EDDIE PHILLIPS:  BLAZING THE TRAIL 
5/22/06
by Sara James

UPDATE:  
Eddie Phillips passed away on September 22, 2006.  To read messages or to leave a message for his family, please visit [here]

On Eddie Phillips' 225 acre homestead off Huguenot Trail in Midlothian, there is a tennis court.  The day I visited, Eddie's daughter was hitting on it with a friend.  I drove up to the house via the long expanse of gravel road, and felt like I was entering Tara, past cows and grazing horses and long grass blowing behind the fencing that defined the road.   I was 5 minutes late to the appointment, which is not that unusual for me. The tennis players on the court smiled as I parked nearby, and told me they liked my license plate ( L8 2 10S).

I apologized for my delayed arrival and they assured me it was fine. Eddie came out to meet me, the sun shining on his cleanly shaved head.  He offered me his arm instead of his hand when I reached to shake it.  Eddie just had his 8th round of chemo, he explained.  "I even have to do that with the minister."

Time seems to stand still at the Phillips' farm.  I spent well nearly two hours there, touring the house and grounds and the woodworking building specially built for Eddie to craft furniture before he became ill.   Now it houses woodworking tools and benches used by Eddie's wife to carve absolutely exquisite duck decoys, vases, bowls and wall hangings.  "It's a hobby.  Somebody asked her to carve a piece and he called to ask her if it was finished yet.  She had to say it wasn't nearly ready, and that's why she doesn't do it as a business.  That way there's no stress," Eddie told me.

Eddie and his wife, Linda, have had their share of stress in the past few years, and now surrounded by their farm and the river, there is a peacefulness that probably comes with having done good things in your life.  With filling your scrapbook full.  

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Eddie Phillips lived close enough to thumb a ride across the nickel bridge nearly every day in the summer to play baseball on the fields at Byrd Park. One day as the 13 year old sat alone on the bench eating his lunch, Sam Woods approached and asked if he would be interested in hitting some tennis balls. "He said he had an extra racquet, and he put it in my hand," said Eddie.  From then on, Eddie was hooked on tennis.  "He was a very patient man.  He seemed to always have the time to get around to most of the kids. There were 5 or 6 that were his top players, and he'd spend more time with them.  But everybody got attention."

Eddie attended Tee-Jay where he played behind Bobby Payne, Gene Wash, Bobby Bortner and Lanny Ross.  "I worked hard to just get to #6."  

Eventually, Eddie was good enough to play #2.  Eddie's parents were supportive, but the motivation to play always came from Eddie.  "My dad worked all the time just to put food on the table," he said.

Actually, that was the way it was with a good many of Sam Woods' students.  "Most of the guys who ended up so successful, would never have even gone to college if it weren't for Sam," said Eddie.  "Bruce & Del Sylvia's dad, and Bobby Payne's dad - they drove a bus for the city.  They weren't country club kids."

"Now Bobby Bortner, he had somewhere near 15 college offers, for football.  He was an All-State end.  And he had about 10 offers to play tennis.  He was another one of those incredible athletes.  Our last year of high school, we played #1 doubles together."  Bortner and Phillips remain close friends.

Eddie changes his clothes in the car for a tennis match at Byrd Park, 1962

After high school, Eddie received offers to Davidson and George Washington.  He wasn't interested in George Washington, and his dad refused to submit the financial statement required by Davidson.  "So one day we drove down to William and Mary.  Dad knew a guy there.  I was accepted, and offered a scholarship, but dad wouldn't let me take it.  He said I wouldn't want to be a 'hired hand'." Eddie played tennis anyway for William and Mary, in the #1 spot.  He finished as a finalist in the city tournament to O.H. Parrish twice, in 1962 and 1965.  In 1966, things were set up well for him.  "That year I was fortunate.  My doubles partner beat Dick Makepeace, and Bortner got beaten, so all that was good for me."  He claimed the title, defeating Bobby Cabell, Jr.

Eddie was active in Westwood Club tournaments and the Hotchkiss Cup team in the 60's, playing doubles many times with Makepeace and Cabell.  His career kept him busy at the Terminals, working with his father. His first marriage ended, and he met Linda, who was dating his doubles partner at the time.  They have two children, Eddie, Jr. and Debbie.  Eddie, Jr. is an outstanding player who played at St. Christopher's.  He often pairs with Willow Oaks pro Lynn Bybee in tournaments.  "I built the tennis court to keep him around awhile," said Eddie. Debbie uses the court too, since she lives just up the road from her parents.  The horses are for the grandkids.

Last summer, his eye bulged and a visit to the doctor confirmed a bad prognosis.  The cancer had returned.  No surgery was anticipated.  He was told maybe two to three months.  Eddie entered a hospice.  

Chemotherapy seemed to work.  "One day, the bulge had shrunken so much that my eye just popped back open," Eddie said.

Eddie left the hospice, and came back to the farm and a reclining bed in the den, where he anticipated being for 90 days.  After 45 days in bed, he got bored.  "I went to the doctor and said 'this is getting old.'  I asked him if there was something else I could do.

"He said, sure.  Go ahead and get out of bed and do anything you want. So I did."

There is hardly any evidence that Eddie has been very sick inside the Phillips' home.  Where Eddie's reclining bed used to be, we perused piled-up scrapbooks in search of old photographs from his tennis 'glory days'.

In one scrapbook, we came upon on article written on the death of his  friend and tennis partner, Wayne Adams.  "Wayne was the best player who never won the City or State tournament," Eddie said.  He died in a freak accident, one of those random events that happens to college students who crave the extra thrill.  "We played doubles together for two years, had just played together that summer before he went off to Randolph-Macon.  He was a great friend."

"Linament Smells like Roses to Phillips," stated an article from the Times-Dispatch.  "The sweet smell of success had a distinct odor for Phillips at the Tidewater Invitational."

According to the story, Eddie forced a 45 minute delay to receive leg massages for treatment of leg cramps.  "Eddie beat (1) mumps, (2) too much salt and (3) a spinal injury to win the Championship."

"I don't remember having an injured back," Eddie said to me and Linda.  

Eddie told the reporter at the time that "I took at least 20 salt tablets today when I got up and then I just never stopped."  

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"I feel good," Eddie told me.  He gave me his permission to write about his struggle, and his 'miracle man' status to date.  "I like to feel like I'm blazing a trail.  I'm doing something that doctors didn't think would happen."

Eddie Phillips is one great Champion, and not just in tennis.