Hall of Fame
All too often, Hall of Fame citations are reserved for heroes of the gridiron or the basketball court. Roaring crowds, bouncing cheerleaders, and local news media provide instant identification for the stars in those events. Then there are sports like tennis, where at the college level the crowd consists of coaches, roommates, and now and then, a girlfriend or two. Tennis challenges the player to satisfy his own competitive instincts and to stretch his own performance goals, all without the plaudits of cheering fans. One tennis player who has written records of note into Coe's history is the man we introduce this morning, Dr. Lester B. McAllister, Class of 1942. Dr. McAllister played tennis each year at Coe and captained the team for two years. Even he doesn't know his exact won-loss record for those four years because neither the athletic department nor the Coe Cosmos re- corded results with regularity. But he won and won often. In 1940 and 1942 Les McAllister was the only winner from Coe in matches against Iowa State. In 1941 he was the only winner for Coe in a match against the University of Iowa. After service as a major in the United States Air Force from 1942-46, Les McAllister returned to Coe as an instructor in economics and coach of tennis. In 1948 he won the Cedar Rapids City Tennis Championship and the Gazette said, "Les McAllister is the best tennis player in town." Les McAllister went on to earn his doctorate in economics at the University of Oregon and this year celebrates 30 years as a member of the Beloit College faculty, where he is Professor of Economics and Management. He has also served as a Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin and Professor of Foreign Affairs at the National War College in Washington, D.C. For unquestioned skill in tennis and for dedicated devotion to higher education throughout his career, I am pleased to induct Lester B. McAllister into the Coe Athletic Hall of Fame.
