Hampton’s Screen keeps going

HU

Screen

Dr. Robert Screen knows how to do a guy a favor.  When former Hampton tennis coach Dr. Herman Nielson asked Screen to be his successor, Screen balked. He was working toward his doctorate degree and finishing that was a priority. Nielson understood, and made it a standing offer for Screen once he completed his coursework.

“He said, ‘Come back. I’ll be waiting for you,’” Screen said. “I did that. I had to do it, because he was one of the finest men I’ve known. I thought I could do it for him for a little while.”

That was 43 years ago.  Over those four-plus decades, Screen has become one of the finest collegiate tennis coaches ever. For his career, Screen’s teams have won 1,068 matches, which helped earn him the honor of the winningest tennis coach in NCAA Division I tennis history.  For that, and his many other accomplishments, Screen was recently inducted into the Black Tennis Hall of Fame.

“It was something I wasn’t expecting,” Screen, now 78 and still teaching classes at Hampton, said. “It was a beautiful surprise to me. I didn’t think anybody recognized [the number of matches won].  And we’ve won over 26 conference championships, and I didn’t think anybody recognized that, either. I am surprised and honored.”

It is a worthy acknowledgment. Prior to competing on the NCAA Division I level, Hampton was a Division II power racking up 22 consecutive Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) conference titles and Division II National Championships in 1976 and 1989 — the only Historically Black College/University (HBCU) to win a national tennis title.

Additionally, Screen has a pair of HBCU National Championships to his credit and three Virginia Collegiate Championships, having defeated Virginia all three times to take that title.

Since joining the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, the Pirates have won eleven conference titles (seven men’s and four women’s), and made an appearance in the 1999 NCAA Division I Tournament — the university’s first. Overall, Dr. Screen’s teams have won 37 conference championships. That’s what is called doing a favor.

“I thought that [coaching] would last a couple of years,” Screen said. “Certainly not 43 years. But I just loved the game. I always have. But it was hard at first.”

Screen’s difficulties were common, at least for everyone who looked like him. He grew up in a staunchly separate and unequal Augusta, Ga. There were no public tennis courts where aspiring blacks could play. So those who wanted to play tennis improvised, with the help of a local entrepreneur.

“There was a black, a Negro man — we were all Negroes back then — who owned a grocery store just like my grandfather did. And decided to build a tennis court, and did it out back behind his store. I learned the game there. It was a clay court he made himself.

“I grew up in a time that just was so different. As Negroes then, we were not tops in any sports. We just were denied the opportunity to play anywhere. Tennis, because of this man, I had that opportunity.  It just gave me more determination to be good in tennis, myself and to have a very good tennis team. And that’s what has happened.”

To do it, he had to — and desperately wanted to — leave Georgia. In doing so he forfeited an academic scholarship to Morehouse to attend another academic black college, the then Hampton Institute.

After meeting with Dr. Nielson, Screen, known for his consistent play, earned a spot on the team. The highlight of his time there was playing this skinny kid from Richmond, Va., that everyone was talking about. Screen played him eight matches and lost seven. Understandably, Screen remembers vividly the one time he beat one of the greatest players in the game, Arthur Ashe.

“I remember that one match we were playing, he stopped me when we changed sides,” Screen said. “He said, ‘Robert, don’t you know how to miss a ball?’ I said, ‘Not today, I don’t!’ He smiled, and I went on to beat him 6-4, 6-4. That was a pretty big deal.”

Screen has come to understand that he is a pretty big deal himself when measured by accolades that have come his way.  Yet he still is wistful about what might have been were minorities given their due in the sport.

“I am sure if all [the records] had happened to a white [coach], it would have been different,” Screen said. “To accomplish what I accomplished, I’ve made no money from it. If I had received all these honors as a white [coach], I’d have a pocket full of money. I’ve received nothing.

“I am very honored what has happened to me over the years. But when you look at it, and you realize you have no money from it, it brings forth a pain, too.  And I ask God, ‘Why, God, why? Couldn’t you just send something to take a vacation with?’ It really has been wonderful. I just am glad I was able to pay [Dr. Nielson] back and make him proud.”