HELEN WILLS

Helen Wills (also known as Helen Wills Moody and Helen Wills Roark) was one of the most dominant tennis players in history, becoming a record-breaking global celebrity.

During her career, she won 31 Grand Slam tournaments, including 19 single titles, and once had an astounding winning streak of 180 matches in a row between 1927 and 1933. In most of those matches, she didn’t lose a set in singles play.

She was a seven-time U.S. Champion and eight-time winner at Wimbledon. She also won gold medals in the women’s singles and doubles competition at the 1924 Olympics in Paris. It was the last Olympics that featured women’s tennis until 1988.

Wills was born in Alameda County in 1905. When she was eight years old, her father bought her a tennis racket and they practiced on dirt courts.

She attended the University of California, Berkeley, on an academic scholarship and graduated as a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.

She won two national singles titles at Cal, even though the university didn’t have a women’s tennis team at the time.

One of her practice partners was Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman, a four-time winner of the U.S. Championships, who also had attended Cal.

Often, to improve her competitiveness, Wills practiced against men.

Her career ended in 1943 after the index finger on her right hand was bitten by a dog. She passed away in 1998, at the age of 92.

She bequeathed $10 million to her alma mater to establish the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute.