Tombstone
Born: 1985 – TeamTennis expansion franchise
Folded: 1991
First Game:
Last Game:
Team Tennis Championships: None
Stadia
1985-1987: Abel Holtz Stadium (5,100)
1986: Boca Grove Plantation
1988: Deer Creek Country Club (as South Florida Breakers)
1989: Wellington Club West (as Wellington Aces)
1990: Abel Holtz Stadium
1991: Turnberry Country Club
Branding
Team Colors: Light Blue & Pink
Ownership
Owners:
- 1985-1987: Javier Holtz
- 1988-????: Carl Foster
WTT Wear
World Team Tennis
Logo T-Shirt
World Team Tennis has been around in one form or another for nearly fifty years now, but this chill logo tee from our partners at Old School Shirts pays tribute to the original league and its mid-70’s glory days when Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Bjorn Borg and Ilie Nastase suited up for their WTT clubs in between Grand Slam finals at Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows.
Also available in women’s scoop neck and women’s racerback tank styles!
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Background
The Miami Beach Breakers opened for business in 1985 as an expansion club in Billie Jean King’s TeamTennis promotion under the patronage of Abel Holtz and his family. Holtz was a Cuban exile banker and philanthropist who built a 5,000-seat tennis stadium for the City of Miami Beach in 1983 that bore his name. Holtz’s son Javier ran the club and originally clad the team in light blue and pink, “Miami Vice colors” as the younger Holtz explained to The Sun Sentinel shortly after the team’s formation.
TeamTennis wasn’t a particularly desirable destination for pro tour players at the time. The low budget league offered no base pay, with the league’s 32 players (two men and two women per team for eight member clubs) competing for a $400,000 bonus pool. The Breakers landed the league’s biggest name by drafting the 15-year old Argentinean sensation Gabriella Sabatini and hiring Sabatini’s coach, Patricio Apey as the team’s coach. The Breakers’ other female player would be Mercedes Paz, another Argentinean coached by Apey. But with Sabatini’s star rising by the month, Apey announced that her young protégé would only appear in select TeamTennis matches during the season while continuing to compete in more lucrative and prestigious tour events. Billie Jean King said the commitment to TeamTennis was all or nothing and kicked Sabatini off the Miami Beach roster, which also cost the Breakers’ the services of Apey and Paz two days before the team’s first season began.
The Breakers returned in 1986 with a few big names for the first and only time in their history. Romanian legend Ilie Nastase hired on as player-coach and Rosie Casals and Tim Gullikson offered some name appeal for South Florida tennis aficionados.
The Breakers averaged fewer than 1,000 fans per match in Miami Beach in both 1985 and 1986. The Holtz family sold the team after the 1987 season, which coincided with a complicated series of moves, name changes and franchise shifts under new owner Carl Foster. Foster first moved the team to Deerfield Beach in 1988, renaming the team the “South Florida Breakers”. In 1989, Foster moved north again, this time to Wellington and the team became known as the Wellington Aces. TeamTennis returned to Miami Beach and Abel Holtz Stadium in 1990 with a new team known as the Breakers, even as the Wellington Aces continued to exist.
As I write this, I can’t imagine anyone would remotely care about these distinctions. Anyway, it ceased to matter at the end of the 1991 season when both the Aces and Breakers franchises went out of business.
In Memoriam
Tim Gullikson (Breakers ’86) passed away following a battle with brain cancer at age 44 on May 3rd, 1996. New York Times obituary.
Links
World Team Tennis Media Guides
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2 Responses
I was at Trinity University, during WTT.
As an athlete there, the sports information director asked to help with WTT tournament in San Antonio.
I said, sure…I was assigned to Miami Breakers, Illie Nastase and Tom Gullicson were player/coaches for Miami.
After the match they wanted to go out , knowing SA well, I took them to some bars on N. St. Mary’s street.
Tom wanted to go back to his hotel, so I drove him there…Illie was ready to have night in Old San Antonio so I took him to a private party in Alamo Heights that a friend had told me about.
This was a Posh House in the nicest neighborhood in SA.
Illie and I walked in, most people recognized him.
We were having a great time, the hostess falling all over Illie and poring us with Champagne and other party favors.
When all the sudden,this guy stared giving Illie a bunch of SHIT.
Like saying “u are a washed up old man tennis player” , not nice and intolerable to me.
I ask the guy to stop, but he persisted and continued his insults.
I had finally had enough of this …and I punched this asshole in the nose.
As I mentioned before, this house was very nicely decorated, the loud mouth happened to be standing on a very nice white rug of some sort.
So when clobbered him in the nose, BAM !…his nose burst with huge amounts of red blood gushing all over this nice white rug.
Illie turn to me and said, we better go,no?
We left abruptly.
I was able to drive Illie back to his Hotel safely, and with a great Texas story about a fun night in Old San Antonio!
Jeffrey Johnson, Trinity 86’
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing
I wonder what around what year the average household full of posh San Antonians would have STOPPED recognizing Ilie Nastase on sight when he appeared on their doorstep with a random college student. I’m going to guess about 1991.
Drew