DAVE RILEY

CLASS OF 2002
 

Dave Riley was born in Rolla, Missouri, in 1937.  While attending Phillips University in 1955, his roommate recruited him to fill an empty spot on the school tennis team, which was his first time to ever hit a tennis ball.  After playing two years of varsity tennis at Phillips, he was undecided whether to drop out of college or join the Air Force.  That summer in his hometown of St. Charles, Missouri, he was approached by William F. McMurray, who asked if he wanted to learn to play tennis well.  That led to lessons, six hours a day of practice, and an August call by Mr. McMurray to Coach Clarence Dyer at Southeastern State University in Durant, Oklahoma.  The next week Dave was attending Southeastern on a full tennis scholarship.  Two years later he transferred to the University of Oklahoma to attend pharmacy school graduating in 1962.

Nearly twenty years passed before he played tennis again.  Then in 1978 he made up for lost time by playing 6-12 tournaments a year at the state, section, and national level for the next twenty years.  Some of those years he won as many as ten tournaments.  He was ranked number 1 many times in Oklahoma and the Missouri Valley and once achieved a national ranking of 8.  He won the Gold Medal in doubles in the Senior Olympics in 1993 and 1995, a Bronze Medal in singles in 1993, and a Silver Medal in singles in 2003.  Those matches earned him a challenge match against Stan Smith and Bob Lutz.  He coached the Cascia Hall Prep School tennis team from 1980 to 1990 when they won their first ever State Championship.

Dave has been President of the Oklahoma District Tennis Association and the Missouri Valley Tennis Association and has been inducted into the Missouri Valley Tennis Hall of Fame.  He continues to work as a pharmacist.  He and his wife Marlene live in Tulsa.