Beloit College

“Bill” Sayres has earned recognition as Beloit’s greatest tennis player by his domination of collegiate opposition in the late 40’s.  He grew up playing tennis in Michigan, where he was an interscholastic champion as well as State and Detroit-city titlist in boys, juniors, and men’s competition.  Ranked the Number One Junior by the Western Lawn Tennis Association, he twice was a member of the Western Junior Davis Cup team.  Before coming to Beloit in 1946, Sayres served a year in the Navy after being the top player on the undefeated University of Texas Southwestern Conference champions and representing the league in the National Collegiate Tournament.  He proceeded to win three consecutive Midwest Conference singles crowns and two state titles to score duel-met victories over two Big Ten champions and other major-school foes.  Under his leadership, Beloit captured one conference and two State championships.  A Phi Beta Kappa graduate who was president of his Senior Class, Sayres has remained in academia; he is a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College and director for International Education.  He recently began a two-year stay in Afghanistan as an advisory team member in the National Ministry of Education.