I've been watching the Wimbledon men's final--sorry, that's the Gentlemen's Singles championship--telecasts on NBC since the late 1970s. The match used to be played on a Saturday and the network started to broadcast it live in 1979. That's when my clear memories of seeing these matches begin. I'm pretty sure I saw some of the Connors/Borg battles before that, but the Tanner match--in which Borg on his fourth straight--is very clear in my mind. The men moved to Sunday play and the women's final subsequently got the "Breakfast At Wimbledon" live treatment on Saturdays.
I can remember seeing specific matches in particular places over the years: the graceful Bjorn Borg battling John McEnroe on a small black-and-white television at my cousin's house in East Hampton, CT; watching in the residence of a senior member of the English Department at St. Paul's School when Becker won his first title as a 17-year-old; the Cash/Lendl final in my apartment at Phillips Academy; seeing Agassi's breakthrough 1992 win on my tiny portable TV in Billings, Montana; and finding a common room on the Stanford campus with a television and a crowd to enjoy last year's epic Nadal victory.
It's a great tradition.
