It has been a big summer in the . Earlier this spring, the new Track was dedicated on campus and now tennis players have something wonderful to celebrate.
On Friday, Sept. 27, the university will dedicate its new Holt Courts at Jeff Green and Family Tennis Center, which will feature an entirely new playing surface and scoreboards as part of a major upgrade to the program鈥檚 facilities.
鈥淲e are very pleased to be able to dedicate these new courts, which are badly needed,鈥 Hamline Athletic Director Alex Focke said. 鈥淲e are very fortunate to have donors who are willing to generously invest their philanthropic dollars for a very worthy project.鈥
The center will feature a new color scheme, scoreboards and a unique swing analysis video system, which is exclusive in the .
Ann Holt, who is the daughter of Hamline graduates Darrel 鈥36 and Elizabeth 鈥36, has furthered her parents鈥 legacy by donating to the university. Darrel Holt captained the 1935 and 1936 Hamline tennis teams, and was a four-year letter winner at the university. The couple met as members of the Hamline Players. Darrel Holt later served as a university trustee and endowed a chair in the Theatre Arts Department in honor of his wife.
She also created the at Hamline in honor of her parents, in addition to numerous other contributions.
Jeff Green and family are the primary benefactors for the new center. He enrolled at Hamline in 1969 and played tennis, eventually going on to start a business called The Merchant of Tennis while still a student. He went on to found US Merchants, a company he still serves as CEO for today. The company has 16 locations throughout the United States and Canada and employs nearly 3,000 people. It is the largest packing and manufacturing company in North America in its product fields. Green won Ernst & Young鈥檚 Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2005 and received his honorary degree from Hamline in 2023.
Jeff and his wife, Marie, co-founded the Lucien Abenhaim Pancreatic Cancer Research Institute through , which helps improve rates of early detection of pancreatic cancer. He is also a member of the Cedars-Sinai and board of governors.
The September 27 ceremony will begin at 4 p.m.
