Dick Gould

Dick Gould (born October 1, 1937) is an American tennis coach. He was the Men's Tennis Coach at Stanford University for 38 years from 1966 to 2004. The Stanford men's tennis teams won 17 NCAA Men's Tennis Championships, and 50 of his players won All-American honors under Gould's tenure. He was named the ITA-Wilson "Coach of the Decade" both for the 1980s and the 1990s.

Biography

Early years Gould was born in Ventura, California in 1937. He attended Ventura High School with longtime tennis friend, Tom Chivington. Gould was the Student Body President and the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the Tennis Team.

Gould began his coaching career at Mountain View High School in Mountain View, California, where he was Tennis Coach and Assistant Football Coach from 1960 to 1964. He is the winningest coach in Stanford men's tennis history with an overall record of 776–148 and a .840 winning percentage.

When the tennis season began early in 1978, the Stanford team was so deep that the defending NCAA singles champion, Matt Mitchell, played for Stanford in the no. 4 position behind McEnroe, Bill Maze, and Perry Wright. The team compiled a perfect 24–0 record, the first of three Stanford men's tennis teams to enjoy an undefeated season.

Gould's tennis philosophy focused on the serve-and-volley game. However, he continued to have success in the 1990s, even as the game evolved with powerful, oversized, composite rackets and blasting topspin ground strokes. Seeking financing for a new tennis stadium, he came up with the idea of selling the rights to seats in 1986, a licensing plan under which purchaser's name is engraved in the seat, and the purchaser owns the right to have first choice for tickets for any event held in the stadium. (The NCAA did not begin sponsoring women's tennis championships until 1982.)

Gould and his wife have five children. He retired in January 2018, completing a Stanford tennis career as player, coach, and director of tennis that had spanned 57 years.