Bakersfield Racquet Club

The Bakersfield Racquet Club was founded in 1948 by the late Lake Lovelace, an avid tennis player who moved to Bakersfield in 1922. At that time there were no private or commercial tennis clubs in the area, so Lake organized the local players at Jastro Park into a public parks club named Bakersfield Tennis Club. From 1939 to 1948 Lake operated a small tennis shop at Jastro Park and along with a few local businessmen tennis players came up with the idea of building a member-owned and operated private tennis club. A Tennis Development Corporation was created to sell stock and the tennis facility was built in 1948. A membership club was then created, which was named the Bakersfield Racquet Club. Many years later, before he died, Lake Lovelace wrote a book about the club which he titled: A Home for Tennis. From the beginning the club was centered around the family, welcoming children of all ages. That tradition continues to this day with a vigorous youth program and Nike tennis camps. Over the years many nationally ranked tennis players grew up on the BRC courts: Jack Lynch, Louise Snow, Sally Moore Huss, Dennis Ralston, Marianne Werdel Witmeyer, Hank Pfister, and numerous talented junior players, like our own U.S. Girls' Super National 16s Champion Danon Beatty. Dennis Ralston was ranked #1 by the US Lawn Tennis Association for 1964, 65, 66. He played on the Davis Cup team in the middle 60's and later became Captain of the US Davis Cup team for a number of years. Dennis was instrumental in bringing to the Bakersfield Racquet Club the Davis Cup tie between the U.S. and Canada in 1965 ( June 2-4, 1965 ), making Bakersfield one of the few cities in California ever to host a Davis Cup event.