Witness to history: Comets tennis coach nominated for Oregon Sports HOF

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

East Coast. West Coast.

Charles City High School girls tennis coach Brian Parrott has seen the brightest lights on both ends and those in between, as well as befriending some of the greatest sports and entertainment celebrities that they highlighted.

From Jackie Robinson to Magic Johnson to Arthur Ashe to John McEnroe to Doris Day to the late Nat King Cole.

“He was recording a song called ‘Good Night, Little Leaguer,’and they needed a promotional photo for it,” Parrott said of portrait taken of him — dressed in a baseball uniform — and Cole in the Brooklyn Dodgers’ dugout. “See that glove on my knee. That was Gil Hodges’ glove.”

The young Parrott had exclusive access to the Dodgers’ clubhouse, likewise for his older brothers Tod and Lynn, who served as “Da Bums” batboys during one of the most historic moments in franchise and sports history.

“Jackie was getting tired of always being interviewed, so he decided for fun to take the microphone and interview my brothers,” Parrott said of the widely circulated photo of Robinson getting the scoop on Tod and Lynn.

Both aforementioned photos appear in the book “The Lords of Baseball,” written by Parrott’s father, Harold Parrott, who served as traveling secretary and adviser to Dodgers president Branch Rickey.

The elder Parrott was portrayed by T.R. Knight in the motion picture “42” which details the Dodgers and Robinson breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947.

“(Knight) read the book to get a better feel for his part,” Brian Parrott said. “A lot of what’s in that movie came from that book.”

When the Dodgers moved to the West Coast, the Parrotts moved with them. Eventually, the family relocated to Oregon where they made even bigger names for themselves in another sport — tennis.

Harold became the first executive director for the Pacific Northwest Tennis Association. During his tenure, Harold helped establish several professional and junior tournaments in the region.

Brian became a two-time Oregon State Singles and Doubles champions in 1976 and 1978, later coached more than 50 Oregon high school champions, and was named “Oregon High School Coach of the Year” in 2007 before going on to coach Division 1 men’s and women’s tennis at Portland State.

Working with tennis greats Ashe, McEnroe and Jimmy Connors, Brian helped Portland land the U.S. Davis Cup in 1981 and 1984, and the Davis Cup World Final in 2007.

Brian also organized Portland’s successful bid to host the Western Hemisphere Basketball Qualifying Tournament for the 1992 Barcelona, Spain, Olympics. The original “Dream Team” featuring Johnson, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and a host of other NBA greats participated in that tournament.

Through his promotional skills, Brian helped bring other major sporting events to the Pacific Northwest, such as international volleyball and wrestling.

Three of Brian’s sons — Travis, Jeremy and Michael — all became distinguished athletes themselves.

Travis was a two-time all-American tennis player for the University of Georgia (2001) and the University of Portland (2002). He was a member of the Bulldogs 1999 and 2001 NCAA champion men’s tennis teams, and was also an NCAA Doubles champion. He later turned pro and, with Carly Gullickson, won the U.S. Open Mixed Doubles title in 2009. At one juncture during his 10-year career, Travis attained rankings as high as No. 25 in the world and No. 3 in the United States.

Jeremy was a two-time all-American in golf at Georgia, where he was captain and SEC “Player of the Year” for the Bulldogs’ NCAA golf champions in 1999.

Michael was also on that NCAA golf-championship team.

The three brothers have the distinction of being members of two NCAA championship teams in different sports during the same year (1999) at Georgia.

Last year, Joel Roth — who gathers nominations for the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame and Museum — nominated Brian for his accomplishments as an athlete, coach and promoter of sports. This year, he decided to take different approach and nominated Brian with his father and aforementioned three sons.

“I guess he thought we’d have a better chance getting in as a family,” said Brian, whose father — also a revered sports writer before being hired by Rickey — died in 1987 at the age of 78.

The surviving family has recently sought to get “The Lords of Baseball” back into print with proceeds to fund scholarships for journalism majors.

So after living and working most of his life amid “A” listers and the glitter that comes with them, what brought Brian Parrott to northern Iowa?

“Love … I fell in love with a farmer’s daughter,” Parrott said of meeting girlfriend Cheryl online before deciding to move out here.

“It’s different from the places I’ve been before, but the people here have been real nice,” said Parrott, who is entering his second year leading the Charles City girls program. “I’ve made a lot of friends.”

In Oregon, Parrott was a club pro who used to teach indoor tennis during the winter months. He’s hoping to start an indoor program at Charles City while utilizing the vacated gym space of the old middle school.

He also has dreams of procuring an American Tennis Hall of Fame.

“There isn’t one right now,” Parrott said. “An American Tennis Hall of Fame would be a great way to preserve history, recognize excellence and connect generations.”

There is even a website: www.athof.com.

The website is still under construction and features a grass court Floyd County Commissioner Mark Kuhn built on his property.

“One ideal spot would be Indian Wells (Calif.),” Parrott said of a future ATHOF site, “but I could see something like that coming to northern Iowa.”

Build it and they will come.