Today, I write with deep emotions and sadness. Many would not know why. Tennis was my first beat when I changed from judicial reporting to sports.
Chris Okojie, then our Sports Editor and Ikeddy Isiguzor, now our Editorial Board Chairman who was Okojie’s deputy on the sports desk would send me after stars like Odizor, Tonny Mmoh, David Imonietie, Godwin Emeh and so many local stars. While chasing these players for news, I also met, at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Lawrence Awopegba many times. Those were the days Lai Famuyide and Chief Ben Ezeibe educated me on tennis and its politics and I took interest in following the Mens International Professional Tennis Council, MIPTC, that later transformed to Mens Tennis Council and we now have the ATP after players battled to have greater say in the running of the game.
I followed tennis and loved the game. It became my number one sport, thanks to the opportunity to see the likes of Odizor play in many ATP tournaments in Nigeria and later watched games on satellite.
Today, I dedicate my column to the reactions of Nnduka Odizor, Sadiq Abudullahi and Rolake Olagbegi on the death of our tennis legend, Lawrence Awopegba who will be buried today.
The tributes paid to fallen heroes or stars are sometimes so glowing and the gestures to their families so magnificent that people wonder why such goodies were not extended to them when they were alive. It has become a tradition to ignore our heroes when they quit the scene and honour them greatly when they are no more.
Nduka Odizor, the greatest and foremost Nigerian tennis player is championing a campaign to put a stop to that.
He wants a change and is pulling strings to break that tradition from his tennis perspective and hope that others from other sports follow-suit.
Incidentally, it took the death of star to trigger this humane gesture from this great player of his time and one who served Nigeria meritoriously.
The death of Lawrence Awopegba few days ago was so devastating to the tennis family especially Nigerians living abroad some of whom were coached and helped to journey to the United States.
From Texas wrote Odizor, from Atlanta, Rolake Olagbegi reacted and from Homestead wrote in Sadiq Abdullahi, now a doctorate degree holder who would never forget how, apart from the tennis tutorials he got from Awopegba also was inspired by the fallen hero to toe education line while playing tennis.
Many Nigerians did not know that Olagbegi did not only play for her university but actually ended up being invited to some Virginia Slims tourneys. That stood her out as the only Nigerian female player to have played in the circuit at the time.
No body has gotten near that since she quit. And nobody has also stepped into the shoes Odizor left, once stroking into the Rould of 16 at the Wimbledon and hitting the ATP Ranking of 64.
Starting with Odizor, we bring you the reactions of these tennis stars on the passing on of Lawrence Awogbegba.
“We are saddened by the passing on of Nigeria’s great tennis champion, Lawrence Awopegba. Lawrence and Thompson Onibokun were the forerunner of Nigerian tennis. As a matter of fact, I modeled my power game after Awopegba’s and then chose the finesse and endurance of Thompson Onibokun.
So, I took my power game from Lawrence. You can imagine how it feels to hear that somebody you modeled your game after is dead.
We are all saddened.
The Nigerian Tennis Players Association in diaspora has already dispatched a representative to attend the funeral and to also make a cash contribution to the family. We also intend on, financially, supporting the likes of Thompson Onibokun, former national champion and coach
Dotimi Egbuson-Former coach in the old Bendel State, Patrick Ojugbeli -Former coach in Bendel State and current coach in Delta state.
We want to provide financial support because we want to honor these men and express our gratitude for the selfless effort, time and dedication they have provided to the nation.
We’re where we are now because of the sweat and efforts of these men and we’re all better off now.
We also want to support them while they’re still alive because the nation, especially in sports, has abandoned them. Its for the poor treatment Nigerian sportsmen and women are getting that many some of them now opt to represent other nations.
We have to play our little role to see the changes we can make even if those who matter and those whose job it is to grow Nigerian sports remain selfish, planless and continue to destroy where they are supposed to build.
We pray for the soul of Lawrence Awopegba. May he rest in peace.
Rolake Olagbegi had just written a few lines to express shock over Awopegba after reading of his death on the Vanguard side from her base in Atlanta. She simply wrote this:
“I told Mo (her husband) to stop by coach Awopegba last week when he was at home only to hear that he passed on. We are all going to miss him.
I rememberer showing him a list of universities that offered me scholarships (seven) when I was moving to the US.
Coach (Awopegba) said “I usually don’t encourage my kids to go oversees, because of how tough things are there, but I TRUST YOU TO MAKE IT AND EXCEL IN YOUR TENNIS TOO”.
I held on to that.
No matter how short my visits to home are, I paid him a visit any time I was home. He was a great man.” This was how Olagbegi bared her mind in a personal mail she sent to me.
I then replied asking for more comments as I was going to dedicate my column to him and would want reactions from people like her. She replied this way:
“I never liked publicity, but let the world know that we loved him.
I remember playing on the circuit.
He was impressed that a female Nigerian player was playing some games on the circuit. Coach Awo changed my grip.
“Listen princess,” he would say, “ if you can change your grip, you will go more places.
”
He kept on emphasizing on my grip. He insisted I changed it. So I did.
Not only did I improve, I was getting invitations to Virginia Slims, ATP tournaments.
It improved my game. I earned more points than Mary pears that she asked me to play doubles with her.
Mary and I lost to Zina Garrison and Katrina Adams in the second round of Virginia Slims of Houston. I am not trying to blow my trumpet, I’m just trying to let Nigerian realize that the country has lots and lots of of brilliant geniuses that have passed on and that many are still alive to help Nigeria. It will be nice if we can recognize (as in reward)our past athletes while they are still alive, than wait until they are no more.
Let’s give our heroes and heroines their dues.
The Awopegbas ought to be recognized, he was AWO DE GREAT.
He was there for all of us right from my first time in camp with the seniors - Cecilia Nnadozie, Esther Onyekwelu now Isebor, Ngozi ,Morah , Anty joyce and the rest.
On the men’s side were Imonite, Mmoh, Odizor, Emeh and Oba. “Coach Awo” as we fondly called him so much instilled discipline in these Tennis players to such extent that whenever he’s coming everybody stood to his or senses. You never misbehaved.
His passing on is a GREAT LOSS TO NIGERIA.
The next mail was from Sadiq Abdullahi, a great pal and whom I shared some moments with while he was playing. Sadiq is now a doctorate degree holder and wrote this way.
I have followed your postings on the internet. The issues you write about today are some of the issues we talked about and lamented in the past. But these problems are still there.
Rather than move, rather than progress, we are retrogressing. Still, so much remains to be done.
Today, I write with deep sadness to express my condolence to Mrs.
Iyabo
Awopedga and her family for the death of Coach Awopedga, whom I have known for over 30 years. Mr. Awopedga was my first coach and teacher at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, where I picked balls with other former national champions like Kehinde Ajayi and David Imonitie.
He was instrumental to securing a tennis scholarship for me and others. He has influenced and coached over 10,000 young players from all over the country, 300 of whom have gone abroad to study and are making significant contributions to their communities. Some are enjoying the blessings of Mr.
Awopedga, who instilled in all of us, the love of the game, service, and patriotism. For me, he was unique and special. He saw me grow and become a national champion.
He encouraged me to followe a path to education, which today has resulted to a doctoral degree in education. The Nigerian Tennis community in the United States of America will forever remain grateful to his contributions.
Social Studies, Global Education, and School Improvement Homestead Senior High School.
When Lawrence Awopegba died, our veteran columnist, Bisi Lawrence reported his death this way.
Nigerian sports has lost one of its glittering stars of yesterdays with the passing away of Lawrence Gbadura Awopegba. The champion lawn Tennis player died on Sunday aged 67 years.
Awopegba was born in Ire-Ekiti where he started his primary education which he later completed in Lagos. His first love was football, in which he was also making a name for himself, before he took to Lawn Tennis when he enrolled at the Yaba Trade Centre in 1958.
The famous tennis star hit the headlines when he won the All - Nigerian Tennis Championship in 1964.
That was when he met his wife, Iyabo, whom he also groomed to become a tennis champion in her own right.
After that, there was no looking back. He went on to represent Nigeria against Ghana, while winning the national championship on at least two more occasions, and was the first Nigerian ever to play at the Wimbledon preliminaries.
A great rivalry developed between Awopegba and his great friend, Thompson Onibokun and, with Yemisi Allan, another great player, their perennial contention wrote the story of Nigerian tennis in the 60’s and 70’s.
He continued to represent Nigeria and winning the National Championahip, and became the National Coach in 1974. While at the National Sports Commission, he reorganise the tennis structure to place it on an enviable standard, and this was a period when Nigeria was acknowledged as the leading tennis nation on the continent.
He is survived by his wife, Iyabo, and their son, Ayodeji.
He will be buried in Lagos on Thursday, February 8, 2007.
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