Promoting Scottish Amateur Radio to the World
and the hobby of Amateur Radio to Scotland
Wilmer Allison W5W
Wilmer Allison was i
nducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1964
Wilmer Allison won the Wimbledon doubles title in 1929 and 1930 with partner John Van Ryn. They are considered by many tennis historians to be the best doubles combination of the period.
He achieved the number one ranking in the US in 1934 and 1935.
Wilmer featured in the February 1934 edition of QST magazine:
TENNIS is no problem to him, but that African QSO has him stopped. Wilmer Allison, W5VV, second ranking tennis player in the U.S., member of the Davis Cup team for six years and captain in American Zone play for 1933, was national intercollegiate singles champion in 1927, national mixed doubles champion with Edith Cross in 1930, national men’s doubles championship with John Van Ryn in 1930, with whom he also won the doubles at Wimbledon and the world’s doubles championship in 1929 and 1930, and captain of the U.S. team to Australia last fall.
An O.R.S., he enjoys chewing the rag and handling traffic, but his biggest kick is meeting in person hams all over the world with whom he has QSO’d. He’s a real old-timer; started in 1919. Biggest thrill: being one of the first to contact 6ZAC in Honolulu. Biggest disappointment: failure of his kw. spark to get across to Paul Godley in Scotland in 1922. The really important thing, he insists, however, is that he still hasn’t got Africa for his WAC.
A few years earlier, in 1932, Wilmer wrote this letter (while sailing aboard the RMS Olympic) to the editor of QST that he titled, ‘Friendly Hams’:
For about five years now it has been my pleasure to play tennis as a member of the U.S. Davis Cup team and no matter where I am, Europe, Mexico, Cuba, Hawaii, anywhere, the local hams have always given me a royal welcome. Where in the world is there a fraternity more broad in scope or whose members are bound together more closely than ours?
Four of us are going to Australia via Hawaii and New Zealand to play tennis this fall and winter. I anticipate meeting face to face a lot of the hams I have made contact with in the small hours of the night, as well as another trip to that station of stations, K6BOE. Guess my DX this winter will be confined to what I do on foot! Hi!
–signed, Wilmer Allison, W5VV
During World War II he was a colonel in the U.S. Army Air Force and from 1956 through 1972, Allison served as unpaid tennis coach at the University of Texas. The school won four Southwestern Conference championships during his tenure.
He became a Silent Key on April 20, 1977, in Austin, TX.
I’ve never seen his call or name on any list of famous hams, which is odd because he was one of amateur radio’s most notable stars.
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