The Ashland restaurant owner began the community tournament half a century ago; it returns July 10-13 to Hunter Park

By Peter Finkle for Ashland.News

Do you play tennis? Do you watch tennis?

Then be a part of the 50th anniversary Big Al’s tennis tournament, July 10-13 at Hunter Park.

It all began in 1975. According to Al Carver’s daughter Kathy Sager: “The idea for a tournament came from Dan Jackson, a retired Ashland dentist. Dan and my dad played tennis with several friends and always enjoyed getting together to play doubles. The two of them went for a jog one day (may have been the only time my dad went running!) and Dan proposed the idea of starting a local tennis tournament and Big Al’s Drive In could be the sponsor by giving each entry a free Heymaker! My dad thought it was a great idea. Fifty years later it’s still going!”

Big Al’s grew to become one of the largest community tennis tournaments on the West Coast during the 1980s and 1990s. Mike and Marilyn Horton ran the tournament for 20 years. They regularly had 350 to 400 entrants during those years.

Those of you who are not old-timers in Ashland may be wondering, “How is that possible?”

In 2025, you see only eight public tennis courts in town, all at Hunter Park. Here’s the list of courts in town during the good old days of tennis: Hunter Park, eight courts; Southern Oregon University, 13 courts; Lithia Park, two courts; Helman School, two courts; Ashland Hills Hotel & Suites, two courts. That makes 27 tennis courts that were used. The Hortons began morning matches at 7 a.m. during the first two days of the tournament, to accommodate all of the players.

People came from all over the West Coast

Steve Sacks, who took over running the tournament after the Hortons bowed out, remembers people coming from all over the West Coast. He mentioned entrants from Sacramento, Chico and Redding, California, and Eugene, Bend and Portland. There was even an award for the player who traveled the farthest distance to play, won many times by Beau Toy, who came from Ann Arbor, Michigan. He first played in Big Al’s when he was a No. 1 singles and doubles player at UC Davis in the early 1980s. I guess he had so much fun that he kept coming back even after he had moved to Michigan.

Many people came back again and again. Sharon and Ed Laskos, volunteers extraordinaire for years, put it this way: “We always had a houseful of eight to 12 people who came up from the Bay Area to play from about 1992 to 2010. We had a tent, a trailer and a full house!”

Big Al’s T-shirts

Part of the fun was an original T-shirt design each year and handmade pottery trophies. What to do with old T-shirts? Here’s what Steve Sacks told me. “I was collecting T-shirts. I had a giant box of them from all the tournaments I was involved in. My wife Kelly, for a birthday present, had David Jones’ granddaughter sew them into a big quilt.”

Big Al’s trophies were coveted

The same potter, Al Dockwiller, made the trophies for many years. Because they were handmade, beautiful and unique, it was a big deal to be a winner and receive the trophy.

Jim Hartman was thrilled to win a trophy in 2010. He even shared with me a photo that includes his 2010 trophy, T-shirt, journal entry, and a painting by Jimmy Kolker of Jim and his doubles partner Gary Acheatel.

Here’s how Jim described the intensity of his 2010 finals match. “I was looking over my journal entry which talked about my thoughts before and after the final Big Al’s 3.5 doubles match that Gary Acheatel and I had in 2010. For the final match, we won the first set 6-3, but lost the second set 6-1 because the sun had shifted and we forgot to change our serving side (Gary is left-handed and I’m right). So we were suddenly looking right into the sun. In the final set, Gary said to me:  ‘We have to come to the net. If we don’t, we’re giving them the game. I don’t care if we win or lose, we must come to the net.’ In my journal, I wrote: ‘Gary was instrumental in seeing this! I was so tired, but I just decided to do what he said. In the third set we came alive. My intensity was so great that I felt like I was on the verge of tears.’  We won the third set 6-1 and got the trophy.”

Big Al, the man behind the tournament name

As mentioned in the first paragraph, Big Al Carver agreed to have his restaurant sponsor the tournament when it launched in 1975. He continued to be active for decades. He loved to hand out championship trophies to the winners on the final day of the tournament.

Here’s how John Darling described Big Al in a 2019 Ashland Daily Tidings article soon after Al died. “Over nearly half a century, ‘Big Al’ Carver became an Ashland legend for his big, mustachioed smile, irrepressible support of Grizzly sports, his love of hot-air ballooning, his annual tennis tournament, and a highly successful Big Al’s burger joint, which he opened on North Main Street in 1973. Big Al’s restaurant continues to this day, now with new owners.

Big Al’s Heymaker again

The Hortons added a Heymaker story. “One of the hits of the early tournaments was the coupon on the entry form for a free Heymaker. Big Al did that several years until we found out nonplayers were finding blank entry forms and using them.”

Some of you may be thinking: “Isn’t Peter going to tell us what a Heymaker is?”

Yes, I will. I haven’t had one myself but I found this description from Matt Matthews: “I had plenty of Heymakers (ham-cheese-egg sandwiches) through the years.”

Final funny stories

“One player would only play with the same number on the tennis ball while winning. If he was given Penn 1 balls the first match, he wanted only Penn 1 balls the rest of the tournament.” (from Mike and Marilyn Horton)

Marilyn Horton remembers the time Big Al’s hot-air balloon went rogue. “One year Big Al brought his balloon to the tournament to give people rides while it was tethered to the baseball field fence near the snack bar. The balloon got away from the folks holding it down while unloading and it rose quickly — taking the fence with it!”

Peter Finkle has played at Big Al’s most years since 1992. You can also find him playing at the Hunter Park courts and the Ashland Tennis & Fitness Club courts.