December 22, 1998 — John Odegaard met his wife on a tennis court in 1950. He almost died on a tennis court in 1998.
Actually, there was a period of time when the 72-year-old Odegaard was clinically dead. He was lying on his back on an indoor tennis court in Ashland, Oregon and his heart stopped beating.
He would have stayed that way, had emergency rescuers not ripped open his shirt and shocked him four times with a defibrillator.
“I didn’t see a light at the end of the tunnel, no angels, no out-of-body experience,” said Odegaard of the June 23 heart attack. All Odegaard knows is that he woke up three days later in a hospital bed — alive.
“That tennis court was the safest place I could be for that to happen because of the facilities,” said Odegaard, who was told that the club’s tennis pro performed CPR on him until the fire rescue team arrived. “I went hiking in the mountains the day before. If it happened then, that would have been it.”
Odegaard, who has since had surgical procedures to open arteries on both sides of his heart, recently completed his rehabilitation.
“I took the final exam in the cardiac rehab and got the highest score that they’ve ever had, so I know I’m back in shape,” said Odegaard.
Odegaard was anxious to make it back to the tennis courts at Longwood Park — he knew there would be a group of people there very happy to see him.
Odegaard is a founding member of the Great Silver Toppers, a group of senior citizens that have played tennis at Longwood Park nearly every Tuesday and Friday since 1986.
What started with just a foursome — Odegaard, Bill Krouse, 77, and deceased members Carlton Welborn and Lipscomb Holcomb — has grown into a twice-a-week tradition for approximately 30 Gainesville area residents.
“The four of us started it and it just gradually evolved,” said Krouse, who retired to Gainesville 14 years ago with his wife Kathryn, 74, a Topper herself.
“We don’t have any dues or anything,” said Gene Brooks, 69, former reverend at Lakewood Baptist Church and longtime Silver Topper. “We just show up on Tuesday and Friday and play.”
And they’ve been showing up for the last 12 years. Everybody brings their own equipment. The first four to arrive at the courts make up the first foursome, and so on. During daylight savings time, they play in the morning. The rest of the year, they play in the afternoon.
“We play in just about any kind of weather,” said Odegaard. “When it really starts to rain hard, we often reluctantly leave. But a light rain doesn’t keep us. We’ve played in the snow where the ball goes up into the snow and you don’t see it up there.”
“Yeah, you hit the first snowflake that comes down,” added Krouse, who, from New York City, is the jokester of the group.
Many of the players are in their 70s, but there are some “kids” — as Odegaard calls them — in their 50s and early 60s.
“It’s not hit and giggle, either,” said Odegaard, who, with his wife Ellen, 72, will play mixed doubles in the Senior Olympics in Orlando next year.
“It’s serious tennis,” said Brooks. “We play to the best of our ability.”
The Silver Toppers are big fans of Gainesville Park and Recreation.
“We feel very lucky that we have these good facilities,” said Odegaard, a retired architect from South Dakota. “It’s not like golf where you have to be a millionaire to play. You can play tennis and live on social security.”
Anyone with some gray hair and a tennis racket is welcome, as 86-year-old Al Buchheim, the group’s senior member, found out when he moved to Gainesville from Hilton Head, S.C. in September.
“I came here and fit right in,” said the Brooklyn, N.Y. native, who has been playing tennis for 73 years. “I thought I’d have trouble, you know, with new players and everything. But once you’re a tennis player, you’re a tennis player for the rest of your life.”
Get Buchheim, Odegaard and Krouse together and you have well over 200 years of tennis knowledge. Ask then about the “old days” and they can go on and on.
“You want to know about tennis players when I was 25? I can’t remember what I had for breakfast and you want to know that,” exclaimed Krouse. “That’s when they used to play in long, flannel pants.”
“That’s right, and little white caps,” said Buchheim.
“And ties,” said Odegaard.
“And of course Big Bill Tilden,” said Krouse, referring to the U.S. star in the 1920s.
“That’s the one I knew,” said Buchheim. “I learned from his books.”
“That was before my time,” quipped Odegaard, and the three enjoyed a good laugh.
They agree that the game has changed a lot during their lifetimes.
“The game has lost its finesse. It’s all power,” said Krouse. “It’s serving the ball 135 miles an hour. That’s frightening. And the ladies serve it 120. The modern day ladies could have beaten any of the old pros.”
The Silver Toppers would be lucky to hit their ages in miles per hour, but for Odegaard at least, just being alive to make it to Longwood Park twice a week is a blessing in itself.
“I hear the birds singing. I see the flowers. My family,” said Odegaard. “It does change you.”