Hall of Fame
After being on the rise for several seasons and coming off a 19-1 slate in 1972 where Columbia went on to post a 9-0 mark in the EITA, the 1973 men’s tennis team proved these Lions planned to stay at the top.
George “Butch” Seewagen’s squad got off to a tough start in 1973, dropping three of its first four matches to Rice, Trinity, and SMU, but did impress with a 7-2 win over Corpus Christi. Talent did take over the next two matches, as the Lions blanked George Washington and Navy with matching 9-0 scores.
Columbia got by Penn State, 6-3, before a showdown in the Ivy League opener with heavyweight Princeton. Although this would be the closest Ivy League and EITA match of the season, the Lions would prevail, topping the Tigers, 5-4, thanks to a clinching victory in the No. 2 doubles match by Bob Binns and Mark Massey. In the next seven EITA matches Columbia would dominate, shutting out four of those opponents, with only Harvard scoring as many as three points against the Lions.
Junior Henry Bunis would go on to become an All-American for his efforts in 1973, picking up his first of two-consecutive All-American awards. The Cincinnati native was a first team All-Ivy League singles player, and beat the No. 8 seeded Tim Vann of Southern Methodist in the NCAA Tournament, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, leading Columbia to a 10th place finish at Princeton.
Bunis would go on to have a brief professional career, winning a trio of matches at the Grand Slam level, and even posting a victory in a 72-game match at Wimbledon over Raz Reid in 1977. His late Columbia teammate Vitas Gerulaitis went on to have a tremendous professional career himself, winning a Wimbledon doubles title in 1975, an Australian Open singles title in 1977, and twice becoming a Wimbledon semifinalist in 1977 and 1978.
