In or on court, truth always to your advantage 

   It’s amazing how far the truth can stretch you. 

   Forty-five years ago Hugh Thomson was a teenager on his dad’s wheat and wool farm in Australia. Out of the blue, a friend who shot kangaroos on his dad’s farm suggested he apply for a tennis scholarship at Mississippi State University.

   “Several Australians got scholarships there. You can, too,” he said. 

   Thomson wondered how much a farm boy would have to embellish to get a scholarship in America.

   “You don’t need to lie. Just be honest and list all the tournaments you’ve won,” his friend assured him.

   So Thomson listed all his victories. For four years, he’d won every high school tournament he ever played, and since he started playing at age six, he’d captured every city tournament he’d ever entered. His two-page resume was quite impressive. And quite true.

   The only thing is, the nearest town to his boyhood farm had a population of 14 and he lived seven miles away. Except for his high school competitions, every tournament he’d ever won was against a bunch of local farmers who got together to play on Sunday afternoons.

   “We had eight clay courts made out of ant hills. The ants dug up the clay and made mounds. Then we cut off the mounds and smoothed the clogs into tennis courts,” said Thomson. “And while we played the kangaroos would be going by. You had to be careful you didn’t run into one.”

   He noted that the ants and the clay in Australia are different from any we have here in the United States. And so is the concept of kangaroo court, I thought.
Thomson entered Mississippi State in 1965 on a full scholarship. “Back then, they just assumed if you were from Australia, you had to be good,” he said. This never would have happened in the land down under. 

   “In Australia, if you weren’t from the right club, you didn’t make the team. I beat a lot of people who made the team, but I was never selected.”

   In 1977, after competing with the likes of Stan Smith and Jimmy Connors, he went back to Australia, but still couldn’t make their team. He returned to the states and piled up more pages of victories, including three world championships. His name never became a household word like Rod Laver, whom he once played. But while others retired, Thomson, now a tennis pro at Ansley Golf Club, worked on his follow through. He is now ranked number one in the nation in his age division.

   This weekend he will travel to Turkey to compete for another world title. He says in all honesty that recent surgery has slowed him down a bit. But no matter what lies in his court, his honesty has always worked to his advantage. 

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