The Manker Patten Tennis Club has a big celebration planned for Oct. 15, two decades in the making.
Culminating in a 6:30 dinner with live music from The Beaters at the riverside complex, the all-day Caswell Classic will celebrate the club's 20 years of progress under the leadership of general manager and director of tennis Ned Caswell.
"We're going to do a monster blowout starting at 8 a.m.," said Kevin Donovan, the head tennis professional and assistant director of tennis.
"It's a total team effort from the board and the staff and the members to honor Ned for his 20 years of service and all he's meant to the club and the tennis community of Chattanooga. And honoring him for one day is just a small token of what he means to us - with his character, his family, his dedication to his work and the countless hours of devotion he's given to his students and the people around him."
The dinner program will include special speakers, Donovan said, and it costs $40 a person. Anyone interested in attending needs to call Maara at the club at 266-6767 by Oct. 12.
The daylong schedule will include a variety of tennis and fitness classes and competition, including members-only and member-guest LiveBall Classic, Classic Cardio and round-robin traditional tennis. Each will be for a fee of $20, $25 for a guest, and they will be held rain or shine since the club's 20 courts include seven indoors. Proceeds from those activities will go to the Humane Society and Teamlukefoundation.com, Donovan said.
With acknowledgment of the highlight football game of the day, Manker Patten's televisions will be showing Alabama-Tennessee.
Along with club staff and members, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga tennis players will be volunteering in helping with the events that Saturday.
The day before, Friday from 4:30 to 5:15 p.m., legendary local fitness guru Randy Webb will be leading a tennis-specific fitness class as part of the Caswell tribute. It's free.
"We are expecting 100 players," Donovan said.
"I think this is a wonderful event," said Zan Guerry, the prominent club member for whom its renovated clubhouse is named. "Sometimes we don't take time to celebrate - we get so busy - but this will be a great time to celebrate Ned's wonderful 20 years and the tremendous 20 years for all of Manker Patten in terms of facilities, membership and what's offered.
"We want to remind people that Manker Patten already had a tremendous heritage - with people like Jerry Evert, Bill Tym and Tommy Bartlett - and its transformation under Ned has added greatly to that heritage."
Board member Brandon Deering grew up in Athens, Tenn, and has been at the club only about five years, but he's been impressed not only with what he's seen firsthand but what he's heard about Caswell's leadership from longtime members.
"We had great leadership before, but Ned has really brought Manker Patten to a place not just for great tennis but a club where families can come and do a lot of things," Deering said. "Family is very important to him and also to the club, and his own family members - (wife) Wendy and his daughters - give significant time to the club as well."
Daughters Samantha and Harper Caswell starred in tennis at Baylor School and now are in All-Southern Conference careers respectively at UTC and Furman, where Ned was an All-American and an NCAA quarterfinalist. They just turned 21.
"They were a year old when I got this job. Their entire life we've been at Manker Patten," Ned said.
"When (predecessors) Essie and Tommy Bartlett retired, I went to a party for them. They had been here 18 years, and I remember thinking, 'How could somebody stay at one club for 18 years?' Now that it's been 20 for me, I realize how quickly 20 years have gone by, and I can't imagine being anyplace else."
Caswell was 32 at the time and recently had taken a position at a club in Spartanburg, S.C., after giving up his Anderson College coaching job to be more settled for his expanding family. As he said Monday, he wasn't looking to relocate, but the UTC coach at the time, Jim Thompson, recommended the former Furman star to the committee searching for Bartlett's successor.
Dr. DeWayne McCamish, who was on that committee with Jack Webb and Connie Muldoon and was the club's incoming president, said Thompson was someone in whom they had interest, but he admitted he was considering another college job (Virginia Tech, as it turned out) and suggested they talk to Caswell.
He became the last of the 44 people interviewed for the position, McCamish said. That group was trimmed to 10 and then to four, and Caswell got the job, although he now modestly says he was too young for it then.
"The boards have been great," Caswell said about the support and cooperation he's received through the 20 years.
"Ned truly had a vision for Manker Patten," McCamish said. "No one person can enact a vision by himself, but he also was a good leader. He had great leadership abilities with vision. No one who remembers what the club was then doesn't appreciate what it has now. It's unparalleled.
"And it's not just facilities. He also had a vision for a junior program. I think that's one of the strongest things he's done, and the teaching pros he's put around him, with his concept. And he is absolutely one of the most sensitive, caring, giving individuals I have ever known. He truly cares about others and is not afraid to work hard to make things happen."
In addition to Caswell's organizational skills, Guerry praised the playing ability that has earned Caswell 15 USTA national singles and doubles titles and World 35s championships in 1999 and 2001 and also his coaching philosophy and coaching ability.
"And he enjoys the game. He has a fun time in tennis and just in general," Guerry said.
Manker Patten expects great fun as a result on Oct. 15.
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.