Earl Harry Cochell (born May 18, 1922) was an American tennis player, the only one barred for life by the

United States Tennis Association The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tenn ...

.Sidney B. Wood Jr.
"Ilie Nastase; TANTRUM THROWERS THROUGH THE YEARS"
''New York Times'', July 12, 1981

Career

in January 1944 he won the La Jolla Beach Invitational tournament against Knemeyer in straight sets. Cochell was ranked as high as No. 6 in the U.S.

ranking A ranking is a relationship between a set of items, often recorded in a list, such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than", or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak ...

s before the 1951 U.S. National Championships (later the U.S. Open). In the fourth round match in that event against

Gardnar Mulloy Gardnar Putnam "Gar" Mulloy (November 22, 1913 – November 14, 2016) was a U.S. No. 1 tennis player primarily known for playing in doubles matches with partner Billy Talbert. He was born in Washington, D.C., and centenarian, turned 100 in Novem ...

, Cochell, well known for a fiery temper and an intractably independent streak, became angry over a line call and tried to address the crowd by climbing up the chair umpire's ladder to take the microphone. Cochell was stopped from doing so and eventually lost the match to Mulloy, but afterwards, in a locker-room confrontation over the incident with tournament Referee S. Ellsworth Davenport, Cochell insulted Davenport with such abusive obscenity that, two days later, the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association (now the United States Tennis Association) banned him for life from the game and immediately dropped him from the rankings. The ban was lifted in 1962, but by then Cochell was no longer a serious competitor, and he never played another important tennis match, making only a couple of court appearances in 1962. Cochell played his collegiate tennis at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

, and was runner-up (to

Tony Trabert Marion Anthony Trabert (August 16, 1930 – February 3, 2021) was an American amateur world No. 1 tennis champion and long-time tennis author, TV commentator, instructor, and motivational speaker. Trabert was ranked world No. 1 amateur by many ...

of the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...

) in the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

singles championship in 1951. In 1946, he reached the singles quarterfinals at the Tri-State Tennis Championships at Cincinnati (now the

Cincinnati Masters The Cincinnati Open (also known as the Cincinnati Masters) is an annual professional tennis event held in Cincinnati, United States. Due to previous sponsorship, it has also been known as: the Thriftway ATP Championships, the Great American I ...

). In 1949 he won the

Swiss International Championships The Swiss International Championships or simply the Swiss Championships was a combined men's and women's clay court tennis tournament established by the Swiss Lawn Tennis Association, and first played at Grasshopper Club, Zurich, Switzerland in 189 ...

against

Jaroslav Drobný Jaroslav Drobný (; 12 October 1921 – 13 September 2001) was a world No. 1 amateur tennis and ice hockey champion. He left Czechoslovakia in 1949 and travelled as an Egyptian citizen before becoming a citizen of the United Kingdom in 1959, w ...

Gstaad Gstaad ( , ) is a town in the German language, German-speaking section of the Canton of Bern in southwestern Switzerland. It is part of the municipality of Saanen and is known as a major ski resort and a popular destination amongst high society ...

(today's the

Swiss Open The Omega European Masters is the Swiss stop on professional men's golf's European Tour, and in 2009 it became the first event in Europe to be co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour. Founded as the Swiss Open in 1923, the tournament was prefixed with ...

). Cochell married Shirley Catheryn Holmes in 1952. The couple had no children. Shirley Cochell died in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

on December 13, 2003, and was buried in

Fort Madison, Iowa Fort Madison is a city in and a county seat of Lee County, Iowa, United States along with Keokuk. Of Iowa's 99 counties, Lee County is the only one with two county seats. The population was 10,270 at the time of the 2020 census. Located alon ...

References

1922 births Possibly living people American male tennis players USC Trojans men's tennis players Tennis players from California 20th-century American sportsmen {{US-tennisbio-stub