By Lindsay Ash
IT’S strange how people famous for one thing can become famous for another with a different generation. Good examples include Michael Portillo, now known more for his travel programmes than his time as a member of Parliament, and Gary Lineker, more for presenting Match of the Day and his political views than his football career.
To my generation, Jimmy Hill is known for his chin and football punditry rather than his time playing for Fulham.
I was reflecting on this while watching Wimbledon. If you were to ask a young person now what they thought of Fred Perry, you might get the answer: “I prefer Lacoste” because they would have little knowledge that they were tennis legends and not just mere fashion labels.
So who were these two before they became worn on the breast of polo shirts around the globe?
René Lacoste was part of a golden era for French tennis with Jean Barotra “The Bounding Basque”, Jacques Brugnon and Henri Cochet, collectively known as the Four Musketeers. Lacoste won seven Grand Slam titles – including Wimbledon twice. He was nicknamed the crocodile due to the way he’d eat up opponents, but the US press had dubbed him the “Alligator” due to a bet he won where the prize was an expensive suitcase made of alligator skin. He then had a crocodile motif embroidered on his blazer that he would wear before a match.
In 1933, Lacoste formed La Société Chemise Lacoste, which produced the tennis or polo shirt with the crocodile motif, spawning the fashion brand of today.
Lacoste was also an innovator in tennis, inventing and patenting the first steel racket, marketed in the US by Wilson and popularised by players like Jimmy Connors and Billie Jean King. Lacoste saw himself as an inventor, saying: “Inventor… If I had to put a profession on my business card, that is what I would write. I have invented my whole life.” But his most magnificent comment was: “Without elegance, playing and winning are not enough,” and when one thinks back to the greats like Bestie, Barry John, Tiger Woods, Sobers and Federer, how right he was.
It’s a big leap from French flair and elegance to Stockport, but I am going to make it!
Stockport is not famed for much… The Hopleys, Phil Foden (England’s most overrated footballer), and Needhams…
“Who are Needhams?” you may well ask. Well, you walk over them every day; they made manhole covers, and many still bear the legend “Needhams… Stockport” on them!
Anyway, with that fascinating bit of trivia, I digress. The other claim to fame for Stockport is that it was the birthplace of one Fred Perry.
Perry’s father, who had worked as a cotton spinner and was a strong trade unionist, was elected as an MP, and the family moved to London, where Perry learned to play tennis on the public courts near his home. It was as a table tennis player that Fred first made his mark, becoming the World Champion in 1929. Shortly after this, he began to dedicate his life to tennis, proving a wise decision as he racked up an impressive total of eight Grand Slam wins, including winning Wimbledon three times in
a row.
In those days, tennis was an amateur game, and Perry decided to join the breakaway pro tour, causing him to be ostracised by the British tennis establishment, even to the extent of removing his membership of the All England Club.
Disillusioned, he moved to the US and took out citizenship, and it wasn’t until 1984, when Wimbledon unveiled a statue to him, that the rift healed. He remained an iconic figure with the British public, especially as he led an exciting social life, dating an impressive array of what would now be described as A-list celebrities, including Marlene Dietrich, who he’d pop up and see from time to time.
After the war, Perry began to fashion a different course, producing first sweatbands and then a tennis shirt. The now-iconic laurel wreath logo was the original symbol for Wimbledon, where it was launched in 1952 and was an instant hit, ironically making money from them in the end.
It is strange to think back to my youth as an aspiring player, and the great tennis brands were all British… Slazenger, Dunlop, Perry, even the ladies’ frocks were designed by Teddy Tinling!
Fred Perry will always be an iconic figure of British tennis, but to many others, his shirt will be as important. As Bradley Wiggins said: “You can always remember where you got your first Fred Perry shirt, and for me, I was nine years old.” Mine was at a similar age when I used a felt-tip pen to draw the laurel wreath on my white school shirt before hitting a ball against the wall and beating Laver at Wimbledon. My mum was not impressed, but it did inspire her to buy me a real one!
Lindsay Ash was Deputy for St Clement between 2018 and 2022, serving as Assistant Treasury and Home Affairs Minister under Chief Minister John Le Fondré. He worked in the City of London for 15 years as a futures broker before moving to Jersey and working in the Island’s finance industry from 2000. Feedback is welcome on Twitter
@Getonthelash2.
