Longtime Hamilton High West tennis coach Jim Ditmars had never met the legendary Carl “Ace” Abbott until last spring.
It didn’t take long for Ditmars to understand why 100 of Ace’s closest friends will be honoring him with a 99th birthday party in November.
“He came out last year to cheer on one of our players, Ben Mundt,” Ditmars said. “The Mundts are friends of Carl’s. I spoke with him briefly and thanked him for his support of our tennis team.
“I couldn’t help but notice his enthusiasm as he spoke with great animation and passion for the game of tennis. Having a reserved parking space at Vets Park tennis courts is quite a testament of his love for the game and I’m sure a much deserved honor. He’s 99 years young and still involved… now that’s an enriched life!”
A life that will be celebrated at the Mercer County Tennis Center on Nov. 3 – his birthday — in an event that was sold out almost immediately after it was announced, according to organizer Ann LoPrinzi (who is running the party along with Mercer County Community College coach Mark Vecchiolla).
It’s not surprising, as Abbott has been touching lives in Hamilton Township for more than six decades. He doesn’t only have a reserved spot for his famous yellow Jaguar at the Veterans Park tennis courts. The soccer field at Hamilton High West has been named after Abbott, as have the tennis facility at Veterans Park. He spent a lengthy tenure as the Hornets basketball and soccer coach.
Abbott’s former player and friend for 50 years, Jack Bell and his wife Kathy, were driving forces in getting the field and courts named after Ace.
“He’s just a unique individual,” Bell said. “He had lot to do with the futures of me and my wife. He got me started in coaching.”
Bell played on Abbott’s 1962 Group IV state championship soccer team, which defeated Bloomfield 2-0 at Rutgers on Nov. 24 of that year.
“A lot of people don’t know this story,” Bell said. “But after we won, he told us to all get in our cars. He had a little MGB, and he rode around the township beeping his horn with other guys who drove all following him.
“Then he got to the old Steinert (the building that is now Nottingham), and he drove right on the field and the guys all followed him. To this day, I don’t think Steinert ever knew it was him that did that.”
And as much as Abbott enjoyed celebrating his victories, he took poor play and losses just the opposite.
“He was a tough coach, very tough, but we all loved him,” Bell said. “He used to bring a ladder out to our field and stand on the ladder and watch us practice. One day, we only beat Princeton 2-0, and the next practice he brought out galoshes and made us run in our galoshes.”
“During basketball practice, I was talking when I shouldn’t have been, and I got a basketball on the side of my head,” recent HHW Hall of Fame inductee Jack Lippincott recalled with a laugh. “Another time we were losing a game against Princeton by 10 points with one minute to go and ended up losing by two. Ace went into the locker room and kicked in a few lockers.”
They were different times of course. But even back then boys would be boys.
“Every Saturday night there was a canteen at the school,” Lippincott said. “The last dance of the night, Carl would announce over the loud speaker for ‘the boys to keep your hands to yourself.’”
Abbott is a 1932 graduate of Trenton Central High School and a 1937 grad of Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey).
After coaching varsity basketball for one year at Penns Grove High School in South Jersey, he returned to Mercer County and continued to teach at Hamilton’s now-defunct Kuser Annex until 1942.
When World War II broke out, Abbott was drafted by the Army Air Corps and served for four years as a Lieutenant Colonel. After being discharged in 1946, he began a 38-year career at Hamilton West as a business teacher, guidance counselor and coach.
In 1949, he earned a master’s degree from Rutgers in educational administration and a doctorate equivalency diploma in 1951.
Ironically, Abbott did not begin the sport he is known best for until near the end of his teaching career, when he began tennis in 1980 while in his 60s.
“I think it’s the measure of the way he’s lived his life,” said Steinert girls’ tennis coach Bob Howland, a member of the Mercer County Tennis Hall of Fame. “He’s always put 100 percent into what he was doing at that moment. That’s why he was such a great coach at Hamilton West.
“After he retired he was looking for something else to get involved with. He always wanted to be involved in the community.”
Abbott began taking lessons from local standout instructors Bill Stoner, Phyllis Devlin and Moe Keating. He considered himself a tennis journeyman and felt too many people got too frustrated with the sport too quickly.
“In one lesson, they want to hit a forehand, a backhand and a serve,” Abbott once said. “They get disappointed, but it does not work that way. Men are the worst – they want instant results. Practice, practice, practice is the only way to becoming a better player.”
Once he grasped the nuances of the game, Abbott began donating his time to giving free lessons at Veterans Park. He mostly worked with senior citizens, but anyone was invited.
“He took the stuff he was already doing at Hamilton West and incorporated it on the tennis courts,” Howland said. “He became a teacher and mentor and an influence mostly for seniors.
“He ran those free clinics at Veterans Park for years and he had his regular playing group. He was always out there playing.”
And teaching, always teaching.
“Anyone who came out on the courts, he taught them,” Bell said. “Even if they didn’t want him to teach them, he taught them anyway. He’d meet many of the students he taught at West and go over strokes with them.”
Abbott was a charter member of the Kuser Tennis League and was honored in 1998 for his commitment and devotion to tennis when Hamilton Township dedicated the Veterans’ Park Tennis Complex to him, proclaiming that, “Mr. Abbott has inspired many young adults as a teacher in the school system and as a coach of his beloved sport of tennis. Mr. Abbott is held in very high public esteem as a gentleman, an athlete and a role model.”
Abbott was married to his wife Ann, who died three years ago, for over 50 years. He continued to play tennis until last year when he fell during a match and broke his hip.
“The cop came out to help him and said to him ‘How old are you?’ and he said ‘I’m 98,’” Bell said. “The cop said ‘What the hell are you doing out here?’”
Bell noted that Ace’s mind is still sharp as he recites scores of games and names of players from that 1962 state championship team.
“He’s quite a guy, you’ve never met anyone like him,” Bell said. “And there will never be anyone like him again.”
The respect shown to Abbott comes in the form of that parking spot, which is by the steps that go from the parking lot to the courts. If the yellow Jag isn’t there, nothing is.
“He’s a great gentleman and a role model,” Howland said. “He hasn’t driven since he hurt his hip, but no one still wants to park in that spot. It’s like there’s a force field around it.”
