‘Mr Tennis’ leaves Israeli court 40-love up

Dr Ian Froman, appropriately nicknamed “Mr Tennis” for bringing the game to Israel and making it part of its lifestyle, passed away at the age of 87 on 9 September.

While so many in his professional life as a dentist, fundraiser, and tennis guru mourn his loss, his two nieces, Sarah Froman Ettlinger and Judy Froman Cowan, have paid tribute to him.

While in primary school, Judy wrote about her hero, her uncle Ian, simply because, she said, “He risked everything for love and chose to live his life giving love, receiving love, and doing what he loved. And for this, the 10-year-old inside of me has looked up to him all my life.”

She said his enduring love for tennis became obvious as far back as when he began nursery school. His parents, Kate and Philip, were involved in Jewish education in South Africa. “While on a drive in Linksfield one day, they discovered a mushroom farm on auction, and convinced the South African Jewish Board of Education to buy it and establish a Jewish school there,” said Judy.

“My father, Colin, and my uncle, Ian, were at King Edward VII Preparatory School and my zaida told the board that if the name King Edward was good enough for their school, the name King David would be good enough for the new Jewish school.” The farm was bought, and Kate Froman became interim headmistress at King David Linksfield.

“I cannot imagine what the dynamic must have been like between Ian and his parents when he point blank refused to walk into his nursery school classroom,” said Judy. “At the age of four, he arrived at Genia Ludwin’s classroom holding a tennis racket larger than himself, and demanded that she draw a line on the wall outside the classroom so he could hit his tennis ball against the wall while the other children played with dough. And so it was. Ian got his make-shift nursery school tennis court, and spent every day in the sunshine doing what he loved.”

Judy said her parents used to call her uncle “the sunshine and orange-juice kid”, and she spoke about how he went on to play at Wimbledon and represent Israel at the Davis Cup. Had her uncle turned pro, Judy said, he would have gone far in his tennis career, but “My zaida insisted that Ian couldn’t rely on tennis to make a living. So he relented out of respect for his father, and reluctantly became a dentist.”

Judy described her uncle as “athletic, good looking, very charming, and his vast repertoire of jokes rolled easily off his tongue. It’s no surprise that women adored him.”

“But,” she said, “after Ian met Ruth Esakov – a stand-in date to the Wits Dental Ball which was held on a Friday night because Ian’s then girlfriend was shomeret Shabbat – he had eyes for no other.”

Ian and Ruth married in 1963, and had a love affair that lasted more than 60 years.

Judy said she recently watched a video of the Froman couple in their 80s. “There was this wonderful couple giggling and dancing together, and I marvelled at how their love had lasted a lifetime. If Ian was my hero, Ian and Ruth were my idyllic couple.”

They loved each other and both loved Israel and chose to risk everything in the 1960s to make a new life for themselves and their family in Israel, she said.

“And after my zaida passed away in 1971, Ruthie encouraged Ian to chuck in dentistry and live his dream, finally making a career of tennis,” Judy said.

Sarah spoke of him believing “in sport as a tool to change lives and wanting to gift tennis with its white uniform and rules of behaviour to the children of Israel who at that time had no proper sports facilities”.

She said that after fighting in the Yom Kippur war, Froman left his dentistry practice and built a tennis centre in Ramat Hasharon. Over the years, he raised about $200 million (R3.5 billion) for the Israel Tennis centres, she said.

“I remember the days when he travelled with young Israeli kids to our home in Houghton and would put on exhibitions on our tennis court. Like the Pied Piper, the kids and everyone else bought into his belief,” Sarah said.

She spoke of Gilad Bloom, a former professional Israeli tennis champion, being one of those kids. “He wrote on Facebook that everything he became in life was due to the confidence that Ian instilled in him in those early years. He was one of many who felt that way.”

Judy spoke of her uncle’s vision, saying, “He understood that sport could be used to encourage interaction between people of all backgrounds, to teach discipline and decorum, and help educate Israel’s burgeoning multicultural population to integrate and get on with each other. He went on to establish 12 more tennis centres around Israel, most of which were placed in areas where kids needed a place they could go to for free to do their homework, meet other kids, and learn about life from each other and their coaches.

“The success of his labour of love was recognised when Ian received the Israel Prize – the Israeli equivalent of a knighthood – for his contribution to sport and the betterment of society in Israel.”

It was so clear, Judy said after reading all the tributes to her uncle in the Israeli media, that he was far more than just “Mr Tennis”, he had truly transformed people’s lives.

Sarah said her cousin, Amira, Froman’s second daughter, spoke at the funeral of the father she shared with thousands of children from the tennis centres, who sang, You Are My Sunshine to her every night as a child.

Sarah said that her cousin, Philip, “spoke of the father who was by his side for so many years, who believed in him and taught him that nothing was more important than family. Most of all the fact that Ian showered him with love so that he felt a sense of security every day of his life.”

Sarah quoted Philip as saying, “My dad had such incredible charisma and charm, but in a simple, genuine way, that instantly entered people’s hearts and left an everlasting impression on them, be it world famous tennis players such as Jimmy Connors, Israeli leaders such as Yitzhak Rabin, Chaim Hertzog, and so many others.”

Froman lived out his years in Beit Yanay surrounded by all those he loved and who loved him – his wife Ruthie; his three children, Yarona, Amira and Philip; his 11 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Recalled Judy, “I visited them all a couple of months ago, and was so delighted to see all the kids in the Beit Yanay community come from active duty in Gaza to our cousin, Amit’s, hummus bar on a Friday morning for some hummus and to let their hair down. Every one of them greeted Ian warmly, shook his hand, and treated him like their grandfather, because that’s what he was: a father, uncle, and grandfather to us all.”