McCallie Dir. of Tennis Operations Eric Voges
photo by Jim Tanner/McCallie
Chris Woodruff, former UT NCAA Champion
photo by U of Tennessee/SID
UT assistant men's tennis coach Chris Woodruff (standing)
photo by U of Tenn./SID Dept
A pair of former U. of Tennessee tennis players and former state high school champions Eric Voges (McCallie School/UT) and Chris Woodruff (Knox Bearden HS/ UT) will be inducted into the Tennessee Tennis Hall of Fame January 28 in Nashville.
Voges was a UT captain in 1984 and 1985, was a TSSAA state doubles champion in 1979 and 1980 and a Chattanooga Rotary singles champion in 1981.
He served as head tennis coach for McCallie for the past 29 years and led the Blue Tornado to six state team titles. He is currently the director of tennis operations at McCallie.
The Lookout Mountain native was a four-year letter winner at UT, winning the SEC indoor singles title at No.6 as a sophomore and was team captain as a junior and senior.
“I am very honored and humbled to be selected,” said Voges, who is also a member of the Lookout Mountain Sports Hall of Fame and the Greater Chattanooga Sports Hall of Fame . “I am excited to be in there with so many great personalities of this great sport.
“I I have spent 50 years of playing and or coaching and I have enjoyed every part of it and especially excited at having Chris woodruff, a former student, also being inducted at the same time.”
Woodruff is currently an assistant coach for the UT men’s program and earned All-American honors in 1992 and 1993, winning the NCAA singles title as a sophomore in 1993. He was selected as the 2013 national assistant coach of the year.
As a pro, he won two singles titles, advanced to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in 2000 and his highest singles ranking was No.29 in the summer of 1997.
At Bearden HS, he won the 1988 TSSAA state doubles championship and the state singles title in 1990.
contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net