Big as a barn, that old two-story building on Olive Avenue has sat near the tennis courts since 1969. But decades before, there was another building, an old one-story place, and players would go in there to escape the heat and dip their wrists into a tub filled with icy bottles of beer and soft drinks. They’d pop open the caps and wait for their string jobs to be finished. Maybe they’d try on a pair of shoes, or just shoot the breeze with Jim Huebner and his son Larry, who practically grew up in the store, helping out in the winter with skis and in the summer with tennis and fishing. Jim Huebner’s store on the corner was the original Huebner Sports, and its tennis shop was the clubhouse for the Roeding Park Tennis Club. In fact, there were showers and lockers, and even a ping pong room.

“We didn’t have Cokes back then,” son Larry says, “it was the 30’s, we had Hires Root Beer, and my dad had a sign in the window that said Regal Pale Beer.”

Naturally, young Larry Huebner spent as much time across the street as he could, developing the tennis skills his father taught him, skills that would eventually make him a national champion.

Then later, when his father was gone, Larry and wife Gretchen took over the store (which by now had become big and barn-like.) They taught their own kids to play – Jim, John, and Karin – and more tennis champions began to emerge at Roeding Park.

                        Descent Of A Champion
                         Going Out With Grace

Not limiting his tennis to Roeding Park, Larry Huebner also became the key figure in founding the Fig Garden Swim & Racquet Club. Now at 72 years old, this man’s tennis achievements are too many to list, but they do include ten National Championships on multiple surfaces. And all despite two hip replacements!

Yes, today Huebner walks slightly bent, intrepidly, with what might be described as a generalized limp. But in competition he is all smooth sinew. Indeed, Huebner moves on the court with a grace few can equal. A grace that garnered him three National Championships in 2003 alone (father-sons with John and Jim, and a father-daughter with Karin.)

Less graceful, however, is that big barn of a building that sits empty on Olive Avenue. Unfortunately, Larry closed the store years ago. But his fondness for the Park will always remain. After all, he pretty much grew up across the street, in the clubhouse of the Roeding Park Tennis Club.
 

"Now, that was an awesome story!"
Coby Roberts, Tennis Director
Copper River Country Club