player – Tennisarchives.com

General First nameMaurice Evans
LastnameMcLoughlin
GenderMale
CountryUnited States of America
Date of birth1890-01-07
Place of birthCarson city, Nev, United States of America
Date of death1957-12-10
Place of deathHermosa Beach, California , United States of America

About

Maurice Evans McLoughlin was born on 7 January 1890 in Carson City, Nevada. His parents were George McLoughlin (b. 1848) and Harriet McLoughlin (née Verrill; b. 1857). George McLoughlin was a native of Ireland, but his family had emigrated to the United States in 1851, when George was three years of age. Harriet Verrill was born in the state of Maine.

Maurice McLoughlin was the fourth of five children, having been preceded by the twins George, Jnr., and Nellie (b. 1883) and another boy, Ralph (b. 1886). The McLoughlins? fifth and last child, a girl named Doris, was born in 1894.

At the time of Maurice McLoughlin?s birth the family was living at 312 North Mountain Street in Carson City. (George McLoughlin worked at the Carson City Mint.) According to a report carried in ?The Carson City Morning Appeal?, a local newspaper, Maurice weighed nine pounds at birth and had ?good lungs?.

In 1898, George McLoughlin was transferred to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, and again, in 1903, to the U.S. Mint in San Francisco. Maurice McLoughlin attended Lowell High School in the latter city, where he became an avid player of tennis. At an early stage he came under the wing of Sidney Marvin, who in 1904 established the Golden Gate Park Junior Tennis Club in San Francisco. It was here that Maurice McLoughlin first began to hone his tennis game as a member of the Golden Gate Juniors.

According to Sidney Marvin, ?In his early boyhood days young McLoughlin was fond of football and basketball, in addition to tennis and ranked as a great a ball player. After joining the Golden Gate Club, however, McLoughlin devoted all his attention to tennis.?

Speaking circa 1912, Sidney Marvin also said: ?Young McLoughlin was a born tennis star. He possessed a style that would at once lead an expert to pick him as a champion in embryo. In boyhood he had that same quickness, dash and judgment that he has today.

?[?] McLoughlin is probably the most popular tennis player in the world, and many attribute his great popularity to his sportsmanlike conduct and his manly, modest demeanour. Personally, as well as professionally, Maury is much like by all who know him. He is good natured under all circumstances, he never falters in the face of prospective defeat and takes reverses coolly.?

In photographs of him, even as a teenager, Maurice McLoughlin exudes energy even when standing still. It was that same energy which he harnessed when on a tennis court and which made his game so compelling to watch. According to his obituary in the ?New York Times?, ?[?] He had a violent service and overhead game and was a terror at the net to which he went at every opportunity. He had great speed of foot.?

Maurice McLoughlin enjoyed success at tennis from a very early age. Although still theoretically a junior, he won the singles title at the prestigious Pacific Coast Championships, held in Del Monte, for the first time in September 1907 at the age of just 17. This was easily Maurice?s most important singles title up to that point. In the Challenge Round match he beat the holder, Melville Long, a native of San Francisco, and less than one year older than Maurice, 13-11, 6-4, 5-7, 4-6, 6-4.

Tennis was booming in California at this point in time and the depth and quality of the players who had either been born or were residing there were very impressive. In 1907, Maurice McLoughlin also won the singles title at the San Francisco Championships tournament, a title he would defend successfully over the next five years, also winning it in 1908-12.

In June 1908, McLoughlin took another prestigious singles title for the first time, namely the California State Championships, held at the California Lawn Tennis Club in San Francisco. In the Challenge Round match he again defeated Melville Long, this time somewhat easier, the score being 6-3, 12-10, 6-2.

In what was a burgeoning rivalry, the same two players met again in the Challenge Round of the 1908 Pacific Coast Championships tournament in Del Monte. This time, however, Melville Long emerged victorious after another long five-set match and after losing the first two sets. The final score was 8-10, 6-8, 6-4, 11-9, 6-0. McLoughlin had had three match points fourth set, but had been unable to convert any of them.

In 1909, Maurice McLoughlin retained his singles title at the California State Championships tournament, held that year in San Rafael. In the Challenge Round he defeated Carlton ?Carl? Gardner, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. 1909 was also the year in which McLoughlin was sent East by the Pacific Coast Lawn Tennis Association to take part in some of the tournaments on the east coast. Melville Long and Thomas Bundy, the latter a native of Santa Monica, were his companions on this trip.

Maurice McLoughlin enjoyed some success during that first trip to the eastern United States, in particular at the United States Championships, held in Newport, Rhode Island in late August. At this, the most prestigious of tournaments in the United States, Maurice went all the way to the All-Comers? Final of the singles event on his debut before losing a close four-set match to William Jackson Clothier, a native of Pennsylvania. The score was 7-5, 6-4, 9-11, 6-3.

Later in the season in 1909, Maurice McLoughlin also travelled to Sydney, Australia, as part of the United States Davis Cup team chosen to take on Australasia in the Challenge Round of the Davis Cup. Melville Long was also part of the American team. However, the young Americans were outclassed by the older and more experienced Australian Norman Brookes and the New Zealander Tony Wilding, and Australasia dropped only one set in five matches while retaining the Davis Cup. It is said that McLoughlin acquired his nickname, the ?California Comet?, during this trip to Australia. The nickname reflected the speed and dash of his game. (Family and friends, however, called Maurice ?Red?, probably due to his distinctive red hair.)In the summer of 1910, Maurice McLoughlin travelled east again to take part in a number of the tennis tournaments held on the opposite coast. He was most successful at the tournament held in Southampton, Long Island, in mid-August. McLoughlin won the singles title at this tournament, defeating his countryman Frederick Colston easily in the final match, 6-2, 6-1, 6-2.

However, McLoughlin was less successful at the 1910 edition of the United States Championships in Newport. After reaching the quarter-finals he was easily beaten by Beals Wright, of Boston, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2.
In 1911, Maurice McLoughlin continued to improve his game, winning the singles title at the Pacific Coast Championships for the second time (the tournament was held in Santa Cruz in this particular year). In the Challenge Round he beat the holder, his old rival Melville Long, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. There was no doubting who was the better player of the two.

McLoughlin travelled east again soon after this victory at the Pacific Coast Championships, taking his excellent form with him. In late August, taking part in the United States Championships in Newport for the third time, he won eight matches (including a preliminary round) for the loss of just one set to reach the Challenge Round for the first time. In the All-Comers? Final he defeated Beals Wright, his conqueror of the previous year at the same tournament, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

However, there was disappointment for McLoughlin in the Challenge Round at the 1911 United States Championships. His opponent in this match was William Larned, of Summit, New Jersey, who had won the singles title for the previous four years and six times in all. The 38-year-old Larned proved much too strong for the 21-year-old McLoughlin and retained his title in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.

Despite this loss, Maurice McLoughlin was ranked number three in the United States at the end of 1911, his highest national ranking to date.

In 1912, Maurice McLoughlin had his most successful season to date, although he did not play outside the United States and few, if any, of the top overseas players travelled to the United States to play in the tournaments there. (The United States did not field a team for the 1912 edition of the Davis Cup.) In June, McLoughlin won the singles title at the Pacific Coast Championships in Santa Cruz. This was his third win in this event at this particular tournament. Although he was the holder, McLoughlin played through the singles event. He was due to take on Melville Long in the final, but the latter was suffering from a badly sprained ankle and could not take to the court.

In mid-July, McLoughlin won the Longwood Bowl at the tournament held at the Longwood Cricket Club in Boston. In the Challenge Round McLoughlin defeated the holder, Edwin Larned, brother of William, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4. This was the first time a Californian had won this prestigious title. Shortly afterwards, McLoughlin successfully defended his singles title at the Western Championship in Chicago, where he beat Thomas Bundy in the Challenge Round, 8-10, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.

Maurice McLoughlin was thus in excellent form going into the 1912 United States Championships at Newport, where the Challenge Round had been abolished for the men?s singles event and William Larned, the holder, was not defending his singles title. McLoughlin had litte difficulty reaching the final match for the this only tough match being in the quater-finals against his compatriot Richard Norris Williams, whom McLoughlin beat, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. In the final McLouglin faced Wallace Johnson, from Pennsylvania, and the latter was able to build a two-set lead before McLoughlin found his best game and took the next three. The final score was, 3-6, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2. This was the first time a player had ever come back after being two sets down in the final match of the men?s singles event at the United States Championships.

In addition, McLoughlin won the men?s doubles title at the United States Championship for the first time in 1912. In the last match he and Thomas Bundy beat their compatriots, Gustave Touchard and Raymond Little, the holders, 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, 7-5.

At the end of the 1912 lawn tennis season Maurice McLoughlin was ranked number one in the United States for the first time by various experts.

In 1913, Maurice McLoughlin enjoyed another excellent season. For the first and only time in his lawn tennis career he travelled to England to take part in the Wimbledon tournament. On his debut there McLoughlin won seven singles matches in a row to reach the Challenge Round, where he faced the holder, Anthony Wilding of New Zealand. In an eagerly-anticipated match Wilding managed to contain the American?s power and retained his title after three hard-fought sets, 8-6, 6-3, 10-8.

In 1913, the British Isles were defending the Davis Cup. The semi-finals and All-Comers? Final of this event were held in England just after the Wimbledon tournament, and the United States won through to the Challenge Round, which was also held at Wimbledon, from 25-28 July. The American team consisted of Maurice McLoughlin, Richard Norris Williams and Harold Hackett. Although the United States were considered the favourites, there was a shock in first match when the Irishman James Cecil Parke beat Maurice McLoughlin in a long, five-set match, 8-10, 7-5, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5. However, Norris Williams made the score 1-1 when he beat the Englishman Charles Dixon, also by 7-5 in the fifth set.

The following day, a Saturday, McLoughlin teamed up with Harold Hackett for the doubles match against the English pairing of Dixon and Herbert Roper Barrett. This match turned out to be crucial and it was the Americans who won it, again after a five-set battle, 5-7, 6-1, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4. There was no Sunday play in Great Britain in those days, so the remaining two singles matches were played two days later, on Monday, 28 July. In the first match Maurice McLoughlin was pitted against Charles Dixon, and after a close first set the American won, 8-6, 6-3, 6-2, thus sealing overall victory for the United States. Parke defeated Norris Williams in the fifth, dead rubber. The final tie score was 3-2 in favour of the United States. This was the first time the United States had held the Davis Cup since 1902.

Later on in the 1913 lawn tennis season, Maurice McLoughlin retained his United States Championships single title in impressive fashion. Playing through the event he dropped no sets in six matches against opponents including William Clothier and Wallace Johnson. Only in the final, where he faced Richard Norris Williams, did McLoughlin drop a set, the score being 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, 6-1. Together with Thomas Bundy, McLoughlin also retained the doubles championship of the United States when they beat their compatriots Clarence Griffin and John Strachan, 6-4, 7-5, 6-1. (Since the abolition of the Challenge Round in 1912, McLouglin?s feat of winning the singles and doubles titles at the United States Championships in consecutive years has been repeated by only two other men: another American, William Tilden, who won the singles and doubles titles at the same tournament in the years 1921-23, and the Australian Neale Fraser who won the same two titles in 1959 and 1960.)

At the end of the 1913 lawn tennis season, Maurice McLoughlin was ranked number one in the United States again by various experts.
In 1914, Maurice McLoughlin regained the Longwood Bowl he had first won in 1912. This time he beat William Johnston, a native of San Francisco and the holder of the title, in the Challenge Round, 6-4, 6-4, 6-1. In between participating in the tournament at Longwood and the United States Championships in Newport, McLoughlin took part in the Davis Cup Challenge Round, which was held at the West Side Tennis Club in New York from 13-15 August. Australasia in the form of Norman Brookes and Anthony Wilding came through to face the United States, the holders, in the Challenge Round.

Earlier in the season Brookes and Wilding had contested the Challenge Round match at Wimbledon, and the Australian had beaten the New Zealander in straight sets, preventing Wilding from winning the title for a fifth consecutive year. Both Brookes and Wilding were known to be in excellent form. The first match of the Davis Cup Challenge Round pitted Wilding against Richard Norris Williams and the New Zealander won it easily, 7-5, 6-2, 6-3, to give Australasia a 1-0 lead. In the second match on the first day, McLoughlin took on Brookes and after a first set of extraordinary lawn tennis, won 17-15 by the American, ran away with the next two, 6-3, 6-3, to make the tie even at 1-1.

On the second day the doubles match pitted McLoughlin and Thomas Bundy, the reigning United States doubles champions, against Brookes and Wilding. As is often the case, this match proved to be crucial where the overall result was concerned. It was won by Australasia, 6-3, 8-6, 9-7, who now led 2-1.

On the final day Brookes beat Norris Williams in four sets in the first of the reverse singles, the score being 6-1, 6-2, 8-10, 6-3. This meant that, with an unassailable 3-1 lead, Australasia had regained the Davis Cup trophy after last holding it in 1911. However, McLoughlin and Wilding took to the court for the dead fifth rubber nevertheless and, after a superbly competitive four-set match McLoughlin emerged the winner, 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

At Newport a short while later, there was disappointment for McLoughlin when he came to defend his United States Championships singles title in 1913. Although he reached the final again, dropping only one set along the way, once there he was beaten in straight sets, 6-3, 8-6, 10-8, by an inspired Richard Norris Wililams, whom McLoughlin had beaten in the previous year?s final.

However, there was some consolation for McLoughlin when he and Thomas Bundy won the men?s doubles title at the United Championships for the third year in a row. In the final they beat their compatriots George Church and Dean Mathey, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.

Although he had lost his United States Championships singles title, several experts considered that McLoughlin was not only the number one player in the United States in the year 1914, but also the best player in the world. Their judgment was based mainly on McLoughlin?s superb feat of beating both Norman Brookes and Anthony Wilding during the Challenge Round of the Davis Cup. Neither Brookes nor Wilding took part in the United States Championships tournament at Newport in 1914 because of their desire to join up after World War One had begun. However, the United States did not enter the war until 1917 and lawn tennis tournaments continued in that country even when it did.

In 1915, Maurice McLoughlin retained his Longwood Bowl singles title in late July, defeating Richard Norris Williams in the Challenge Round, 6-3, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2. However, a few weeks later, at the Newport Invitational tournament, Norris Williams beat McLoughlin in the final of the singles event, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. This was the first edition of this tournament, held as a replacement after the United States Championships had moved from the Casino in Newport to the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York.

The first edition of the United States Championships to be held at the West Side Tennis Club in New York began at the end of August. For the fifth year in a row Maurice McLoughlin reached the final match. However, he had dropped a number of sets along the way to the last match against rather modest opposition, and some observers commented on a certain lack of fire in his game. McLoughlin?s opponent in the final was William Johnston, aged 20 to McLoughlin?s 25. After winning the first set, 6-1, McLoughlin suffered the ignominy of losing a love set to the younger player. Sets three and four were closer affairs, but Johnston won both of them and the match and title, the final score being, 1-6, 6-0, 7-5, 10-8.

There was no consolation for McLoughlin in the doubles event at the United States Championships in 1915. After playing through, he and Thomas Bundy, the defending champions, faced Clarence Griffin and Johnston, who beat them in a close five-set match, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

At the end of the 1915 season, Maurice McLoughlin was ranked third in singles in the United States, behind William Johnston (number one) and Richard Norris Williams (number two).

In 1916, Maurice McLoughlin suffered a severe drop in form, mainly due to lack of practice and his not playing in many lawn tennis tournaments. In early July he entered the doubles, but not the singles event at the Pacific Coast Championships, held in Long Beach, California. He and his partner, Ward Dawson, won the title, beating Thomas Bundy and Clifton Herd, 9-7, 5-7, 6-3, 6-8, 6-2.

The only tournament in which McLoughlin played in the eastern United States in 1916 was the United States Championships, held in late August, where he lost in the fourth round to his modest countryman George Church, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2, 6-3. At the same tournament McLoughlin and Ward Dawson lost in the final of the doubles event to Clarence Griffin and William Johnston; the score was 6?4, 6?3, 5?7, 6?3. After 1916, Maurice McLoughlin played very little additional competitive lawn tennis. There was speculation that the ?comet? had burnt himself out, but he might well have simply had enough of competitive lawn tennis after enjoying a great deal of success during the past decade or so.

The less time Maurice McLoughlin devoted to lawn tennis, the more he was to be found on the links, playing another sport for which he had a passion and a talent: golf. Like his near contemporary, Lawrence Doherty, of England, Maurice McLoughlin would also play some tournament golf, but with little success. His sporting activities were interrupted in 1917 when the United States entered World War One and McLoughlin joined the United States Navy. It is not clear what rank he held during the time he served in the US Navy, nor where he was stationed. However, because the war ended in 1918, it is likely that McLoughlin did not spend much time as a sailor.

On 18 May 1918, Maurice McLoughlin married Helen Mears in Los Angeles, California. He was 28; she was 22 and from a well-to-do Chicago family with links to the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company. They would have at least three children: a son, Maurice, Jnr. (b. 1920); and two girls, Jean (b. 1922) and Doris (b. 1929). In the early years of their married life the McLoughlins lived in Pasadena where they socialized with other well-to-do people and were members of several country clubs. During this period, Maurice McLoughlin appears to have worked as a businessman of some sort. He continued to play a good deal of golf.

In 1929, the McLoughlins lost all of their money in the stock market crash and had to move into a beach cottage in Hermosa Beach in Los Angeles owned by Helen McLoughlin?s family. Maurice McLoughlin was able to find employment, initially with North American Aviation. When the United States entered World War Two in December 1941, Maurice McLoughlin enlisted again. On the registration card he filled in (serial number 971), he wrote that he was living in Pasadena and was an employee of Northrup Aircraft Incorporated, a company based in Hawthorne, California. Maurice McLoughlin was 51 years of age when the United States entered World War Two, so it is unlikely that he saw much, if any, action.

McLoughlin was 55 when World War Two ended and continued to live an active life after being decommissioned. In 1957, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame during a ceremony at the Newport Casino, Rhode Island, home to the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Maurice McLoughlin was still alive at this time, but died in Hermosa Beach several months later, on 10 December 1957, at the age of 67.
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