Championing Tennis Recently retired CEO of the USPTA John Embree ’75 hopes to inspire members of the younger generation to pursue a career in his beloved sport.

This article first appeared in the Summer 2024 issue of W&L: The Washington and Lee Magazine.

It’s rare for someone to have spent 50 years making a living in a sport they first started playing at age 6. And, yet, John Embree ’75 has done just that.

“I never would have imagined that I could be so fortunate to work in the tennis industry for my entire professional life,” he says.

A two-sport athlete in soccer and tennis at Washington and Lee, Embree was inducted into the university’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005. He lettered in soccer and tennis each of his four years and was captain of the tennis team in his final two seasons. In tennis, he played No. 1 singles in his final two seasons and was named the team MVP three times and the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Player of the Year twice.

After graduation, he took a job as the head tennis professional at the Boonsboro Country Club in Lynchburg, Virginia. He spent seven months of the year at the club with the other five traveling the world playing in satellite tournaments. But, three years in, a phone call out of the blue was a turning point in his career.

The U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) was planning to launch a new program in 1978 that focused on adult recre- ational players in a league format competing at similar playing levels on a national scale. The USTA asked Embree if he’d like to run one of the five pilots in the South. After a successful trial, 25-year-old Embree moved to New York City to serve as the first administrator of the USTA Adult League Tennis program, which now boasts over 300,000 players.

“The creation of USTA Adult League Tennis is my proudest achievement in this sport and will be my legacy for years to come,” Embree says.

After another stint as a director of tennis and GM of an athletic club in New Orleans, Embree left the club business for the corporate world to work for Wilson Sporting Goods Inc. as its director of racquet sports promotions. For more than seven years, he traveled to all the Grand Slams and national and international tour events, working with players such as Pete Sampras, Jim Courier, Lindsay Davenport, Todd Martin, Stefan Edberg, Jennifer Capriati and Chris Evert. He also was responsible for expanding Wilson’s equipment program with a growing group of top tennis teaching professionals and creating sponsorship opportunities.

Corporate moves to consolidate the golf and tennis divisions forced Embree to leave Wilson after 17 and a half years, exiting as vice president and general manager of the global racquet sports division. Following a four-year stint as president of a small tennis apparel brand called Balle de Match, he served as the president of Prince Americas from 2008-2010 during the global financial crisis and “the most difficult time in my professional life,” he says.

He embraced a full-circle career moment when in 2012, he accepted the position as CEO of the U.S. Professional Tennis Association (USPTA), a nonprofit trade association serving over 14,000 tennis teaching professionals and coaches. Continuing education became a vital pillar of the association under Embree.

“Our stated mission was to elevate the standards of our members,” Embree says. “We wanted to make sure our pros and coaches were given the opportunity to become better professionals so that the customer experience on the court or at their respective facilities was fun and motivating.”

At the end of December 2023, Embree retired from his position at the USPTA after 11 years.

“W&L’s core values of honor, integrity and civility were guiding principles for me throughout my business and professional life,” he says. “I am forever thankful for my time at W&L, not only because of the friendships that I still have today but also because of the lessons that I gained, both in the classroom and on the athletic fields. Tennis is truly a lifetime sport.”