Lee LeClear
Induction Year: 2012
Lee LeClear (1918-1995) was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1918. He graduated high school at Riverside Brookfield High School and attended college at San Diego State, now known as the University of San Diego. He taught himself tennis in Chicago when he was young.
He taught tennis in many places over the years. In Corpus Christi, he taught private lessons. After moving to Houston, he became the Assistant Pro at River Oaks Country Club. He had 30 years of experience with the City of Houston Parks & Recreation. He helped open and manage the MacGregor Park Tennis Center and later moved to open the Southwest Tennis Center in Houston as a Manager and Head Pro. Within months of his death in May of 1995, the Southwest Tennis Center was renamed the Lee LeClear Tennis Center, due to the overwhelming support from the tennis community.
LeClear considered his greatest accomplishment in tennis to be instilling the love of the game of tennis to those whom he came in contact with. He also enjoyed mentoring young tennis pros. His meaningful tennis memories included the Junior Davis Cup, being a charter member of the USPTA, the Bluebonnet Tennis Tournament, coaching University of Houston tennis, opening and managing MacGregor Park Tennis and Southwest Tennis Center, sponsoring junior tennis in Texas and the opportunities he had to mentor countless tennis professionals.
