George Robbins picked up what he thought was nothing more than a summer job 60 years ago.

After getting out of the service in the spring of 1947, Robbins had a few months to wait before fall classes at Michigan State University got underway.

“I had a lot of time to kill, so my mother got me a summer job,” recalled Robbins, a Maine resident and member of the USTA New England Board. “She was a physical therapist, so she got me a job at a camp for disabled children. Because of what my mother did for a living, I had a lot of exposure to the disabled community and got to understand their desire to participate in sports.”

Robbins, an avid tennis player, was disheartened by the lack of opportunity for disabled athletes in the sport. For the last six decades, he’s been out to change that.Robbins is Maine’s State Ambassador for Wheelchair Tennis, and has worked to attract athletes and volunteers from the New England region to the sport.

He has organized four “One-Up, One-Down Tournaments” in Maine in recent years and has brought some of the leading players and coaches in the Wheelchair Tennis world to New England to teach and promote the game.

“It’s a great opportunity for wheelchair tennis players who have the desire to compete at a high level,” Robbins said of his “One-Up, One-Down” event that features doubles teams comprised of wheelchair athletes and able-bodied partners. “We run clinics frequently for novice players, but the folks you see playing in our tournaments are extremely skilled athletes. I know that wheelchair basketball is the big crowd-pleaser, but after people see this type of match, they leave with their jaws on the floor.”

Credit: Tom Flanagan, USTA New England.