Ray Benton Mr. Tennis CEO of JTCC

Published: March 5, 2019, 4:21 p.m.

b'Ray Benton on the current state of Tennis~\\n\\n"A lot more to be done. We\'ve gotta rebuild the base of our sport. I mean, tennis participation\'s been going down in the United States for 40 years. It\'s ridiculous."\\n\\nRay Benton - Mr. Tennis - CEO of Junior Tennis Championship Center (JTCC)\\n\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tThis is Andy Ockershausen, and this is Our Town. I\'m welcoming an old friend who\'s not old. He\'s a young man. He\'s the CEO of the Junior Tennis Championship Center in College Park, Maryland, but before that, he was Ray Benton and will always be Ray Benton, Mr. Tennis, to me. Ray, welcome to Our Town.\\nRay Benton:\\tThank you Andy. Great to see you.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tWell, you know, you\'ve done so much, Ray, in your career and realized that you\'re from Iowa. I keep wondering, how did you get connected with all the people you got connected with in Washington? You went to school there. You were born there in Iowa?\\nRay Benton:\\tNo, but I lived there since I was eight years old.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tIs that it?\\nRay Benton:\\tI wish you\'d say Iowa with a bit of respect. You\'re very degrading.\\nIowa Undergrad and Law School | Vietnam | Wharton Business School\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tI remember State Fair was a great movie about Iowa. Now how did you get to Pennsylvania, to Wharton?\\nRay Benton:\\tWell, I grew up in Iowa City, where the University is, of course. My parents were actually professors there.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tWow.\\nRay Benton:\\tAnd so I went to undergraduate and law school there, and then I decided that I\'d rather not go to a place called Vietnam. So I went to business school at Wharton and got drafted right out of there.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tDid your time anyway.\\nRay Benton:\\tI did my two years.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tBut the war was winding down, I\'m sure.\\nRay Benton:\\tNo, no, no, no.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tIt was still hot when you-\\nRay Benton on serving in Army as Legal Clerk in Alabama during Vietnam War \\nRay Benton:\\tI was on orders for Vietnam as an infantry rifleman in 1967, which is like a death sentence, but I was very fortunate I had been working as a legal clerk in the legal office at Fort McClellan in Anniston, Alabama.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tAlabama, yeah.\\nRay Benton:\\tAnd I was waiting for my commission in the JAG, and all of a sudden, pending my security clearance, so all of a sudden I was on orders as an infantry rifleman, which I had just taken advanced infantry training. And my commission to JAG came through, which had been four years, and I said, "I really don\'t wanna spend four years, and I really don\'t wanna go to Vietnam as an infantry rifleman." And my boss, who was the judge advocate said, "God, I\'d like to keep you." I said, "Why don\'t you make me a legal clerk?" \'cause I was an infantry rifleman just-\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tThat was your MOS, right?\\nRay Benton:\\tMy MOS, and 11B10. And I was just waiting for my order to become an officer.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tRight.\\nRay Benton:\\tAnd so he looked in the Regs, and he found 90 days on the job training, I can make you a legal clerk. And I had been there four months. So he made me a legal clerk, which got me off the orders, and I dropped my commission.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tDid you ever get the commission?\\nRay Benton:\\tNo, no. I dropped it because I didn\'t wanna spend four years. So by then, I\'d been in for, what? Four, eight months, so I can get it out as a enlisted man for another 16 months.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tAnd you did?\\nRay Benton:\\tI had a great time.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tIn Alabama, or they move you around?\\nRay Benton:\\tNo, no. I was in Alabama the whole time. I\'d go to work at five in the morning, be done at one in the afternoon.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tAnd play golf.\\nSide jobs while in Army in Alabama - Tennis Pro and Subsitute Business Law Professor\\nRay Benton:\\tAnd after one o\'clock, I was the varsity tennis coach at Jacksonville State University. I was the head Tennis Pro at the Anniston, Gadsden Country Clubs and a substitute Business Law Professor.'