When tennis legends took over UD Arena: A look at the Flyers' court history

Dayton will host an exhibition featuring Xavier at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at the Lindner Family Tennis Center, and the event is prompting a look back at the tennis past of UD Arena—the Flyers’ basketball home. While the upcoming games won’t be played on tennis courts, the building’s site originally hosted pro tennis on a surface where the arena opened the previous December. In 1970, UD Arena featured a Tartan court, a 3M rubber-like flooring. The University of Dayton Tennis Champions Classic included matches featuring Roy Emerson vs. Fred Stolle and Pancho Gonzalez vs. Ken Rosewall, all Hall of Fame players. A Dayton Daily News account described Emerson and Stolle drawing 3,248 spectators, while quotes highlighted how Tartan favored servers and altered play.