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Jimmy Connors: 12 things I learned from Connors memoir 'The Outsider'
Here are a dozen things I learned from reading "The Outsider: A Memoir," by tennis great Jimmy Connors.
Tennis star Jimmy Connors and his mother Gloria in Beverly Hills, Calif., April 12, 1978, (AP)
1. Mother knows best
Gloria Connors, Jimmy’s mother, was his handler and coach, a fact that may have seemed odd on the surface and led to some ridicule of Connors as a “momma’s boy,” but Gloria knew her stuff. As a player, she was good enough to have competed at the US National Championships at Forest Hills, in New York City, in 1942 and 1943. She also was a master motivator when it came to pushing Jimmy’s buttons. She never let him practice for more than an hour at a time so that he wouldn’t tire of playing and would be eager for more.
