The first trophy was a coffee mug. Tape covered the mug’s logo, a handwritten label declaring the champion of “mixed doubles 1959, Oak Bluffs.” Stuck inside were two mini plastic tennis racquets.
The trophy was Lincoln Pope Jr.’s idea, the prize for an impromptu round-robin tennis tournament at Niantic Park. In 1959 there were only three couples competing, but in the ensuing years the tournament — which became known as the Oak Bluffs Tennis Club — swelled to accommodate hundreds of people.
Each year into the mid-1990s, the tennis club hosted an annual tournament on Labor Day weekend, assembling the Black community at Niantic Park for a packed weekend of tennis playing and socializing.
The tradition ended about 30 years ago, but this summer long-time seasonal Vineyarder Gatsby Coram and his wife Donella Coram are hoping to revive the tradition. They also plan to incorporate a philanthropic element to the club, supporting tennis playing for children of color on the Island.
John Patterson, winner of senior singles division in 1982.
— Alison Shaw
“I look to carry on that tradition of fellowship, the 40-year legacy that was already built,” said Mr. Coram. “But the goal for me is tennis with a purpose, and what I’m looking to do after every tournament is provide some type of scholarship for children on the Island.”
Mr. Coram’s father and aunt used to play tennis on Island with Lance and Leland Pope, sons of the tennis club founders: Lincoln Pope Jr. and his wife, Gloria. When Mr. Coram connected with the Pope brothers in the fall of 2025, the gears started turning.
“I was always looking for an opportunity to extend the summer a bit further,” said Mr. Coram, an avid tennis player himself. He grew up playing at Niantic Park, and recently bought a home in Oak Bluffs.
With Lance Pope’s blessing, Mr. Coram has started planning but still needs to hammer out several details, including the location and the structure of the tournament.
He hopes to continue hosting the tournament at Niantic Park, but is also talking to Farm Neck Tennis Club and East Chop Tennis Club to secure courts for Labor Day weekend.
Among Mr. Coram’s priorities was also connecting with former members of the club to hear their stories, collect photos and reconstruct the history of the Oak Bluffs Tennis Club. That history started in 1959 with the triumphant coffee mug and three couples: Lewis and Patricia Downing, Bill and Laura Hayling, and the Popes.
“They were just playing like they normally do every day during the summer,” said Lance Pope. “Meanwhile, in the middle of the tournament, people were coming up, driving by, walking by and saying, ‘What are you guys doing?…Can we play?’”
With the impromptu tournament already underway, the Popes agreed to reconvene the next year with anyone who was interested.
The tournament grew from there. Mr. Pope recalled selling sodas and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to the grownups, waiting until he could finally take part in the action. He won the boy’s doubles tournament one year with the Haylings’ son, Leslie Hayling.
Leslie Hayling left, and Lance Pope hold the boy’s doubles championship trophies, circa late 1960s.
— Courtesy of Lance Pope
Mr. Pope didn’t hang on to his doubles tournament trophy, but he does have the original won by his parents. The taped-over coffee mug sits on the shelf in his living room.
The tennis club was mostly a social organization, former members told the Gazette. The club hosted a celebration at the end of Labor Day weekend and organized other social events as the years went on.
But Mr. Pope also recalled the annual tournament being an informal motivation for people to get on the court — especially as attendance grew into the hundreds.
“Everybody just saw what was happening, and wanted to know how to play,” he said. “The tournament gave them the inspiration to do that.”
According to former club president Lawrence Smith, the junior tournament in the ‘80s accommodated a “new wave of young people who had discovered Oak Bluffs.”
Mr. Coram hopes to support yet another new generation of tennis players by hosting lessons and clinics alongside the tournament, with the ultimate goal of getting more kids of color playing tennis.
“There are a lot of institutions that are looking for kids of color to participate in the more non-traditional sports, if you will,” said Mr. Coram.
Tennis is a relatively accessible sport, requiring just a court, some basic equipment and a partner to “learn and love the sport,” he added.
Mr. Coram said he is in touch with both the American Tennis Association and the United States Tennis Association with the goal of establishing partnerships. In particular, he hopes to contribute to the USTA’s goal of “35 by ‘35:” making 35 million new tennis players by the year 2035.
“They can’t reach that number without black and brown people playing tennis, and introducing people to the sport of tennis,” said Mr. Coram. “If I can help with a small piece of that, even if it’s just a new pipeline for the Vineyard…I can say that I helped steward these new players into the game of tennis.”
Two of those new players are Mr. Coram’s own children who, at three and four years old, have already started to pick up racquets. It’s reminiscent of Mr. Pope’s own introduction to the sport, in the nascent years of the tennis club.
“My dad handed us a tennis racquet and said, ‘Here, have fun,’” Mr. Pope recalled. “That was the only lesson we ever had.”