It was commonplace for Lisa Spain Short to start Saturday mornings with an early practice session. She couldn’t stay off the tennis court if she tried.
Short believed she needed each practice to be the best she could be and stay ahead of the competition. After all, it earned her the first athletic scholarship for a women’s tennis player at Georgia, which is the university she grew up loving as a kid.
Amid the attention the 1980 national championship Georgia football team received, Short began to form a Hall of Fame legacy down the street from Sanford Stadium at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex — one that would redefine women’s tennis at Georgia and set a trajectory of success within the program.
A sport to call her own
Growing up in Moultrie, Georgia, during the 1960s, Short didn’t get the same opportunities to play organized sports that boys had.
“Women’s sports were really nonexistent,” Short said. “I would just follow the boys in my neighborhood up to the Moultrie Recreation Department to watch their baseball, basketball and football games.”
During that time, girls normally weren’t interested in sports, Short said, but she described herself as a “tomboy.” She loved to hunt and fish, regularly doing so with her father on the weekend.
It wasn’t until Short was around the age of 8 when she noticed the tennis court at the recreation department.
“I immediately went home and told my mom to sign me up for tennis lessons,” Short said. “It was finally a sport I could play, and I could play it all day long.”
The start of Short’s tennis journey was also the start of an unlikely friendship with Mike Jenkins, a teacher who had just moved to Moultrie at the time.
“He was learning how to play tennis from a picture book,” Short said. “He ended up being my mentor and best friend, he took me under his wing and we learned together.”
Jenkins charged $1 an hour for lessons, and Short took full advantage of their sessions together. As Short grew up, her practice with Jenkins paid off in the form of a 56-1 career record while at Moultrie High School, now known as Colquitt County High School.
Short’s high level of play caught the eye of many Division I programs, including Georgia.
Choosing a college court
Greg McGarity, head coach of the Georgia women’s tennis team from 1978-1981, saw Short’s promise and knew immediately he wanted her as a Bulldog.
“[Short] was an impact player who could change the dynamics of a tennis program very quickly,” McGarity said. “She was tall, she was very strong and she had a big serve which at that time in women’s tennis was not something you saw very often.”
Short was also pursued by other schools, and in the end, her final decision was between Clemson and Georgia.
Both schools had respectable programs, and both were offering scholarships. However, the decision was easy for Short when she was offered to play in the No. 2 spot by Clemson head coach Mary Kennerty King because the Tigers already had an All-American at No. 1.
“I thought to myself and I didn’t say this to [Kennerty King], ‘Why would anyone want to play No. 2 if you can compete to play No. 1?’” Short said. “That was one of the defining moments, and I said ‘I think the University of Georgia is the place for me.’”
Short decided shortly thereafter to attend Georgia as the first women’s tennis player on an athletic scholarship, and if there was any indicator that she was destined for greatness at Georgia, it came during the first match of her career.
Georgia faced Clemson in an early-season match, and Short had the opportunity to play against the All-American she was offered to play behind.
“The first match I played, I ended up playing No. 1. The first person I got to beat was the All-American from Clemson,” Short said. “So it was just icing on the cake and a little salt in their wound for sure.”
A storied collegiate career
Victory would be the theme of Short’s time at Georgia. Across four years, she finished with a 123-21 overall record, going 71-7 in her final two seasons.
Among those that qualify, Short’s career record is still good enough for the program’s best career winning percentage at 85.4%. Her accolades didn’t stop her from her main goal though, which was to be a better teammate.
“She was infectious. She was a great teammate first of all, and she was the best player on our team, but she never let it get to her head,” McGarity said. “Everyone saw how hard she played and it set an example for others to follow.”
Short’s best season came in 1984 as a senior. She added numerous accolades to her resume as she was named an All-American for the third time and garnered All-SEC honors for the fourth time.
All Short lacked was a national championship, and she was determined to earn one alongside her Georgia men’s tennis counterpart, Mikael Pernfors.
“Mikael and I both had these awesome years, and before I left for Los Angeles to play in Nationals we spoke,” Short said. “We both had this feeling that it was going to happen, that we were both going to win an individual title.”
Their feelings were justified that week as both Short and Pernfors won the women’s and men’s NCAA singles national championship.
Short was also honored after the season with the Broderick Award, given to the best women’s tennis player in college each year. She finished her Georgia career on top of the collegiate tennis world, establishing a standard the program would uphold in the decades that followed.
“She is still one of the best players to ever play here,” said current women’s tennis head coach Jeff Wallace. “To be the first scholarship recipient, first All-American and watch the program in the future go on to win championships, she was the footprint and the start of all of that.”
Continuing to inspire
As a player for Georgia, Short said she didn’t have the full scope of what her career would mean in the future of the women’s tennis program at Georgia. The program remains one of the best in the country, with six national championships, and is currently ranked No. 3 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
Looking back now, Short can see the trail she blazed for the program.
“When you’re a 17 and 18-year-old kid, you can’t really think of the ramifications it will bring in the future,” Short said. “But as I got older, I realized it was a big deal because when I signed that scholarship paper, I was the first, and seeing all the people who came after me makes me really proud now.”
Short is still receiving honors to this day for her collegiate career. In September 2020, her induction into the ITA Women’s Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame was announced.
The honor is fitting for Short, as she will be the first Bulldog to ever earn that distinction, Wallace said. The induction ceremony will take place on September 18.
“It’s just incredible,” Wallace said. “The Women’s Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame is an elite group. You look at all the great [college athletes] that have come through, coast to coast, the past 50 years, it’s just such a huge honor for her and great for the women’s tennis program here.”
Nowadays, Short spends time tending to goats and chickens or tirelessly practicing her golf swing. But her favorite activity is teaching young kids the sport she once dominated.
Short’s biggest hope is to inspire girls and give them the confidence to play sports and do what they love, a message she said she wished she received in the 1960s when women’s sports weren’t as common.
“When I have my little girls on the court, I tell them to hit [the ball] like a girl and to play like a girl and to win like a girl,” Short said. “It’s something they can not only use on the tennis court, but in life, because if someone says you can do something and you work hard enough, it doesn’t matter if you’re a girl or a boy, you can do it.”
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April 19, 2021 at 07:00PM
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How Lisa Spain Short took Georgia women's tennis to new heights - Red and Black
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