The Texas Tennis Museum and Hall of Fame mourns the loss of Carolyn Lain Moody (Class of 2021) who passed away earlier today.
As the first full-time, paid Executive Director of USTA Texas, and dedicated volunteer to many tennis organizations, Moody left a lasting impact on Texas tennis.
Introduced to the sport as a child in Odessa, Moody continued playing through high school under Coach Bob Mapes. At Midland High School, she held the #1 singles position and lettered all three years. She also played many of the Highway 80 tournaments.
After college at North Texas State and Texas Tech, marriage and motherhood, Moody became very active in the Austin tennis community. She played women’s, mixed doubles and husband/wife leagues and became involved in the early development and expansion of the Austin Women’s Tennis Association that she became President of, as well as developing and promoting the Austin Tennis Foundation and the Capital Area Tennis Association.
Moody organized the Austin area Central Zone Division of the Texas Tennis Association’s (now USTA Texas) Junior Girls Development Program. The goal was to facilitate and implement the skill development, tournament play and subsequent advancement of girls ages 10-18 from local to state and national level competitions. Through both the Texas Girls Youth Development and Junior Wightman Cup programs, these players were ultimately striving to compete in national age division championships of what is now the USTA.
In 1972 she was named to the Texas Tennis Association’s Executive Committee, and six months later was hired as the first full-time paid Executive Director of the organization and its only employee. Its office was in her garage, and from there she managed and supported all operations statewide to include volunteer involvement, staffing, programs, sponsorships, promotions, rankings, tournament scheduling and publications. She also wrote a regular tennis column for the Austin American Statesman newspaper.
During her time as Executive Director, Moody grew the organization to 10,000+ members and set the stage for Texas to become one of the largest USTA sections and one recognized nationwide as the gold standard of many programs. She served on many USTA committees and helped form a partnership with the National Tennis Foundation as well as becoming the Southwest Regional Director of the National Junior Tennis League.
In 2021, Moody joined her sister, Barbara Camp, in the Texas Tennis Hall of Fame. Always willing to lend a hand, Moody immediately became a volunteer, serving on last year's Annual Banquet Committee. She will be deeply missed.
