Induction Year: 1968
Sport: Tennis
Category: Athlete
* North Vancouver High grad class photo; North Vancouver Museum and Archives collection
Biography
When Caroline Deacon broke into the Top-10 ladies’ tennis singles rankings in Canada at number 6 at the age of 20 in 1933, it marked the first time that a North Vancouver player had ever reached such a high level of achievement in the sport. For the next seven years until 1940, only twice did she fall below fifth in the rankings and in 1934 she was tops on the list.
Caroline won the Canadian singles title in 1934, defeating up-and-coming Eleanor Young, also from North Vancouver, 7-5 and 6-3. She had beaten Eleanor in the championship match in three of the four prestigious B.C. tournaments in which they had played that summer: the Vancouver City, B.C. Interiors at Kelowna and Bowen Island championships.
That year the two of them also paired up to claim the Canadian doubles championship near the end of what became a memorable season. It’s actually possible that they were unbeaten in doubles that whole summer. Certainly they won the Vancouver, Kelowna and Bowen Island events as well as one in New Westminster plus the B.C. championships in Victoria, in addition to the Canadians. And in 1935 they competed in doubles on the courts at Wimbledon.