By: Mark Kuhn
Wimbledon stands alone at the top
There is no other place like it
Green grows the grass here
Its courts impeccable
Its tennis whites pristine
Its traditions timeless
Wimbledon’s Centre Court is considered by many the most famous piece of grass in the world. It is the epicenter of the tennis universe every British summer when all roads lead to London SW19 for The Championships, Wimbledon.
I’ll never forget the first time I laid my eyes on this magical place.
June 11, 2012 - A Day to Remember
The day I’ve been longing for since Head Groundsman Designate Neil Stubley invited me to intern with the Wimbledon groundstaff during the build-up to The Championships has finally arrived.
It also happens to be my wife Denise’s birthday. Denise’s involvement in my passion for Wimbledon is immeasurable. She is, and always will be, my Queen.
It’s a short walk from our rented flat to High Street, the main drag in Wimbledon Village. Following the signs, I turn right at the roundabout across the street from the Dog & Fox pub and head down the hill on Church Road. In ten minutes I arrive at the south end of the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC).
A hop and a skip later brings me to Main Gate 5 where I peer through the wrought iron fence at Centre Court. Neil Stubley has my credentials waiting for me and after a security check of my bag, I’m in.
I’m greeted by Senior Groundsman William ‘Will’ Brierly who leads me to the groundstaff quarters, a place called the ‘bivvy.’ (Will writes a Twitter page with thousands of followers. He invites you to tweet @wimbogroundsman.) Will introduces me to Head Groundsman Eddie Seaward, the longest serving head groundsman in Wimbledon history, who welcomes me to the AELTC.
Will then introduces me to Deputy Head Groundsman Grant Cantin and the three of us get acquainted over a spot of tea. Will and Grant lead me on an all-encompassing, two-hour tour of the grounds of the AELTC.
At long last we stroll down St. Mary’s Walk and enter the Competitors Complex, where Grant turns to me and says, “Are you ready to take the finalist’s walk to Centre Court?”
I am speechless as we walk past the pictures of past champions and down the stairs to the Championship trophy case where the Ladies and Gentlemen’s Singles Championship trophies are kept.
Grant opens the door and there it is, Centre Court, the hallowed ground of Wimbledon I have been dreaming about for 50 years. I am awestruck in its beauty. I don’t want to step on it, so I kneel on one knee and touch it with my fingers. To be there in the silence of this tennis cathedral with two of its caretakers is an absolute honor.
Our next stop is the AELTC offices where I am introduced to AELTC Secretary Martin Guntrip. I thank Martin for his massive generosity and we speak of our mutual friend L. Jon Wertheim, senior writer for Sports Illustrated and Tennis Channel contributor. It is Martin, Jon and Neil who are most responsible for me being there and fulfilling my life-long dream.
We then head to the practice courts where I meet Neil Stubley and thank him for inviting me to intern with the ‘grass court boys.’ My first day at Wimbledon is now complete. I can’t wait until I return tomorrow.
By: Sarah Edworthy, Wimbledon Social Media
Every day Mark Kuhn delivers the cooler box filled with ice to Centre Court. He follows up by bringing the towel allocation to the players’ chairs. As a volunteer court attendant at The Championships, the 65-year-old corn and soybean farmer from Iowa is living a dream that began in 1960 when he listened to BBC World Service broadcasts with his grandfather Albert Bramer.
“One day when I was a ten-year-old boy, we discovered Wimbledon on his short wave radio and it lit a passion,” he says, walking towards Centre Court in the green polo shirt worn by the team of court attendants, explaining on the way past hanging boxes of petunias and visitors sipping Pimm's that it was the British accent of Dan Maskell that appealed back in the 1960s, in partnership with the colourful commentary of the former American player Jack Kramer.
“It wasn’t so much the play that fascinated me but the Queen’s English call of the game, the way they kept score and all the tradition they talked about. After that, when I did the chores on the cattle feed lot, I dreamt about building a grass tennis court that resembled Wimbledon’s Centre Court.”
The boyhood dream never died. By coincidence, a farm in Iowa was the fictional setting for the 1989 film, Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner.
If a mythical farmer in his home state could carve a baseball field from a cornfield, Kuhn reasoned, why couldn’t he build a replica Centre Court for real? A friend’s premature death made him see life is short; it was time to act on his dream. He researched turf grass management at Iowa State University and made plans for construction, which got underway in July 2002.
Supported by his wife Denise and sons Mason and Alex, Kuhn’s labour of love produced a whimsical copy of Centre Court – complete with purple and green colour scheme, replica wooden Edwards net posts and umpire’s chair, and a courtside strawberry patch. It is named the All Iowa Lawn Tennis Club (AILTC).
Since then, the Kuhn family have welcomed up to 200 groups a year to the immaculately maintained court. Play is free of charge.
You just email visit@alliowalawntennisclub.com and the family sort out a plan to share the magic of Centre Court with other grass court fans, offering guests Pimm's and strawberries and cream.
People have come from far afield, leaving comments such as David Wilson’s from Tyner, Kentucky - “Your dream has fulfilled my dream of playing on a grass court”; or Wimbledon Groundsman Ben Swidenbank’s from London – “The ‘All Iowa’ is beautiful... like an English garden in the middle of America.”
As he tended his court of dreams – set on that very same cattle feedlot of old - Kuhn wondered every day what it would be like to dress the original Centre Court, to apply the lines and mow the grass.
In 2011, he wrote to the Head Groundsman offering his services as a ground staff intern and – to cut a long story short – he has spent the last three years helping out around the grounds. This year is his first as a fully-accredited court attendant, and as he goes about his duties, he still listens to Live@Wimbledon to commemorate those days when the radio delivered this fantastical other world.
“Mark has so much passion and love for Wimbledon, which you see from what he’s doing on his farm, that it’s hard to resist nurturing his dream,” says George Spring, who managed the court attendants. “The fact he is here says so much about what Wimbledon is all about. I mean, he’s not knocking on the doors of Flushing Meadow... Court attendants are the future of England in terms of what they go on to pursue. We have barristers and doctors and it is good to add someone like Mark in the mix who brings the passion.”
Has Centre Court London SW19 lived up to Kuhn’s boyhood dreams in reality? “Oh yes. There is nothing like Centre Court Wimbledon," he says, full of respect. "It’s the perfection, the attention to detail, the honouring of traditions. It’s a magic place.”
By: Mark Kuhn
I came to know Jack Kramer in 1960 while listening to BBC broadcasts of Wimbledon with my grandfather on his short-wave radio. Kramer served as the color commentator for the BBC and his intimate knowledge of the game and Wimbledon was fascinating for me, a nine-year old Iowa farm boy.
I was mesmerized by the British accent of Kramer’s broadcast partner Dan Maskell, the way the game was scored, and all the Wimbledon traditions. I started playing tennis and fell in love with the game.
Two years later in 1962 while doing chores on my family’s farm I had the brilliant idea to build a replica of Centre Court on the cattle feedlot. The seed planted in my mind laid dormant for 40 years, but some things just get sweeter with time.
With the help of my wife, Denise, our two sons Mason and Alex, and turfgrass professors at Iowa State University, we finally did it. The All Iowa Lawn Tennis Club opened in 2003 with an exhibition match before 100 friends and neighbors who watched from bleachers on a hay rack.
Fast forward to 2013. A story about the Iowa farmer with the grass tennis court appeared in the Des Moines Register. The story mentioned that I first fell in love with tennis while listening to BBC broadcasts of Wimbledon. A friend of David Kramer, the oldest son of Jack and Gloria Kramer, sent David the newspaper story.
And then one glorious day out of the blue, I received a phone call from David. To make a long story short, we’ve been friends ever since. David and I played tennis at the ’All Iowa’ and he and his family are great supporters of the work we do here to keep the game of grass court tennis alive for future generations.
David told me one of the Kramer family’s tennis heirlooms is the official All England Club tie given to his father after he won the Gentlemen’s Singles Championship in 1947.
Jack Kramer has the distinction of being the first player to win Wimbledon wearing shorts and the last player to be presented the Championship trophy in the Royal Box, by none other than King George VI.
At the suggestion of David Kramer, why not return his father’s Championship tie to the hallowed ground called Centre Court where it was earned 68 years ago in 1947? That brilliant idea became my honor and mission in 2015.
My mates on the Wimbledon groundstaff loved the idea and they draped the tie over the net on Centre Court at the conclusion of play on Opening Day.
The tie quickly became quite a calling card and door opener to boot. Mark Winters has written about tennis nearly all his life with stories appearing in Tennis Week, the Los Angeles Times, and Racquet magazine. Winters knows the entire Kramer family and was thrilled to see Jack’s Championship tie.
The tie was authenticated by Anna Renton, the curator of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club Museum. The tie was made by C.H. Munday Ltd. at 8 St. John’s Road in London, the only company to ever make the Wimbledon members tie. Anna also gave me a “proper Wimbledon tie box” to return the piece of Wimbledon history back to the All Iowa Lawn Tennis Club.
The tie is on loan from my friend David Kramer and the rest of the Kramer family. It remains in pristine condition. It is on display in the Queen’s Box at the All Iowa Lawn Tennis Club for all to enjoy where it celebrates the past and inspires the future.
David Kramer and family have also kindly loaned the 2,000,000th Kramer Wilson Autograph Commemorative Racquet to be displayed in the Queen’s Box at the All Iowa Lawn Tennis Club. The original wood Jack Kramer Autograph was first introduced in 1948 and had sales of over 10 million, making it the #1 selling Wilson tennis racquet of all time.
Mark Kuhn has written three books about his experiences at Wimbledon in 2012, 2013 and 2015 that are part of the vast collection of books, novels, annuals, periodicals and publications housed in the Kenneth Richie Wimbledon Library adjacent to the Wimbledon Museum.
The collection of his Wimbledon books are entitled:
“NEVER FORGET YOUR DREAMS” - The Journey from the All Iowa Lawn Tennis Club to Wimbledon’s Centre Court
“YOU CAN’T DREAM BIG ENOUGH” - The Championships, Wimbledon
“DREAMS FULFILLED & MISSIONS ACCOMPLISHED” - Wimbledon 2015
By: Mark Kuhn
Ever since the video entitled ‘Court of Dreams’ debued during the Tennis Channel’s coverage of The Championships, Wimbledon in 2011, the All Iowa Lawn Tennis Club has been closely linked to the famous movie entitled Field of Dreams starring Kevin Costner, who portrayed Ray Kinsella an Iowa farmer who plowed his corn field under to create the mythical baseball field in the 1989 movie.
The following quote from the movie Field of Dreams spoken by Dr. Archibald ‘Moonlight’ Graham, played by actor Burt Lancaster, holds special meaning for me.
“This is my most special place in all the world, Ray. Once a place touches you like this, the wind never blows so cold again. You feel for it like it was your child.”
I’m very blessed to have two most special places in all the world.
1. Sitting atop the umpires chair watching guests play at the ‘Alex J. Kuhn Court of Dreams’
2. Watching a match on ‘Centre Court at Wimbledon’ with a member of my family
I’m fortunate to have visited Wimbledon six times in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2023. I kid my wife Denise that I’ll keep going back until I tie the great Roger Federer’s seven Championship victories.
But we both know that’s just my veiled excuse to return, because Wimbledon and it’s crown jewel Centre Court are an important part of the Kuhn family history now.
The moment the Main Gate closes behind me and I step onto Church Road, I want to return
And I find Peace in knowing I will return someday....If only in my dreams.
