Steve DeVoe (pictured above on the right with his son Curt) was one of the founding shareholders of IRC in 1965. He and his two brothers had been competitive tennis players in high school and college and their toughest competition were the kids from California and Florida who were able to play year round. Steve and the other IRC founders thought an indoor tennis club might allow their kids and other Indiana players to play year round and better compete with those warm weather players. They also wanted IRC to be a place where anyone and everyone who wanted to play tennis could play in the winter.
Steve became President of IRC in 1968 when his brother John died of a heart attack at a Pacers game. At that time, John was President not only of IRC but also of the Pacers. Steve took over the leadership of IRC, and the other brother, Chuck, took over the Pacers. Steve served as President of IRC until 2016. He and Ed Brune, the original head tennis pro and general manager of IRC and also a founding shareholder, together led IRC from a humble beginning of 4 courts to 6, then 10, then 14, and finally 16 courts at Dean Road. They acquired what is now IRC East in the early 1970s. Steve (with the encouragement of Chuck DeVoe and also fellow IRC shareholder Stan Malless, who was President of the USTA and very involved in professional tennis in the US) also had the idea to build 10 clay tennis courts at Dean Road – not just because he grew up playing on clay but mostly because the professional clay tennis tournament in Indianapolis needed a new home after outgrowing its long time venue at Woodstock Club. Steve became integrally involved in that tournament, which at that time was the U.S. National Clay Court Championships and later became a hard court event and moved to its permanent venue at the downtown Indianapolis Tennis Center on the IUPUI campus, serving as Tournament Chairman for several years and then on the tournament executive committee for many years. That tournament was voted tournament of the year for ten straight years, partly because of innovative player benefits and events that Steve thought up – a raffle for a Harley Davidson motorcycle (Steve loved Harleys and used to make his grandkids say “Harley Davidson vroom vroom!” whenever they saw one on the streets), or a player party to watch the demolition of a downtown building. Steve even moved to New York for two years to be Director of Professional Tennis for the USTA, in which role he ran the US Open tennis tournament and oversaw all US Davis Cup team “ties” or matches around the world.
Steve continued to play tennis at IRC until just two years ago, when he was 86. Tennis was a huge part of Steve’s life, and IRC was at the heart of that experience. IRC will miss him!