Rafael Osuna
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| Rafael Osuna | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 15, 1938 Image:Flag of Mexico.svg Mexico City |
| Died | June 6 1969 (aged 30) |
Rafael Herrera Osuna (September 15, 1938 – June 6, 1969), is the most extraordinary tennis player in the history of Mexico. He was born in Mexico City, Mexico and is best remembered for his singles victory at the U.S. Open Championships in 1963 and leading Mexico to its only Davis Cup Final round appearance. He is the only Mexican up to date to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1979.
His first athletic prowess occurred before he was ten years old when he competed in the Mexican National Table Tennis Championships, open category, where he beat the Mexico City Table Tennis Champion (this was his first tournament ever played!) and he won, with Alfredo Ramos Uriarte as his partner, the Doubles Championship.
He was awarded a full scholarship to attend the University of Southern California USC in the U.S.A., where he would meet Head Coach George Toley, whose keen eye, and trust, on Osuna's natural athleticism and his persistence on the tennis courts that permitted Osuna to participate in the 1960 Wimbledon championships, where he competed only in the doubles category besides his soon to be school roommate, Dennis Ralston. To unknown youngsters that made history when they became the first ever-unseeded couple to win the most important doubles tournament in the world.
Since that very moment Rafael Osuna would become world wide recognized, as, the famed critic Tony Mottram said “he moves on the tennis court with the grace of a panther”, or as the “lightning” or “the blur”, because of his amazing speed, and it was the beginning of his world class career. His most outstanding achievements are:
• He is the only Mexican tennis player ever ranked No. 1 in the world, in 1963, by the International Tennis Federation. • He is the only Mexican tennis player ever to win a Grand Slam event singles title. The United States Tennis Association National Championships US Open Singles (1963) (Only two Latin Americans have won it) • Osuna and Palafox are the only Mexican tennis players ever to win a the United States Tennis Association National Championships US Open in doubles (1962) • In 1962, Osuna being the leader of the Mexican Davis Cup Team, lead the team to the only Davis Cup Final that Mexico has ever played on. On that occasion, 1962, Mexico became the first ever Latin American nation to reach the finals on an event of this importance • His last victory, two weeks before passing away on a plane crash, almost single-handed defeated Australia in Davis Cup competition; he won both his singles matches and the doubles. At that time Australia had won the Davis Cup in 17 times. • USTA National Hard Courts singles and doubles champion 1962 and doubles champion 1969. • NCAA singles champion 1962, doubles champion 61 to 63 and team champion 62 and 63 • Mexico’s only Olympic gold medal in tennis doubles with Vincent Zarazúa, in 1968. • At the tender age of 10 years old, he became the youngest Mexican Open National Champion in Table Tennis, doubles category. From age 10 to 14 he was ranked in the top 10 in Mexico’s Open singles. • It is important to mention that Rafael Osuna earned a Bachelor in Science in Business Administration from the University of Southern California in 1963, having already won the. NCAA singles champion 1962, doubles champion 61 to 63 and team champion 62 and 63 and, that same year 1963, the International Tennis Federation would declare him the year’s end No.1 player in the world.
Osuna was one of 79 people killed in a Mexican Airlines plane crash on June 6, 1969. He was 30 years old.[1]
Rafael Osuna, as El Cid, continues to add on victories: • The Intercollegiate Tennis College Association NCAA, during the 1969 National Championships, instituted (for the first time since 1881) another trophy besides the Championships trophies. It is the most coveted award in college tennis, equivalent to the “Heisman Trophy”, and it bears the name of “The Rafael Osuna Sportsmanship Award” to honor the memory of this extraordinary tennis player and human being. It is awarded to the most outstanding tennis player by the following criteria: Competitive excellence, Sportsmanship and Contribution to tennis • At the 1969 US OPEN Championships, only two months after his death, the US Open Committee declared the 28 of August, during the US Open Championships at Forrest Hills the Rafael Osuna day to honor the memory of their former champion. This was the first time the tournament had honored a tennis player in this manner. • In 1969 the Chapultepec Club, the cathedral of Mexican tennis and home to the majority of the history of Mexican tennis, named its stadium “Rafael Osuna”. • In 1972, with the intent to strengthen the natural friendship and collaboration ties between the USA and Mexico and to honor the memory of the only player ever to win the US OPEN and the Mexican Open championships in singles, the “Osuna Cup” was instituted and it is disputed annually by the official teams from both nations. This year the XXXII edition will be played, making it the longest international tennis event played on Mexican territory and the only one sanctioned by the USTA and the MTF. • In 1970 Mr. Joseph F. Cullman, Honorary Chairman of the Board of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, presented to the Chancellor of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Ing. Javier Barrios Sierra, ten scholarships in the name of Rafael Osuna to be awarded to outstanding Mexican students.
• On July 14, 1979, the International Tennis Hall of Fame, in Newport, Rhode Island, consecrates Osuna permanently recognizing his tennis greatness by inducting him as a member of this distinguished Hall of Fame. To this day Osuna is the only Mexican bestowed with this honor. • In 1979 to honor the athletic merits of the best ever Mexican tennis player as well as the sportsman, the President of the United Mexican States (Mexico), Mr. José Lopez Portillo y Pacheco, uncovered an 8-foot tall statue of Rafael Osuna, erected by the Mexican National Athletics Institute at the ceremony plaza of the Mexican Olympic Committee. • In 1983 the Intercollegiate Tennis College Association NCAA inaugurated the ITCA NCAA Tennis Hall of Fame, in Athens, Georgia. The inaugural class was the All Time NCAA Champions of Excellence. 15 players and 5 Head Coaches. Osuna was one of them, including players such as: Ashe, Ralston, Olmedo, Trabert as well as Coach Toley. • In 1990 Mrs. Elena Osuna de Belmar publishes the biography “Rafael Osuna Sonata in Set Mayor”. Because of the value and veracity of the information within, as well as the quality of the book itself, the book has been included in the International Tennis Hall of Fame Museum and Wimbledon Museum. It is also included at the USTA and the Doheney library, USC to mention a few. The book is a collector’s item with only 2000 books in the first edition. • On November 28, 2000 Mr. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, President of the United Mexican States, presented the homage to the most outstanding Mexican athletes of the 20th Century awarded by the Secretary of Public Education of Mexico. Rafael Osuna was selected “Sportsman of the 20th Century” in the Category of Tennis. • On October 14, 2006 the University of Southern California USC Hall of Fame Selection Committee selected Rafael Osuna to be inducted into the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in May 5th, 2007. • As of today, the 1963 USC tennis team is regarded as the best collegiate tennis team of all times. Rafael Osuna’s impact as a tennis player is as important as the impact he left behind as a human being. An example of this is reflected on Luis Suarez del Solar (formerly Luigi Ruano) text:
“More than the Wimbledon championships next to Ralston and Palafox, more than his victory at Forest Hills (US Open) to become the first ever Latin American to win the US OPEN and to win a Grand Slam event in singles, more than his prowess to lead Mexico to become the first ever Latin American Nation to dispute a Davis Cup Final, Rafael Osuna has left to the tennis world his heritage of lack of interest, his sportsmanship, his you for life, his perception of sports as an avenue to make friends and to offer friendship, to raise his Nations Name, to contribute, in one word, to the world being a better place to live.”
Former World’s No.1, Manuel Santana put it best: “In Osuna’s case, the Man surpasses the Champion”.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Rafael Osuna biography and stats from the Davis Cup websitede:Rafael Osuna
es:Rafael Osuna fr:Rafaël Osuna it:Rafael Osuna ja:ラファエル・オスナ pl:Rafael Osuna sv:Rafael Osuna
