Name a sport and you most certainly will find someone in Applewood who participates. And a number reached national or international levels. From figure skating, hockey, football, tennis, track and field, auto racing, watersports, equestrian, lacrosse, field hockey, badminton, baseball, rifle shooting and golf to the Ironman Triathlon, Applewood residents have made their mark.
Courtland Crescent residents Louise Brown and her son David, are two excellent examples of people who rose to excellence in the sport of tennis. Both hold the honour of being inducted into the Mississauga Sports Hall of Fame. Louise was inducted in its very first year in 1974 while David was inducted in 1993. They hold the distinction of being the first mother/son combination inducted into the Hall of Fame.
The Mississauga Sports Hall of Fame has a permanent display at City Hall. Excerpts of the storyboards on display are reprinted here and certainly tell the story of Applewood Acres’ First Family of Tennis.
For a long time Applewood’s Louise Brown stood tall as one of the best and most competitive female tennis players in Canada, ranked among the nation’s top 10 players in four decades for a total of 26 consecutive years (she was 15 times ranked in the top three) from 1946 to 1971, a feat that has yet to be matched. This fact was recognized on September 28, 1991 when Louise Brown was one of six inaugural inductees into the Hall of Fame of Canadian Tennis.
A self-taught and self-coached player throughout her career, Louise Brown first burst onto the competitive tennis scene in 1946, making her debut at the Toronto Lawn Tennis Club and showing enough promise to earn a place among the top 10 in national rankings. Her first real taste of success came at age 35, when, in 1957, she won the Canadian National Singles title. Then, teaming with Hilda Doleschell, she added the Doubles crown as well.
She won her second Canadian Open National Doubles title at age 40 when she teamed with Ann Barclay and in 1969 she won a gold medal at the first Canada Games. Years later, in 1990, she added a pair of National Senior Women’s Singles and Doubles championship trophies.
A member of the original Canadian Federation Cup Women’s Team in 1963, Louise was chosen playing captain two consecutive years, and then she was selected non-playing captain for three more years in 1966, 1967 and 1969. Her achievements and successes earned her an invitation three times to the All-England Championship at Wimbledon, one of the glamour stops on the grand-slam tournament circuit.