Who We Are-The Story

Finding Inspiration in Passing it Forward

19 years ago, two guys formed the beginnings of the Urban Racquet Sports Foundation that now leases, operates and maintains the Garber Courts. It was originally called the Urban Youth Tennis Foundation, and with occasional chats after playing tennis, thus began their passion and mission to reach and mentor at-risk urban youth with tools they both enjoyed.

Saginaw natives and avid tennis players, Ken LeCureux and Pharrington Douglass met in the late 90’s on the tennis courts at the then Four Flags Racquet Club. Both of them had grown up playing tennis as young boys on the Garber Courts, Ken in the 60’s and Pharrington in the 70’s. Back then the city recreation department had tennis programming under the guidance of Arthur Hill’s Coach George Purdy. The guys excelled at tennis and at winning city tournaments, moving on to high school and collegiate teams.

They started the current organization in the winter of January, 2006, at an abandoned school gymnasium, the old downtown Civitan Center, with the help of a grant from a local foundation to buy indoor portable nets, racquets and balls. Setting up nets on the gymnasium floor, they began working with kids every Monday evening, 5-8 pm; accompanied with the help of some volunteers, Sarge Harvey, Joe Madison, Laurie Howell, Jan LeCureux. Without any marketing or recruitment plan, kids in the surrounding neighborhood would hear about what was happening and just show up.

Back then the city had a block grant opportunity for start-up organizations’ expenses, for which they applied, only to be the runner-up; whereupon, looking at each other, Ken said, let’s forge ahead and do this ourselves…they were off and running. A few weeks later they incorporated as a nonprofit 501c3 charitable organization, receiving IRS approval in a record two months. Volunteer run, they continue to apply for grants and have fundraising events to pay for expenses.

Making contact through their individual memberships in the United States Tennis Association (USTA), they became a Community Tennis Association (CTA) chapter, and then added the National Junior Tennis and Learning (NJTL) chapter to their programming. CTA’s receive information assistance from the USTA in organizing community programs; with the NJTL, originally started by a tennis great, Arthur Ashe, geared toward helping inner city at-risk kids, including reading programming. To paraphrase a quote from Ashe: …using tennis to get their attention and teaching them things more important than tennis, lives can be changed and spirits reclaimed.

Key, to not only the numerous benefits of tennis discipline, was their passion for a ministry to share Christian love. Incorporating “chalk-talk” time after each on-court session gave them the opportunity to focus on kid’s hearts, teaching them character qualities from a biblical perspective along with a book reading component; and of course, that time always included snacks. Tennis, and now pickleball, remain the hook, with character building the goal to have an impact on youth.

Under the guidance of Pharrington on-court, a certified tennis professional, the summers had them primarily using the city’s Garber Courts for their programming, with occasional trips into several city elementary schools during “after school periods”. Recreation centers’ gymnasiums, like the Cathedral District Center and Buena Vista Center, were utilized for winter programming after moving on from the old Civitan Center.

During those years as many as a dozen tennis friends would provide volunteer help with the 50-60 kids in the summer camps, with the Midland Tennis Center providing instructor support as needed. One tennis friend was so pleased with the program, he provided logo’d t-shirts for every kid. Over the years they’ve also been able to take kids of varying ages and ethnicities on field trips to other tennis programs and tournaments. A popular annual bus trip was to the Dow Tennis Tournament where the professional tennis tour ladies give talk sessions during free pizza time.

In 2010, they started annual in-service training workshops by supplying ten city physical education teachers each with special in-door tennis equipment designed for youth, including 50 kid-sized racquets, 100 special balls, instruction manuals, and 2 travel bags to carry everything in. The equipment costs were paid for through a grant from a local private foundation. Thus began a multi-year in-service process with the teachers to reach the 4,000 kids in the city elementary school system. Budget cuts eventually eliminated some physical education programming, but lately it’s been revived. That type of outreach re-ignited a dream to refocus on the old, deteriorated Garber Courts.

In those early years, with the city’s fiscal budget challenges; beginning in 2004, no monies were available for a recreation department. The Foundation continued to operate and maintain the run-down, deteriorated Garber Courts. During that time, they and the city also established a leasing arrangement of the property, in an exemplary municipal/nonprofit collaboration. Of the original 12 courts, six of which were unplayable, the Foundation converted those courts into a grassy lawn, while continuing to maintain the remaining six courts the best they could.

In 2010, the Foundation received a $30,000 grant from a Midland corporation to refurbish the remaining courts with crack patching and re-painting. Designed to last 3-4 years, they were able to get nine years out of it before the cracks and surface were making the courts unsafe and unplayable. So, the dream began to blossom again about building something new.

In August of 2019, Ken exclaimed, “Okay, it's either now or never…it’s time to start putting budgets and a plan together.” They had consultants come in and evaluate the existing courts, confirming they were irreparable, and needed to be ripped out, excavate to 2-3 feet, and start from scratch.

Starting initially with the idea of only building 8 tennis courts and clubhouse (8 are needed for high school tennis matches in Michigan) the price estimates came in at one million dollars. But after playing a little pickleball, Ken began talking with out-state locations, who heartedly encouraged its consideration. So, thinking about jumping on the fast-growing game of pickleball, the project expanded to 16 courts. The added plus is that a pickleball court is like a small 36-foot youth-training tennis court, and with paddles and slow-moving pickleballs, it helps aid the learning process for the youth camps.

Ken had visited friends in New York City’s Central Park and liked seeing people playing backgammon and chess, thinking it would be cool to have a couple stations like that around the courts where adults could come and relax while being part of a recreational activity, particularly with kids around.

However, when the construction bids were gathered it floored them, coming in around $2 million. With no taxpayer money involved, they needed to fundraise the whole $2 million!

Putting together the usual phone-calling and arm-twisting campaign about the community benefits, raised almost a million dollars, with one local foundation leading the way with an early large contribution. Then Covid hit, causing a loss of momentum. Things slowed way-down, and people were busy coping with understanding what the future would hold.

A few months later, in September 2020, Ken had the idea of approaching businesses for permanent naming rights on a court, at $50,000 paid over five years. Several businesses and individuals signed on, and other foundations began stepping up; and the remaining million was raised by December 2020. The well-attended ground-breaking ceremony and construction began April, 2021, for the next six months. (By the way, there are still two naming courts available.)

A huge, special grand-opening in the Spring of 2022, accompanied with tennis and pickleball exhibitions, was attended by 100’s of friends and donors, with local, state and national dignitaries speaking. The visions and dreams had come to fruition!

Since then, with an annual budget of $85,000, again supported by donors, grants, leagues, and tournaments there have been many happenings: The foundation has introduced hundreds of kids from local schools and Boys and Girls Clubs to tennis and pickleball, followed by “chalk-talk time” and STEM classes; the facility hosts the Saginaw United Tennis Team’s practices and matches; pickleball tournaments have raised money for various charitable causes. The mission and passion is impacting the physical health of youth and adults!

As with any worthy goal, there have been stepping-stones building on each little success. From the old Civitan Center in 2006, where it seemed to them like, “ok, this is kind of fun”, to…reaching and mentoring 100’s more kids with life-development. The kids are watching, listening, and absorbing all the time, and when those kinds of seeds take root, community betterment happens. They’ve had kids get excited about college and other career endeavors. One student received a full-ride tennis scholarship to a university. Some have become engineers or teachers and come back to say hello; it’s heart-warming to see these kids grow up and do life-changing things. Whether it’s tennis or pickleball, the Foundation’s mission is to enrich the kids’ lives.

The Future

Continue expanding the summer and winter camps to reach more youth, including collaborating further with other youth organizations, and Saginaw schools
Develop more tennis and pickleball learning camps for adults, promoting physical exercise
Create more local leagues & tournaments for revenue support for our youth mission
Revive and host the historical state-wide amateur tennis tournaments held here years ago
Connect with businesses and restaurants to promote local tourism during tournaments
Establish USTA and USAPickleball sanctioned tournaments, including a professional tournament
Host a handicap tennis and pickleball event
Host a collegiate tennis tournament of several colleges
Partner with the public school system with recess and after school programming

Who We Are Anchor

Yesteryear

Garber Courts Origin

Established in 1950, the original Garber Tennis Courts, named after the benefactor "Ike" Garber and his family, have been an integral part of downtown Saginaw for over 70 years.

Guy S. “Ike” Garber, Jr., was born in Saginaw, Michigan, March 3, 1920, to Guy and Hazel Garber, and passed away September 24, 2012. He became a life-long tennis player and supporter of the sport. Ike’s first exposure to tennis was when a local family built a private court near Linwood Beach where Ike and his family spent their summer vacations. In the Fall of 1933, Ike asked his father if he could join the Saginaw Tennis Club, alongside the Saginaw River. The cost of membership was $5. The following year Ike won the Saginaw City Boy’s Championship. He and Saginaw’s renowned poet, Theodore Roethke, played regularly.

Ike attended Arthur Hill High School and twice won the Class A State Championship. He received a scholarship at the University of Miami (Florida) where he roomed with Pancho Segura, one of America’s greatest tennis players. Ike and Pancho became best friends and tennis partners. Together and individually they won several tournaments. In 1947, at the National Intercollegiate Championships, Ike and Pancho lost to Jimmy Evert, father of tennis great Chris Evert. Throughout his competitive playing days, Ike crossed paths with some of the legends of tennis, including Pancho Gonzales, Jack Kramer, and Jimmy Evert.

Ike joined the Marines during World War II and after the fighting ended in the Pacific, found himself in Peking, China, where he met and befriended George Chang, the champion Chinese tennis player. China’s best could never beat this young man from Saginaw.

When Ike returned from the war, he noted that the City of Saginaw had no public facilities for
tennis. Working with his father and other civic leaders, the Garber family was instrumental in providing a special gift to the citizens of Saginaw by building what has become known to generations of tennis players in the region as “Garber Courts,” a 12-court complex near Ojibway Island.

As an adult, Ike continued his outstanding career by winning three consecutive Michigan State Men’s titles and by undertaking various opportunities in his hometown to generate interest and support for the game he loved. In the early 1960’s, Ike invited his friend Pancho Segura to visit Saginaw for a clinic and exhibition match played at the former South Intermediate School tennis courts, which helped considerably to promote the game of tennis in the area.

Again, in the 1970’s Ike and Pancho teamed up to put together a charity tennis event in Saginaw that tennis fans in the area will always remember. It brought to Saginaw for an exhibition match, a then relatively unknown young player by the name of Jimmy Conners. These events were festive, well-attended occasions that underscore the unparalleled contribution that Ike and his family have made to the game of tennis.

Garber Courts Origin Anchor

The Cause

Finding Inspiration in Every Youth

The Organization and Mission

The Urban Racquet Sports Foundation is a 501c3 charitable nonprofit organization that has reached thousands of urban youth, with an emphasis on under-served areas, since formation in 2006. Along with a corporate board is an active advisory counsel. Through nationally recognized instructional methods, gifted teachers, and SafeSport SafePlay certification, their mission is to use tennis and pickleball as tools to mentor youth in structured after-school and summer programs. The mission: Teach character qualities, promote reading, nutrition, healthy life-long sports and exercise. Provide team-building and competition activities, including high school and collegiate opportunities. Provide love and encouragement for future aspirations through positive role-models.

Why Tennis & Pickleball?

Lifetime sports that promote healthy exercise, helping to develop hand-eye coordination, balance and body coordination, speed, strength, flexibility and agility.
A professionally acknowledged vehicle for mentoring youth and develop skills like responsibility, self-confidence, anger management, sportsmanship, problem-solving, discipline and work ethic.
Youth who play tennis get better grades, have college aspirations, and are more community- minded (For more detailed data please see the USTA Foundation's Website)
Both tennis and pickleball are more inclusive of special populations than other sports.

"Our idea is to use tennis as a way to gain and hold the attention of young people in the inner cities so that we can teach them about matters more important than tennis. Through tennis, lives can be changed and spirits reclaimed."

-- Arthur Ashe, Days of Grace