With several professional titles and more than 20 years of coaching the Murray State men's and women's tennis teams under his belt, Mel Purcell still stays close to the sport he has mastered.
The Joplin, Missouri, native moved to Murray with his family in the 1960s. His father, Bennie Purcell, was a professional basketball player who had a stint touring with the Harlem Globetrotter rivals the Washington Generals.
Purcell says his father – who coached Murray State tennis players for nearly three decades – gave him an advantage by teaching him at a young age. He says he would observe his father coaching college students.
“I had a built-in academy when I was younger,” Purcell said. “I could play with my dad’s tennis team. He gave me the option to go get a job or come to the courts and play for four hours. That was an easy decision – especially when I was 15 years old.”
Purcell said his talent became evident when he started competing against players on his father’s team who were nearly twice his age. He played at the Kentucky State Tennis Tournament as a fifth grader with his older brother, Del, where they won two state doubles crowns. After his high school career, he played for Memphis State University – now known as the University of Memphis – before transferring to the University of Tennessee, where he won an NCAA doubles Championship. At that time, Purcell was ranked No.1 in the world among players under 21.
Purcell said he realized he had what it took to become a professional tennis player after playing top players like Sandy Mayer, who was listed among the top 25 players in the world at the time.
“It was the confidence, realizing, ‘Hey, I can play with these guys,’” Purcell said. “I was the number one player in the country in college tennis. I was ready. I was good enough to go pro.”
After winning a professional title in Indianapolis, Purcell jumped from a 300-level ranking with the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) to a 240 level. He was named ATP’s Rookie of the year in 1981 and was ranked No. 21 in singles tennis in the world that same year.
Purcell competed at Wimbledon, one of the sport’s four Grand Slam tournaments, six times from 1981 to 1986 and in 1987. He also competed in the U.S. Open 10 times and the French Open six times. During his pro career, Purcell won the Tel Aviv Open singles tourney in 1981 and took home a series of doubles wins, including the 1983 Vienna Grand Prix.
Purcell says his main motivation to play well wasn’t to win but to put on a show, like his father did for the Harlem Globetrotters.
“It was more fun for me to entertain than winning or losing,” Purcell said. “I had fun if they booed at me, yelled at me or cheered me.”
After elbow surgery, Purcell’s tennis career shifted to the sideline. He took the reins of Murray State’s tennis program in 1996, the year his father retired.
Purcell said his career as a tennis player and a coach overlap in many ways. He says he wanted to challenge his athletes but also teach them how to love the sport.
Current Murray State women’s tennis coach Jorge Catano, a Brazilian native, was recruited by Purcell in 2009. Catano says Purcell challenged him and his fellow athletes at the sport but allowed them to be independent, a coaching style Catano still emulates.
“Mel wants the players to figure out a lot of things on their own,” Catano said. “That's what tennis is about: You can coach the players as much as you want but it is up to them to go out there and execute.”
Catano said Purcell looked after his players not only on the court but also in the classroom. He said Purcell wanted his players to achieve academic success and to pursue their respective goals.
“I wouldn’t be coaching here if it weren’t for him,” Catano said. “As an international student, I couldn’t work as an assistant coach.”
After Catano graduated in 2013 with a bachelor's degree in environmental engineering, Purcell got Catano a job as an assistant coach.
Purcell enjoys imparting his players with the wisdom he’s gained from more than 40 years of on-the-court experience.
“It's the difference of looking at their level,” Purcell said. “It's the key with [coaching] young kids. Some young athletes try to be too perfect. You’re not, you’re never going to be perfect, nobody is.”
Purcell led the Murray State tennis team to two back-to-back Ohio Valley Conferences in 2001 and 2002. He was named OVC Coach of the year in both years.
Now, having coached the Racers for more than two decades, Mel has secured his spot in Kentucky athletics history. He was inducted into the Kentucky Athletes Hall of Fame in 2015. A year later Murray State discontinued its men's tennis team. He also holds the title of Tennis Director Emeritus for the school and still hosts a tennis summer camp for children every year.
He said the best privilege college athletes have is the opportunity to travel and meet new people, and that’s the approach he’s still taking in his life.
“My dad lived until he was 87 and he woke up everyday and I have the same outlook as he does. I wake up on a ‘full scholarship’ everyday,” Purcell said. “What am I gonna do today?”
At 63, Purcell can still be spotted giving lessons on the court named after his father and he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
