Tennis came to the United States in the 1870s and was quickly taken up by the East Coast upper crust, the nouveau riche of the Gilded Age.
- Germantown’s Clarence Clark became one of its primary organizers, and his good friend and neighbor Frederick Winslow Taylor joined him as a doubles partner.
- William Clothier was the son of department store magnate Isaac Clothier and played his way into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
- Howard Head found that he was not a very good tennis player, so he changed the equipment to improve his game, just as he had done for skiing.
- William Clothier Jr. hobnobbed with the likes of Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe while also serving as a spy for the CIA.
All five of these men are interred at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd.