By BOB TOMPKINS
Kay McDaniel, who carried her childhood dream of playing tennis to stardom in the sport at the collegiate and professional levels and then led a free youth summer tennis clinic for 31 years, died Friday at age 67 after a long illness.
Funeral arrangements are pending, but a funeral service will be in Cleveland, Tenn., and the burial will be in her hometown of Shreveport. Her older brother John and his wife are Alexandria residents who often hosted McDaniel in visits to Cenla, where she developed friendships inside and outside the tennis circuit.
A three-time All-American at LSU, and LSU’s first tennis All-American, McDaniel was once ranked No. 1 in the nation as an amateur. She played the No. 1 singles position for LSU before going on to realize her ultimate dream of competing at tennis’ Grand Slams for six years against legendary players such as Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, and Steffi Graf. McDaniel rose to the top 30 in the world in singles and held a top 20 world ranking in doubles.
She competed six times in the U.S. Open, four times at Wimbledon and three times in the French Open. She advanced three rounds at Wimbledon in her first appearance.
At LSU, she was an NCAA singles semifinalist, ranked No. 2 in doubles nationally and made the Junior Federation Cup Team for three years. She never lost a set in high school, at Captain Shreve, winning state Class 4A singles and doubles titles there for three straight years. In 1986 she got the Concord British Airways Award for having the “Fastest Serve in Women’s Tennis.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Kay and her family,” said LSU tennis coach Taylor Fogleman in an LSU news release. “She was one of the most outstanding players in this program’s history. She will be dearly missed.”
McDaniel was for 26 years a professor at Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn., in the health, exercise science and secondary education department. She retired from Lee in 2023. For her last five years, she advised Lee students by helping them find their strengths and gifts and matched them with their majors and potential career paths. She also coached students on how to successfully overcome obstacles. She wrote her first of two books in 2002, “Serving the Master,” in which she shared how God gave her the strength to live with two serious diseases.
McDaniel suffered from a variety of health problems for much of her adult life, most notably lupus and Addison’s disease.
At age 11, McDaniel purchased her first tennis racquet with Green Stamps after collecting 5,000 stamps to obtain it. Her mother sewed all her tennis clothes until age 15 when her achievements earned her tennis’ top sponsorships (Fila, Tail, and Nike) that lasted throughout her career.
McDaniel wrote a children’s book, “Be a Dream Chaser,” in 2022, and it sold out, and she published a second edition in 2023. She described it as “a whimsical, colorful hardback book that contains some of my most popular stories.”
During her clinics, McDaniel, who gave Christian and motivational speeches around the country, shared her inspiring stories of how she overcame difficult obstacles in sports and in life.
She described her annual summer tennis camp as “an intimate, family-strong community,” noting she knew most of her instructors for an average of 10 years, starting as participants.
“We are connected by a fierce passion to present the love of God through tennis,” she said. “We love the kids who attend and each other. Every year, about half of the attendees will be first timers to my clinics. Not only do these participants learn to play a sport that can last a lifetime, but they learn that God’s eternal love lasts longer than a lifetime.”
McDaniel was a member of the Southern Tennis Hall of Fame, the Tennessee Tennis Association Hall of Fame, the Ark-La-Tex Sports Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Tennis Hall of Fame.
Two highlights of her esteemed years on the tour include playing on national TV at the U.S. Open and splitting sets with Yvonne Goolagong and reaching the singles round of 32 at Wimbledon.
McDaniel achieved All-American acclaim at LSU from 1976-78, reaching the semifinals two consecutive years and being named to the USTA Jr. Federation Cup team, which at the time was made up of the top eight amateur women in the nation. Playing the national 21 and under circuit, she was listed No. 1 nationally in the 1978 USTA 21 and under rankings.
Starting her tennis career in the Louisiana Tennis Association, McDaniel was ranked No. 1 in the state in Girls’ 14s, 16s, and 18s for six consecutive years. In addition, she won the prestigious Southern Junior Closed Championship in Girls’ 14s, 16s and 18s and was ranked No. 1 in the South in each of those age divisions.
Highlights of her tennis career include teaming with Pam Shriver and Kathy Jordan in the Maureen Connolly Brinker Championships on the USA team which defeated Great Britain in 1982. McDaniel turned pro in 1979 and shortly afterward, played in Wimbledon for the first time where she reached round of 32 in singles, falling to Betty Stove, who reached the finals that year.
In 1983, McDaniel played in the USTA National Mother-Daughter Doubles Championship with her mother, Frances McDaniel, and they reached the finals. As a result, they each received a coveted USTA silver ball, emblematic of reaching the finals of a USTA national championship tournament.
McDaniel has two USTA gold balls for winning national championship events and two USTA silver balls.
She called the silver ball she won for the Mother-Daughter tournament one of her most prized possessions.