All Iowa Lawn Tennis Club changes game plan for future preservation

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — The All Iowa Lawn Tennis Club and its world-renown grass court subsequently christened “Alex J. Kuhn Court of Dreams” were — as the court’s title might suggest — born from a dream.

This dream originated circa 1962 when Mark Kuhn first became transfixed by the Wimbledon tennis tournament broadcasts on his grandfather’s shortwave radio.

Many years later, Kuhn — with the help and support of his wife, Denise, and their two sons, Mason and Alex — made the dream a reality when they built the court on what was a cattle feed lot on their family farm just south of Charles City.

The “Court of Dreams”, named in memory of Alex who committed suicide in 2016, still invokes dreams for Kuhn. But not all of them pleasant.

“I had a nightmare of all these weeds sprouting up and taking over the court,” Kuhn said.

It took a lot of hard work and sacrifice for the former dream to become a reality, but it wouldn’t take much for the “nightmare” to become a reality, too, as grass tennis courts — as well as any field or pitch with a grass playing surface — tend to self-destruct during even brief stints of neglect and inactivity.

Kuhn has been the chief caretaker for the AILTC and its court since their formation in 2003. His expertise hasn’t gone unnoticed, especially “across the pond” as Kuhn was bestowed the distinction of being the first American to serve as an honorary attendant at Wimbledon’s Center Court for the 2016 championships.

Since then, Kuhn and his family have kept the AILTC immaculate — during the summer and most of the spring, the court viewed from a drone’s vantage resembles a rectangular emerald embedded within a field of maize (corn, as Kuhn notes on occasion, is just another grain of grass) — despite the increased traffic as of late.

“All 50, except Hawaii,” Kuhn answered CBS journalist Steve Hartman when asked of the residential states of the variety of player/tourists who have made the AILTC a destination stop throughout the years. And when Hartman followed up … “From how many countries have people visited?” Kuhn replied, “England, France, Germany, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Japan and Norway.”

Not all are informal visits.

The club and court have been the site of the Alex J. Kuhn Memorial Tennis Invitational that features some of the top junior players from Iowa and Minnesota.

They also hosted the Madison Keys Celebration of Tennis multi-day event featuring Grand Slam tournament champion Keys and a bevy of other professional players and top-ranked amateurs.

Not all of AILTC “celebrity guests” are known for their tennis prowess alone. Former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kurt Cousins, a stalwart tennis enthusiast, visited the AILTC and played on its court. He even sought advice from Kuhn on how he could build and maintain a grass court of his own.

“We never charged anyone,” Kuhn said of the policy that even included multi-millionaire professional athletes. “We just asked them to make reservations beforehand. Of course, many gave donations to help us maintain the court, but it wasn’t required.”

But for the AILTC to survive and to hold off Kuhn’s foreboding vision, a new “business model” had to be established.

In 2015, the year before Kuhn became the first “Yankee” to manicure Center Court, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

“I’m still doing okay, now,” Kuhn said as he held one of his arms steady in front of him to indicate that the progressive neurological disorder that primarily affects movement, causing symptoms like tremors, slowness, stiffness and balance problems still hasn’t taken hold a decade after the diagnosis.

“But I’m 74 years old, and I realize things like this happen when you get older,” Kuhn said. “There’s a reason why I don’t farm any more.

“I can still work on the court, but I know there will become a time when I’ll be unable to do that.”

Knowing that his family’s life story and legacy are tied to the AILTC, Kuhn has recently taken action to ensure it all doesn’t go to seed.

“We decided to become a Limited Liability Company,” Kuhn said as the AILTC will now charge court rental fees as well as offering lodging at the site’s farmhouse for out-of-state and/or non-local clients who may book reservations for a weekend or multiple days.

“We’re not going to be a bed and breakfast … I’m not going to flip any flapjacks,” Kuhn said. “And we’re not going to charge kids 12 and under as long as they’re accompanied by an adult.

“But at some point, we’re going to have to hire a groundskeeper to keep it going. It takes a lot of work, and I can still do it and I’m thankful that I still can. But old age is undefeated.”

Kuhn and the AILTC are venturing into new territory, and Kuhn is not too sure where this is going to lead. But the AILTC’s newly established LLC status has quelled some anxiety.

“In all the years we’ve been hosting events and having guests play here, we never had an incident where something bad happened … like someone stepping in a hole and hurting themselves,” Kuhn said. “Being an LLC gives us a little more piece of mind.”

The AILTC has been featured numerous times in Sports Illustrated as well as The New York Times. It also has a chapter entry in the recently published thick coffee table book “The Tennis Court — A Journey to Discover the World’s Greatest Tennis Courts” with text and photographs by Nick Pachelli, an award-winning journalist who was one of the top-ranked junior players in the Southwest during his playing heyday.

The AILTC will also be featured in an updated “On the Road with Steve Hartman” segment on CBS Evening News at approximately 5:30 p.m. next Friday (April 18).

To make tennis and lodging reservations, visit the AILTC’s upgraded website at
alliowolawntennisclub.com.