Tennis - 1997
Julius Heldman was a Hollywood High School student in 1936 when he captured the United States Junior (18 & under) Outdoor Singles and Doubles Championships. At UCLA in 1937, he was the Pacific Coast’s Intercollegiate Singles Champion. After captaining the Bruin tennis team through 1939, he left competitive tennis to work on his Ph.D at Stanford.
From 1945 to 1980, Heldman was an executive with the Shell Oil Company. Nevertheless, he was ranked #1 in Men’s Singles by the California Tennis Association in 1947. And, in 1964 and 1965, Heldman won the U.S. Senior (45-over) Indoor titles, and was 1964 Outdoor Clay Court Champion. He reached the semi-finals of the Wimbeldon Senior Doubles three times in the late 1960s.
Julius is patriarch of what some have called “the first family of American tennis.” He is the father of former top-ranked women’s champion Julie Heldman and Canadian champion