September 24, 1938: Don Budge Wins the Grand Slam

September 24, 1938: Don Budge wins the men's singles title at tennis' U.S. Open, at the Forest Hills Stadium in Queens. This completes the sport's 1st-ever grand slam.

John Donald Budge was born on June 13, 1915 in Oakland, California. His father, John "Jack" Budge, was from Scotland, and played for the reserve team at Glasgow club Rangers before coming to America. Don didn't begin playing tennis until he was 13, urged to take it up by his brother Lloyd, who was on the team at the University of California in nearby Berkeley. Don would also play tennis at "Cal" (the school is usually called that for sports purposes, and "Berkeley" for everything else), but dropped out to play full-time. In 1937, he won both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. In fact, at Wimbledon, he won tennis' version of the Triple Crown: His gender's singles and doubles, and mixed doubles.

At the time, the long distance between Australia and the other 3 "majors," and the lack of safe and fast air travel, meant that, for players from outside Australia and New Zealand who wanted to play in the Australian Open, they would have to take a long cruise ship ride. So many of them didn't try; likewise, many of the better Australian players didn't play in Wimbledon or the U.S. or French Opens.

But Budge went for what was the Australian Open, and won the men's singles title in Adelaide on January 31, 1938, defeating Australian player John Bromwich, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1. On June 11, he defeated Roderich Menzel of Czechoslovakia, 6-3, 6-2 and 6-4 to win the French Open. On July 2, in the "gentlemen's singles" Final at Wimbledon, he beat Englishman Henry "Bunny" Austin, 6-1, 6-0, 6-3. He won the Triple Crown at that meet, too.

Coming home, the American press began to compare the feat-in-the-making to the sweep of golf titles by Bobby Jones in 1930, winning the U.S. and British Opens, and the U.S. and British Amateurs, all in the same year: If Budge could win the U.S. Open, that would be considered the "Grand Slam."

In the Quarterfinal, he beat Australian Harry Hopman, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3. In the Semifinal, he beat American Sidney Wood, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3. Bromwich fell in the other Semifinal, to American Gene Mako. In the Final, on September 24, Mako did what no other player did in any of the majors: He made Budge lose a set. After Budge won the 1st set, 6-3, Mako won the 2nd set, 8-6. It may only have made Budge more determined, because he dominated the rest of the way, winning the 3rd set, 6-2; and the 4th set, 6-1. He also won another Triple Crown, to go with his Grand Slam.

After this achievement, he turned professional, making him ineligible for the traditional majors: They wouldn't permit professionals to compete until 1968. However, in 1939, he won the French Pro and the Wembley Pro. In 1940 and 1942, he won the U.S. Pro.

Sidney Wood, an American who won Wimbledon in 1931, claimed to have competed, in one format or another, "against virtually every top player in the world." He said ranking Budge as the greatest tennis player he ever saw was a "no-brainer," and that he was "recognized by his peers as the one player to have commanded not only every shot in the book for every surface, but also to have been blessed with the single most destructive tennis weapon ever -- a bludgeon backhand struck with a sixteen ounce 'Paul Bunyan' bat."

Budge retired from competition in 1961. In 1997, when the new Arthur Ashe Stadium opened as the centerpiece of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center at Flushing Meadow-Corona Park in Queens, Budge was the earliest of the tennis champions invited to attend. He died on January 26, 2000, at the age of 84.

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September 24, 1938 was a Saturday. In English soccer, North London team Arsenal hosted Birmingham team Aston Villa at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, and they played to a 0-0 draw.

These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 7-6 at Yankee Stadium. Red Ruffing ran out of gas in the 9th inning, and gave up a home run to Jimmie Foxx, the 48th of 50 he would hit that season. For the Yankees, Bill Dickey hit a home run, Lou Gehrig went 1-for-4 with an RBI, and Joe DiMaggio also went 1-for-4. The Yankees had already clinched the American League Pennant 2 days earlier.

* The New York Giants swept a doubleheader from the Boston Bees, 9-8 and 2-1 at National League Park in Boston. Those are the names the Boston team of the National League used from 1936 to 1940, but the change never caught on with the fans, and they went back to being the Boston Braves, playing at Braves Field. Over the 2 games, Mel Ott went 3-for-8 with 2 walks and 3 RBIs.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-1 at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.

* The Washington Senators beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 7-3 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Taffy Wright hit a 2-run triple, part of a 4-run top of the 10th inning.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Paul Waner went 1-for-4, Lloyd Waner went 2-for-4, and each also drew a walk.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-6 at Briggs Stadium (later Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. The Tigers scored 6 runs in the bottom of the 7th to win it. Charlie Gehringer hit a home run. Hank Greenberg went 0-for-2 with 2 walks, feeding the myth that pitchers were walking him semi-intentionally because they didn't want to see a Jewish player break Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs in a season. He had hit 2 the day before, to give him 56, but over the last 9 games of the season, had only 2 more homers, and 9 walks.

* The Chicago Cubs beat their arch-rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The Cubs went on to win the National League Pennant, but were swept by the Yankees in the World Series.

* And a doubleheader was split at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The St. Louis Browns won the 1st game, 8-7. The Chicago White Sox won the 2nd game, 3-2.

Among the college football games played that day were these:

* Alabama beat the University of Southern California, 19-7 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Early-season intersectional matchups like this would become common, but were not at this point. USC went on to win the Pacific Coast Conference.

* In another notable intersectional matchup, Minnesota beat the University of Washington, 15-0 at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. UW went 3-5-1. In contrast, Minnesota went 6-2, and won the Big Ten Conference title, but they didn't go to a bowl game, either: Not until the 1946 season would the Rose Bowl become a matchup between the Champions of the Big Ten and the league eventually known as the Pac-12.

* Duke beat Virginia Tech, 18-0 at World War Memorial Stadium in Greensboro, North Carolina. Duke went undefeated and won the Southern Conference title, before losing the Rose Bowl to USC.

* Tennessee beat Sewanee, 26-3 at Shields-Watkins Field (later renamed Neyland Stadium) in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee, which won the Southeastern Conference title, and Oklahoma, who opened their season the following week, and won the Big Six Conference title both went undefeated, and faced each other in the Rose Bowl, where Tennessee won, and put in a claim for the National Championship.

* Texas Christian University beat Centenary College of Louisiana, 13-0 at TCU Stadium (later Amon G. Carter Stadium) in Fort Worth, Texas. This was nothing to sneeze at: Centenary went 7-3 the rest of the way. But TCU, with lefthanded quarterback Davey O'Brien winning the Heisman Trophy, went undefeated, and won the Southwest Conference title. They beat Carnegie Tech in the Sugar Bowl, to also lay a claim for the National Championship. Most sources chose TCU Number 1, and Tennessee Number 2. (Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie-Mellon University, opened their season the week after this date.)

* Army beat Wichita State, 32-0 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York.

* Navy beat William & Mary, 26-0 at Thompson Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.

* In a rivalry that would one day be known as the "Backyard Brawl," the University of Pittsburgh beat West Virginia, 19-0 at Pitt Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The University of California beat fellow East Bay team Saint Mary's, 12-7 at Memorial Stadium, in Berkeley, California. Cal would lose only 1 game that season, but it was to USC, blowing their chance at league and national honors. St. Mary's were invited to the Cotton Bowl.

* Texas Tech beat Wyoming, 39-0 at Tech Field (now Jones AT&T Stadium -- not named for Jerry Jones) in Lubbock, Texas. Tech won the Border Conference and went undefeated, until losing the Cotton Bowl to St. Mary's.

* Notre Dame opened its season the next week, and went undefeated until losing their regular-season finale to USC.

* Columbia, Fordham, NYU, CCNY and Brooklyn College all opened their seasons the next week. The only New York City team playing that week was Manhattan College, and they lost to St. Bonaventure, 7-6 at Ebbets Field. So a school named for Manhattan, but located in The Bronx, played a "home game" in Brooklyn. That season, they also played 2 games at the Polo Grounds, and 3 games at Yankee Stadium.

* And Rutgers beat Marietta, 20-0 at Neilson Field in New Brunswick, New Jersey. New Jersey's other major school, Princeton, opened the next week. Rutgers opened the original Rutgers Stadium later in the year, beating Princeton.