Fifty Fabulous Floridians: Number 1

This blog was written for Canespace by Solarcane

We are finally there.  This is the moment you have all been waiting for. 

Today we announce the number one athlete on our list of Fifty Fabulous Floridians That Made Us Proud.

It is not a Hall of Fame running back who set the NFL rushing record. 

It is not a MLB pitcher that dominated his sport like no other. 

It is not a NBA basketball star that set all kinds of scoring records. 

It is not a surfer dude named Slater, a drag racing champion named Gwynn or an Olympic swimmer named Rowdy. 

No, it is South Florida native and professional tennis star Chris Evert. 

Of all the incredible athletes on the list none of them were ranked number one in the world for 260 consecutive weeks.  You go 5 years ranked number one with a winning percentage of .900  and you did it all by yourself, you got my vote!

# 1 Chris Evert

Christine Marie "Chris" Evert (born December 21, 1954) is a former world number 1 professional tennis player from the United States. She won 18 Grand Slam singles championships, including a record seven championships at the French Open and a record six championships at the U.S. Open. According to the Women's Tennis Association, she was the year-ending World No. 1 singles player in 1975, 1976, 1977, 1980, and 1981 and, according to many sources, in 1974 and 1978, also.

Evert's career win–loss record in singles matches of 1,309–146 (.900) is the best of any professional player in tennis history. In tennis writer Steve Flink's book The Greatest Tennis Matches of the Twentieth Century, he named Evert as the third best female player of the 20th century, after Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova.

 Tennis career

Evert began taking tennis lessons when she was five years old from her father, Jimmy Evert (a professional tennis coach who had won the men's singles title at the Canadian Championships in 1947). By 1969, she had become the No. 1 ranked 14-under girl in the United States. In 1970, Evert won the national sixteen-and-under championship and was invited to play in an eight player clay court tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina. The 15 year-old Evert defeated Françoise Durr 6–1, 6–0 in the first round before defeating Margaret Court 7–6, 7–6 in a semifinal. Court was the World No. 1 player and had just won the Grand Slam in singles. These results led to Evert's selection for the U.S. Wightman Cup team, the youngest player ever in the competition.

Evert made her Grand Slam tournament debut at the 1971 U.S. Open, aged 16, receiving an invitation after winning the national sixteen-and-under championship. She made two further comebacks against Durr (2–6, 6–2, 6–3) and Lesley Hunt (4–6, 6–2, 6–3), both seasoned professionals, before losing to Billie Jean King in a semifinal (6-3,6-2).

Evert was the runner-up at the French Open and the Wimbledon Tournament in 1973. A year later, she won both those events to claim her first Grand Slam singles titles and won 55 consecutive matches. Her fiancé at the time, Jimmy Connors, won the Wimbledon men's singles title that year and media attention surrounded the "Love Match" of tennis that summer (although this relationship proved to be short-lived).

For the next five years, Evert was the world's No. 1 player. In 1975, she won the French Open again and the first of four straight U.S. Open titles by defeating Evonne Goolagong Cawley in a three-set final. She also won Wimbledon again in 1976, again beating Goolagong in a three-set final. In all, Evert won 21 of her 33 matches with Goolagong. Evert's domination of the women's game and her calm, steely demeanor on court earned her the nickname of the "Ice Maiden" of tennis.

Though successful on all surfaces, it was on clay courts where Evert was most dominant. Beginning in August 1973, she won 125 consecutive matches on the surface, with a loss of only 7 sets, a run which continues to stand as the record among both men and women players. The streak was broken on May 12, 1979, in a semifinal of the Italian Open, when Evert lost to Tracy Austin 6–4, 2–6, 7–6(4) after Evert lost a game point to go up 5–2 in the third set. Evert said after the match, "Not having the record will take some pressure off me, but I am not glad to have lost it." Evert then won 72 consecutive matches on clay before losing in a semifinal of the 1981 French Open to Hana Mandlíková.

Evert won the French Open singles title a record seven times. Three of her victories came in three-set finals against Navratilova.

Evert retired from the professional tour in 1989. During her career, she won 157 singles titles and eight doubles titles. Her record in finals was 157–72 (.686). She reached the semifinals in 273 of the 303 tournaments she entered. Evert won the WTA Tour Championships four times and helped the United States win the Fed Cup eight times. Evert's last match was a 6–3, 6–2 win over Conchita Martínez in the final of the 1989 Fed Cup.

Evert won at least one Grand Slam singles title each year for 13 consecutive years, from 1974 through 1986. She won 18 Grand Slam singles titles during her career: seven at the French Open, six at the U.S. Open (three on clay and three on hard surfaces), three at Wimbledon, and two at the Australian Open (both on grass). She reached the finals in 34 and the semifinals in 52 of the 56 Grand Slams events she entered. Between September 1971 (her Grand Slam debut at the U.S. Open) and June 1983 (her twelfth visit to Wimbledon), Evert never failed to reach at least the semifinals of the 34 Grand Slam singles events she participated in. This is an unparalleled record of consistency in the world's biggest tournaments.

Evert's overall record in Grand Slam events was 297–38 .887 (72–6 at the French Open, 94–15 at Wimbledon, 101–13 at the U.S. Open (most singles match wins in history), and 30–4 at the Australian Open). She reached the finals all 6 times she entered the Australian Open.

Evert was voted the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year on four occasions and received Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportswoman of the Year" award in 1976 In April 1985, she was voted the "Greatest Woman Athlete of the Last 25 Years" by the Women's Sports Foundation. Evert served as President of the Women's Tennis Association from 1975–76, and from 1983 to 1991. In 1995, she was the fourth player ever to be unanimously elected into the International Tennis Hall of Fame following a worldwide ballot of 185 sports journalists whilst 1999 saw Evert rated No. 50 among North American athletes of the 20th century In 2005, TENNIS Magazine named her fourth on its list of TENNIS Magazine's 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS Era.

Personal life

Evert was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Colette Thompson and Jimmy Evert. Chris and her sister Jeanne Evert became professional tennis players, and their brother John Evert attended Auburn University, in Auburn, Alabama, on a full athletic scholarship for intercollegiate tennis. Evert is a 1973 graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale.

Evert's romance with the top men's player Jimmy Connors captured the public's imagination in the 1970s, particularly after they both captured the singles titles at Wimbledon in 1974. Evert and Connors also occasionally played mixed doubles together. In 1974, they were the runners-up at the U.S. Open. They got engaged, but the romance did not last. A wedding was planned for November 8, 1974, but it was called off.

In 1979, Evert married the British tennis player John Lloyd and changed her name to "Chris Evert-Lloyd." The marriage ended in divorce in 1987.

In 1988, Evert married two-time Olympic downhill skier Andy Mill. They have three sons – Alexander James (born October 12, 1991), Nicholas Joseph (born June 8, 1994), and Colton Jack (born June 14, 1996). On November 13, 2006, Evert filed for divorce.

Evert and Australian golfer Greg Norman were married on June 28, 2008, in the Bahamas. On October 2, 2009 they announced they were separating after 15 months, saying in a statement that they "...will remain friends and supportive of one another's family." They were officially divorced on December 8, 2009 after 18 months of marriage.

Current work

Evert operates a tennis academy bearing her name in Boca Raton, Florida. She also helps coach the Saint Andrew's School high school tennis team. She is also currently (2009) a contributor to Tennis Magazine. 

Grand Slam	Years	Record accomplished	Player tied
1988 Australian Open	1973-88	34 Grand Slam finals overall	Stands alone
French Open	1974-86	7 titles overall	Stands alone
French Open	1973-86	9 finals overall	Steffi Graf
French Open	1983-86	4 consecutive finals	Martina Navratilova Steffi Graf
U.S. Open	1975-82	six titles overall	Stands alone
U.S. Open	1975-78	four consecutive titles	Stands alone
U.S. Open	1975-84	nine finals overall	Stands alone
U.S. Open	1975-80	six consecutive finals	Stands alone
U.S. Open	1976, 77, 78	Won US Open three times in straight sets	Stands alone
Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, U.S. Open	1974-86	at least one Grand Slam title 13 years in a row	Stands alone
Grand Slam	1974, 76, 81	Won three different slams in straight sets	Steffi Graf Lindsay Davenport

Grand Slam results
Australian Open	W (1982, 1984)
French Open	W (1974, 1975, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1985, 1986)
Wimbledon	W (1974, 1976, 1981)
US Open	W (1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1982)
Major tournaments
WTA Championships	W (1972, 1973, 1975, 1977)
Doubles
Career record	117–39 (75.0%)
Career titles	32
Highest ranking	1

Comments

[MDCane]

Yes!

[SOUP]

#1 on #1 is special MD!

U know what to do.

[Sebastian]

A well deserving selection for #1

She is the Queen of tennis

Nobody was able to accomplish what she did at a given sport

Way to represent Chrissy!!!!!!!!

[franics w]

Just back for a week in St.Louis met my wife's niece ( 6'1" flaming red hair )who as a freshman was # 3 single player on the Boys tennis team. Thats when I began to think Chrissie was #1. She was greaT PLAYER JUST NOT A GREAT PICKER OF MEN.
fRAN

[SOUP]

JUST NOT A GREAT PICKER OF MEN.

Posted by: franics w | July 02, 2010 at 08:30 PM

U don't get the nickname "Ice Maiden" for nothing!

[TonyCane]

Just saw an interesting article from yesterday that Sentrel Henderson did not show up for class at USC and is now leaning towards going to Miami, even if he has to wait a year (Kiffin would have to grant his release for it to be this season). A little blurb, at the bottom.

http://www.twincities.com/ci_15414514?nclick_check=1

[Hurriphin 302-4-305]

Pretty much the only other thing I know pertaining to Chris Everett.......

http://youtube.com/watch?gl=US&client=mv-google&hl=en&v=uczUKTwgqeY

Glad to see that little jacka$$ get housed.

[Old Skool]

Ice Maiden is right. A friend of mine went out with her. When Chrissie got turned on, condensation would form on her upper lip.

Otherwise a very worthy selection. I would say she and Connors were responsible for tennis' resurgence in the 1970's

[Hurriphin 302-4-305]

Along with BYU's Lavell Edwards, Coryell turned the passing game from throwing a ball, to throwing art.
In fact, tell me you don't see a lot of "Air Coryell" in Coach Whipple. Go deep, and go often.

Que random sexual inuendo............

[SOUP]

Ok fellow Canesters, need tickets to the gt game! How do i obtain these, considering i'm from crimson tide country?

Posted by: 4-Real | July 02, 2010 at 06:37 PM

Any UM season ticket holder or Hurricane Club member can order them for U. How many U need?

[solarcane]

hurri that was hilarious!!

[SOUP]

Those American stats outstrip every other nation in the Open era of the French championships. The sobering side of the stats is that 15 of those finalists were two women: Navratilova and her ultimate rival, Chris Evert.

But what Navratilova was to Wimbledon, Evert was to Roland Garros. She won the singles title a record seven times, three of them in three-set finals against Navratilova.

The last of them, in 1986, saw the 31-year-old Evert beat her to win her very last Grand Slam, 2–6, 6–3, 6–3. She is still the oldest woman to do so.

Add into the Evert mix two runners-up positions, the first against the mighty Margaret Court in 1973, and three semifinal finishes, and it is easy to be swamped by the numbers.

But Evert was one of those graceful and gracious players who went about her business with a calmness verging on cool. She was light on her feet, appeared never to be rushed, and had a smoothness of action that belied the weight and spin on her strong baseline shots.

Evert may have gloried in the name of the “Ice Maiden,” just as her effortless male counterpart did to the “Ice Borg,” but both commanded a respect and an affection from the crowds that reflected not just their supreme skills as tennis players, but their self-effacing and sporting conduct.

Great champions, both.

[SOUP]

Solar...kudos to U and Six for this series.

The quality of the series and articles was just spectacular and what we needed during the S L O W period.

Much R E S P E C T!

[solarcane]

Except for Skipper Chuck and Brian Piccolo
Cris Evert was the only big Star I met in person before anyone ever heard of them.

And skool you are correct,
We got chased off the Holiday Park Tennis Courts numerous times for attempting just what you suggested we were up to. lol!

[solarcane]

soup,
thanks that means a lot.

I really enjoyed the comments and debates about the choices.

One final thanks to all you guys that read the articles and made it worthwhile.

I'm ready for some football!

[Old Skool]

University of Georgia athletic director Damon Evans repeatedly referred to his position at the school before his arrest on a drunken driving charge and asked the patrol officer if there was “anything you can do without arresting me,” according to a police report released Friday.

In the report, the officer noted he found a “red pair of lady’s panties between (Evans’) legs.” When he asked Evans, a 40-year-old married father of two children, what he was doing with the underwear, Evans said: “She took them off and I held them because I was just trying to get her home,” according to the report.

[Hurriphin 302-4-305]

Solar,
If Jim Rome even said hello to me, I'd steal on him.

Tell yall what........

Real quick. If you could punch any three people in the face, no consequences, who would they be?

And no, SOUP isn't eligible............

[SOUP]

And no, SOUP isn't eligible...

Posted by: Hurriphin 302-4-305 | July 02, 2010 at 09:50 PM

Ruins ALL the fun!

[solarcane]

1. Lou Holtz on a ricochet off Mark Mays forehead

2. Anyone connected to Notre Dame

3. My older sister.

[solarcane]

skool

Those Yellow Jacket cops can be brutal

[solarcane]

Ok wait

Lou Holtz,
and my older sister twice because she always got up after just one good punch.

[solarcane]

I think my last post got kicked by typepad

Does the UGA AD look like he might have had a beer or twenty?

http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2010/7/1/1547157/uga-athletic-director-damon-evans

[Old Skool]

It's a pity UGA doesn't play Stanford this year. The Stanford band would create one memorable halftime show in honor of the AD.

[Six]

WE JUST WENT ON THE AIR WITH BREAKING NEWS

They caught that walking piece of sh*t coward that murdered the 2 Tampa Police officers

[solarcane]

Six, man you are QUICK!! that is great news!

[PhillyCane]

I woke up to a nice message from my gaytor fan this morning, he said, "I f*****d a U fan hahaha".. good to see his distaste for the U doesnt go as far as woman

[MDCane]

Soup, I'm good with canes gear. Just waiting for the season to start.

['87 Canes]

ACC Champions in 2010.....Go CANES !!!!!

[SOUP]

Does the UGA AD look like he might have had a beer or twenty?

Posted by: solarcane | July 02, 2010 at 10:20 PM

TWENTY

[SOUP]

They caught that walking piece of sh*t coward that murdered the 2 Tampa Police officers

Posted by: Six | July 02, 2010 at 10:35 PM

THE WAY IT SHOULD BE.

[4-Real]

I need @ least 4 tickets Soup

[CaneSniper]

Nobody was able to accomplish what she did at a given sport

Posted by: Sebastian57 | July 02, 2010 at 08:07 PM

Except I would say Lance Armstrong, who won the world's most grueling event 7 straight years. All after recovering from cancer.

[mcginns ale]

soiler.................cant go with the chrissy thing.top ten ya tell cat5 hello see at the shoe bro,,,,,, chillin to eddie singin "give me some wATER ALWAYS READING

[canezilla]

thanks for the news six.down in south florida i havent even seen one story on the news about the police officers being shot.They are worried more about a storm thats hitting 2,000 miles from here then something as major as that.so sad

[solarcane]

Mc A ,
man you should be posting brudda good to hear from you !

[KnoxCane]

Nice read and thanks for all the hard work. I loved reading all the articles!

CANES!

[KnoxCane]

BG,
What's your take on the new NCAA? J12 Power is rated higher than his accuracy?? Shouldn't they be flip flopped?

Anyway, the game looks a little more fluid than in years past. The new engine makes it more authentic.

CANES

[bg1906]

For the gamers, I'll have the new NCAA 11 on Wednesday or Thursday. I'll give my impressions then.

Knox.

In typical EA fashion they have the ratings jacked. Its always that way. They Aldarius as the fastest WR...WRONG he's probably the slowest! Next they have Shayon Green as the highest rated LB on the team....WRONG! LOL Just little things like that.

[86Cane]

They have Aldarius as the fastest WR...WRONG he's probably the slowest!

Posted by: bg1906 | July 03, 2010 at 10:15 AM

BLASPHEMY!

[HearAcane]

All that foreplay and the climax is Chris Evert! All due respect, but she would not make the Men's Tennis team at Miami. Let alone dominate the game. (only the womens game)
Solar, your sister got your testosterone..lol Just kidding....good pick for number one. RIP Coach Coryell.

[360Cane]

Six,

That guy should be glad he turned himself in. Do you remember what happened to the guy in Lakeland (Kathleen) that also shot some cops?

Found him in the woods alive, but brought him out dead with 18 bullet holes.

No human being has the right to take another human beings life, period! Especially ones that are just doing their jobs. Very sad for those families and friends. I'm just happy they can find closure now that they got him.

[Jersey_Cane]

Brilliant selection. Chris Evert is still one of the classiest professional athletes and it is great that South Florida can call her our own.

On a personal note, really enjoyed the top 50. A lot of hard work and thought went into this and as a fan of Canespace, I appreciate the amazing job of gathering the stats and writing performed for all of selections.

Now on to Football!!! Go Canes! :)

[86Cane]

NEW POLL IS UP!

TOP RIGHT CORNER OF THE BLOG.

VOTE OR DIE!!!

[Nashvillecane]

Just think bout we'll all be stook and out of out minds two months from now bout our canes and the start of football season...and I can start to smell it in the air...btw I wuld have never guessed in a 10g yrs that the #1 wuld be who it is. Have a happy 4th ladies and gents

[TonyCane]

Wow, I put out a link to an article from Sentrel Henderson's hometown that he's leaning towards the Canes now (having essentially decommitted from USC)...we have an open scholarship to offer him...and no one cares.

We must be better than the 2001 team if we're not even going to care about the possibility of adding Henderson this year. Perhaps we should be charitable and encourage the poor guy to go to some lesser program like Ohio State, Texas, or Florida.

[Six]

360Cane - Are you talking about the piece of garbage Angilo Freeland that had 68 bullets unloaded into him? It wasn't 18, if we're thinking of the same guy .. it was 68

2006, Freeland got pulled over for speeding in a rental car in Polk County. He'd been arrested in 1999 on charges of having a non-valid drivers license, reckless driving, aggravated fleeing, resisting arrested without violence, carrying a concealed weapon. He skipped bail and took off, no one could find him. An arrest warrant was issued, it sat there until 6 years later, and in 2005 the state attorney called it "stale". Pretty much just dropping it

You think about how they couldn't find this guy when he skipped bail, for 6 years, and the state attorney said the warrant went "stale". I say that b/c of what happened in 2006

When he was pulled over in 2006, the officer looked at the fake drivers license that Freeland gave him, the officer had a bad feeling about the license and the way Freeland was acting, he called for backup, backup arrived, it was a K-9 officer and his pooch

Freeland got squirrely, ran into the woods, hid behind some trees. The 2 officers went into the woods after him, the police dog sniffed him out and was heading toward him - Freeland shot the police dog and killed it. Freeland then starting shooting at the K-9 officer, hitting him in a bunch of places, and a bullet went into the officer's spine as well. Freeland then walked up, and shot the officer twice in the head

The other officer who was in the woods heard it, ran over toward the shots and was also shot at. He called for backup - then all hell descended upon those woods, K-9 units, a ton of officers, SWAT, etc.

Freeland dug himself into the woods pretty deep that night

Polk County Police went into the woods looking for him, found the body of the executed officer and his police dog, brought them out

So, just think about being a police officer or SWAT member and seeing the body of one of your fellow officers being brought out, all shot up like he was, including seeing the body of the police dog as well

That goes from making a bunch of police officers and SWAT members from being on the verge of snapping b/c of anger, to basically downright dangerous with no sense of mercy

Polk County sent SWAT into the woods, they found Freeland hiding, 9 of the SWAT team shot him - unloading 68 bullets out of 110 shot

Bye Bye Freeland

I remember the press conference afterward and this is why I like Sheriff Grady Judd from Polk County ...

Judd pretty much just summed it all up for everyone, he said "That's all the bullets we had, otherwise we would've shot him more"

Awesome. I love that. Some criminal coward executes a K-9 police officer, after killing his police dog right before, he shoots at the other officer who originally stopped him, hitting him as well ..... there should be no mercy at all upon him

Here's the best part and everyone knew it was coming. The Florida Civil Rights Association called out the Polk County Police for showing "disregard for human life" in unloading 68 shots into that piece of garbage .... the US Department of Justice got the FBI to look into it and investigate the Polk County Police. They did. They came to the conclusion that evidence didn't establish a prosecutable violation of the federal civil rights statues - haha. They cleared the Polk County Police of any wrong doing

[Captain Optimist aka Cavaleer]

Solar with the curve ball for #1!!! hahaha

Y'all know I love Chris Evert so I couldn't be happier with the selection.

[UMike]

Tony...calm down lol..thats old news and we have all spoke about it already. Im sure we would like to have him, but from what I have read we were already over our scholly limit before we lost a couple guys...so there may not be one for him. And besides..USC might not let him out of his LOI

[Loco]

Wow, I put out a link to an article from Sentrel Henderson's hometown that he's leaning towards the Canes now (having essentially decommitted from USC)...we have an open scholarship to offer him...and no one cares.

We must be better than the 2001 team if we're not even going to care about the possibility of adding Henderson this year. Perhaps we should be charitable and encourage the poor guy to go to some lesser program like Ohio State, Texas, or Florida.

Posted by: TonyCane | July 03, 2010 at 01:21 PM

Or maybe people on here finally realized that he will either come here... Or he wont. There's not a whole lot we can do about it unless you've got a hot daughter you want to throw at him a la Prior and OSU...

No offense, of course

[360Cane]

TonyCane,

You're just not part of the clique! j/k lol

I think it's pretty much talked to death. It was discussed a few blogs ago.

bg1906 even found some "smoke". Latwan Anderson put something on his Facebook about his new teammates, and how excited he is about coming here. Seantrel bit and commented on it. I don't remember word for word, but Seantrel basically said he's working on it.

It could get REAL ugly. Everybody knows he was waiting to see U$C's sanctions before he would sign. Obviously, Ed and Lane filled his head with B.S., and got him to sign anyway. They know they lied, and their trying to save their asses. They've only flown out to his house on private jet TWICE.

He wants to be released from his LOI, but U$C isn't letting it happen. There is no word on appeals or anything. It's a dumb rule anyway. Juniors and Seniors can leave without losing a year, but incoming freshmen have to appeal their LOI to the NCAA? Makes no sense.

I think this kids has always been a Cane, he's just had to many people in his ear and this and that. He just needs to understand only Seantrel knows what's best for Seantrel. Rap daddy needs to take a hike along with Lame and Co.

There is also word that he would have to go to prep school anyway. The good news is, we'll know by August! lol