Student body and Coaches Perspective

It wasn't just news articles talking about the switch but it was also the student body and coaches of the team. An article from the Trinitonian was written on October 12th, 1990 by James Donlon. A first year student at Trinity, he along with many of his peers were disappointed and frustrated with President Calgaards “swift” decision (Donlon 1990). Butch Newman, the coach at the time of the switch, was extremely frustrated and stated that it would  “cause an umongous uproar among all the alumni and the current students and the current team at that time.” Newman “expected all of his players to leave” and have to build the program back to stardom. In fact, 75% of the men’s tennis players left for division one schools after this decision. Furthermore, in women’s tennis, it was difficult for them to complete a full roster. Coach Newman, “had to recruit one of his women’s players from the intermediate tennis program to have enough players to compete after the switch.”

Another opinion article called the Demise of tradition: It was set up to fail was written by Buck Harvey in the San Antonio Light in 1990, discussing more frustration surrounding the switch in divisions and why the Tennis program was set up to decline. John Benson, a former player and coach during that time pointed out how “It was known by everyone on the inside. There was no support to make it competitive” (Harvey 1990). Moreover, Bob McKinley, a former Trinity champion and coach as well as the brother of Wimbledon champion Chuck McKinley made it clear that "the current administration didn't play a part in building the history, and thus it wasn't important to them. That's the bottom line” (Harvey 1990).