Inasmuch as the only annual athletic competition between Army and Navy, unrestricted and unqualified, is for the Leech Tennis Trophy, a short history of the cup itself and the matches for its possession should be of interest to the Navy and its friends.
In the fall of 1923, Mr. Dwight F. Davis, then Secretary of War, realized fully the hold that tennis has on the world at large. That year twenty-three nations challenged the United States, the then holder of the historic Davis Cup, and the cup thereby became the most widely sought of all international trophies. Naturally the donor of a cup which has had such wonderful success in promoting friendly international rivalry and good feeling would look with favor on any similar but non-interfering project.
This project was introduced by Mr. Abner Y. Leech of Washington, D.C., a staunch devotee of tennis and a life-long friend of the two services. He suggested to Mr. Davis that a similar contest to be held annually between picked teams from the Army and Navy would arouse great service interest and improve the quality of the tennis played throughout the Army and Navy. After consultation between Mr. Leech, Mr. Davis, and Mr. Wilbur, Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Leech’s offer of a cup for annual competition was accepted, the terms under which the cup was to be held were drawn up, and the Leech Army and Navy Tennis Trophy Competition came into existence.
These terms are very simple: all officers and enlisted men on active duty are eligible (cadets and midshipmen are barred), the Marine Corps is to count as Navy; the contest or “tie” each year is to consist of four singles matches and three doubles matches; the whole tie is to be played off in one day, weather permitting; and all matches to be best two out of three sets. The team winning the majority of the individual matches is the winner of the tie and takes custody of the cup for the ensuing year. In order to disperse the interest in the matches throughout all grades, doubles was given the larger proportional value, to the end that even when advancing years prohibit the tax of strenuous singles, older officers may substitute craft and skill for agility in the doubles. The result has been in accordance with the desired end.
The first year of competition, 1924, Army, inspired by the fame of their chief, stole a march on Navy; the Army team, led by Colonel Waite C. Johnson, was assembled several days before the match, well trained, and carefully selected, whereas until the day previous no attempt had been made to procure a Navy team, and the last minute rallying of forces, although producing a nucleus for future years, resulted in a very weak combination, lacking in practice. The inevitable occurred: Army won all seven matches without the loss of a set. The high light of the tie was the play of Major R. C. Van Vliet of the Army, who, in starting his succession of wins in the number one singles match, gave proof of his superiority in form and became the actual interservice champion.
The following year, 1925, Navy was not to be caught napping. Captain W. S. Anderson, then on duty at the Naval Academy, was appointed captain, about twenty candidates were assembled at Annapolis, and a creditable team was sent up against Army at Chevy Chase on the twentieth of June. Army was still in the ascendancy, however, and in a close and exciting battle, decided only in the next to last doubles match, repelled the Navy assault by a score of four to three. Again Major Van Vliet dominated the field with victories in number one singles match, and with Colonel Johnson, in number one doubles, but Navy showed a potential champion in Lieutenant R. M. Watt, Jr., who also won both his matches, singles and doubles, while Navy’s third match was won by Captain Anderson after a terrific three-set struggle.
The scene of the conflict shifted for 1926. Philadelphia was the place, the Germantown Cricket Club kindly offering the use of its fine grass courts and making the tie one of the Sesquicentennial celebration attractions. Captain Anderson again led the Navy and this time to a victory by a five to two score. Major Van Vliet prevented an entire Army rout by winning his two matches, but his performance was matched by Lieutenant Watt and Ensign Lyman, both of whom figured in two winning matches for Navy.
In 1927 Army’s lean year arrived. Captain Anderson, with the strongest team Navy has yet mustered, won an overwhelming victory, sweeping the boards and avenging the shutout suffered by Navy in the first year’s play. Major Van Vliet did not play and Commander C. C. Gill succeeded him as individual champion, while both Lieutenant Watt and Ensign Lyman continued their stride by winning both singles and doubles.
With the score tied at two victories each, 1928 produced the most thrilling contest of all. Army, strengthened by Van Vliet’s return, ran up against a Navy team weakened by the loss of Captain Anderson, Commander Gill, and Seaman Elliott. And what a battle ensued. Of the seven matches, six took the full three sets to decide and the seventh went to deuce in each set. At the end of the singles, each side had won two matches, and the finish of the first two doubles still left it a tie at three to three. The remaining and decisive doubles match was finally won by Navy after a nerve-wracking third set which ended at 10-8 in favor of Lieutenant Commander Godfrey, Navy captain, and Lieutenant Watt. Ensign Lyman and Ensign Howard bore the brunt of the fighting, accounting for three matches between them, while Army drew some slight consolation from Major Van Vliet’s win of the number one singles match over Lieutenant Watt.
In 1929, the Navy team, strengthened by the return to active competition of Captain W. S. Anderson and Commander C. C. Gill, won an unexpectedly complete victory by a score of six matches to one over an Army team which was admitted to be the strongest they had yet placed in the field. The match was played, as usual, at Chevy Chase, Washington, D.C., on July 20, 1929.
The high light of the play was Navy’s clean sweep in singles during which Lieutenant R. M. Watt, Jr., administered to Major Van Vliet the first defeat the latter had sustained in five years as Army’s Number One man. Major Van Vliet had his revenge in doubles however where he and Major Finley won Army’s only victory, defeating Lieutenant Watt and Lieutenant Commander Godfrey, captain of the Navy team, in a hard fought three-set match. Commander Gill won his singles and with Captain Anderson a doubles match, and the youngsters of the team, Ensigns Howard and Farrin, accounted for the other three matches.
Navy now leads in the annual competition, four ties to two, and in individual matches twenty-five to seventeen—not an overwhelming margin.
The National Lawn Tennis Association has recognized the improved quality of tennis brought out by these interservice matches, by inviting the winning number one doubles team each year to play in the National Doubles Tournament, where the requirements for eligibility to entry are so strict that only players of recognized merit are allowed. But owing to the exigencies of the services, neither Army nor Navy has as yet been able to send a team to the tournament.
The outstanding fact, however, is that this annual competition has raised the standard of tennis remarkably in both services. The candidates for the teams, even though unsuccessful in making the actual team, return to their various duties with improved form and tennis knowledge, and then proceed to disseminate this knowledge to their fellow officers and men. The result is that tennis, the most universal of all sports and hence the most useful and enjoyable to Army or Navy personnel, is improving by leaps and bounds and the Leech Tennis Trophy is accomplishing its real mission.