Former A&M Head Coach Tim Cass inducted into ITA Men's Hall of Fame
May 24, 2011 | Men's Tennis
May 24, 2011
STANFORD, CA - Former Texas A&M men's tennis head coach Tim Cass is one of seven 2011 new inductees into the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Men's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame. The new class will be honored with an enshrinement banquet at Stanford on Wednesday, May 25 at McCall Hall in the Arrillaga Family Sports Center.
Cass was the head coach at Texas A&M from 1997 through 2006 and helped lead the Aggies to the NCAA Championships every season and won the 2000 and 2001 Big 12 Tournament Championships as well as the 2001 regular season Big 12 title. The 2000 and 2001 squads reached as high as No. 4 in the ITA rankings, the highest of any Aggie tennis squad.
Cass was also the head coach at the University of New Mexico from 1991 through 1996 and led the Lobos to five straight Western Athletic Conference (WAC) team titles and the 1995 team reached a school-best No. 6 ITA ranking. Cass currently serves as the senior associate athletic director at New Mexico.
Cass is the only coach in the 2011 class and the other six inductees were all players and include: Simon Aspelin (Pepperdine), Scott Davis (Stanford), Marcel Freeman (UCLA), Jim Grabb (Stanford), Gene Mayer (Stanford), and Jonathan Stark (Stanford).
The Texas A&M tennis tradition is well represented in the ITA Men's Hall of Fame as former Texas A&M head coach David Kent was a 1998 inductee as a coach. Kent is the all-time winningest coach in Texas A&M history with a 316-161 record at Texas A&M from 1979-96. For his entire career, Kent posted an overall 516-223 record in 27 seasons as a head coach.
Current assistant coach Bob McKinley was inducted in 2003 as both a player and a coach at Trinity. As a player, McKinley won an NCAA title, was a four-year All-American and at one time was the No. 1-ranked Junior Tennis Player in the United States. He reached the Round of 16 at Wimbledon in 1973 and reached the doubles semifinals at the U.S. Open in 1972. As Trinity's head coach from 1975-84, he compiled a 219-57 record and his teams reached the NCAA Finals in 1977 and 1979.
Current Texas A&M head coach Steve Denton, who has recorded 99 Aggie coaching wins, led the team to the 2011 Big 12 Championships crown and has led the Aggies to the NCAA Round of 16 the past three years, was inducted into the ITA Hall of Fame in 2008 as a player for Texas. Denton compiled an 85-22 singles record and a 72-18 doubles record while earning All-America honors in 1978. As a professional tennis player, Denton reached the finals of the Australian Open twice and was a member of the United States Davis Cup team in 1982 and 1983.
