Slocum, Henry

Henry Warner Slocum, Jr.
Born: May 28, 1862
Died: January 22, 1949
Hometown: United States
Citizenship: United States
Handed: Right
Inducted: 1955

Grand Slam Record
U.S.     Singles     1888-89
Singles finalist     1887, 1890
Doubles     1889
Doubles finalist     1885, 1887

Contributions
U.S.T.A.     President     1892-93

A football and tennis player at Yale, Henry Warner Slocum played in the first Intercollegiate Championships in 1883, as partner of the great Walter Camp. He took time out from his New York law practice to refine his tennis (to the disapproval of his father), and on his fourth try at the U.S. title in Newport, 1887, he beat Howard Taylor, 12-10, 7-5, 6-4, in the all-comers final, only to become Dick Sears’s last championship victim in the challenge round, 6-1, 6-3, 6-2.

But in 1888 he trained harder, and the players showed, he said, “more than the usual keenness” because Sears had announced he wouldn’t defend. In the all-comers final, to decide the championship, Slocum, 5-foot-10, 150-pound right-hander, was sharper against the quick 5-foot-4 Taylor, and became the second champion of the U.S., 6-4, 6-1, 6-0. He successfully defended in 1889 over lefty Quincy Shaw, 6-3, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2.

That year he and Taylor beat Valentine Hall and Oliver Campbell for the doubles crown, 6-1, 6-3, 6-2. It was Slocum’s third time in the doubles. He lost in 1885 with Percy Knapp and Ollie Taylor. But Slocum, 28, was overtaken by 19-year-old collegian, Campbell, in the 1890 challenge round, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Slocum had realized his tennis ambitions, and immersed himself in law. But he returned to Newport for an 1892 cameo, registering one of the championships’ rare triple bagels–6-0, 6-0, 6-0, over W.N. Ryerson. He was back again 11 years later to play nine times between 1903 and 1913 when he made his last appearance, at 51, beating future World War I flying hero and Massachusetts Congressman Larry Curtis, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3, and losing to future finalist (1921), 24-year-old Wallace Johnson, 6-1, 6-3, 6-3. For his U.S career, covering 29 years (1884-1913), the remarkably durable Slocum had a 26-14 singles record. In the 1888 quarters, he gave the godfather, James Dwight, 36, his last singles defeat, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-2. Five straight years, from 1886, he was in the U.S. Top Ten, No. 1 in 1888 and 1889. Slocum was born May 28, 1862, died January 22, 1949, and entered the Hall of Fame in 1955. He was president of the USTA, 1892-93.

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