set up that if you earn your way into the top six (singles), you'll receive a scholarship. And I was able to do that my freshman year, playing six, and I had a scholarship my last three years.
That was really one of the beauties of Magill, the challenge-match system. You talk to any of those players, it was brutal but it made you incredibly match tough and razor sharp.
Frierson: You're a guy arriving from Rye, N.Y., and Peter Lloyd is coming from Australia. You're 6-5 and Peter is maybe 5-8 or 5-9, if my memory is correct — you two make quite the pairing. What was it like entering a new world, going from Westchester County to Athens, while also having a roommate from Australia? Did you both sort of feel like fish out of water for a while?
Mangan: It was an incredible learning experience. I tell my children and friends when they ask me, I say I learned more outside the classroom than I did in it, just about getting along with people. The Georgia tennis family and the UGA family welcomed us with open arms and made us feel at home every single day. It was fantastic, it's one of the reasons I love UGA so much.
Frierson: You've obviously maintained a deep connection to the university and the tennis program, so why has it been so important for you to keep those relationships going?
Mangan: My experience at UGA was life-changing, the relationships were incredible, being a member of the men's tennis program was a privilege, exciting and a ton of fun. And we did some great things — we won three SEC championships while I was there.
I love the university, I love being a Dawg, I love being a tennis Dawg, and trying to give back a little bit wherever I can, I view it as a privilege. I think it's the greatest university in the country.
Frierson: What was it like being a student at Georgia in 1980, when the football team won the national championship?
Mangan: It was incredibly exciting. Every week we were on pins and needles. We were all huge fans and still are huge fans, I've been a season-ticket holder for 20 or 25 years now. It was an incredible experience every week.
We listened to the away games on the radio and we went to several away games — I went to the Auburn game, Florida that year with Lindsay Scott and all that — it was a magical year. We had a great football team and a lot of those guys are friends of mine.
It was an incredible accomplishment and it made every other program want to reach the pinnacle, for sure.
Frierson: What can you tell me about being in Jacksonville, Fla., for that game, watching Buck Belue throw the pass to Lindsay Scott and Scott running for the 93-yard touchdown?
Mangan: We were in the end zone where Lindsay was running to, in that corner. He was running at us [laughs[; that was a Georgia section down there and it was just so exciting. There was a huge crush of bodies — bodies and water and liquor flying in the air. It was crazy, it was really fun.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
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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