BATON ROUGE — LSU’s Tom Hand has been named the 2000 recipient of the TENNIS Magazine/Arthur Ashe, Jr., Leadership and Sportsmanship Award, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced on Wednesday.
Hand, who completed his eligibility with the Tigers in May, will be honored, along with Carolljn van Rossum of William and Mary, on August 25 at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, N.Y. Hand is the first LSU player to receive the award since its inception in 1984.
“This is a tremendous honor for both Tom and LSU,” LSU tennis coach Jeff Brown said. “Tom represents what being a student-athlete is all about. He’s competed at the highest level on the court having led our team to two SEC titles and to two Final Fours during his career and he also graduated with a 4.0 grade point average in just three years.
“He did all this while always maintaining a high level of integrity, sportsmanship and class. This is an honor in which Tom is very deserving.”
The purpose of the award is to honor Arthur Ashe and the vision which he embodied of the importance of education, sportsmanship and leadership. Tennis opened the door of higher education for Ashe and college offered Ashe a springboard into a life of vast achievement; first as a world class athlete, then as an educator and international humanitarian.
The winners of the Arthur Ashe award are chosen based on the following criteria: tennis playing accomplishments; scholastic and extracurricular activities; sportsmanship, leadership and character; humanitarian concern and accomplishments; and the recipient must be a junior or senior.
In four years with the LSU men’s tennis team, three of which were spent as team captain, Hand led the Tigers to the Southeastern Conference championship in 1998 and 1999 and to appearances at the NCAA Tournament all four years. LSU was ranked No. 1 in the nation in 1998 and 1999 and the Tigers advanced to the NCAA Final Four each of those years.
Individually, Hand completed his LSU career ranked third in school history with 107 career singles wins and he also finished among the top five in school history in doubles wins with 77. Hand also earned doubles All-America honors in 1998 and he was a three-time all-SEC selection.
Off the court, Hand was named the 1999 GTE Academic All-American of the Year after graduating from LSU in just three years in political science with a 4.0 grade point average. Hand also received the University Medal for academic excellence in 1999 and in 1998, he was named the Tiger Athletic Foundation Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
In the Baton Rouge community, Hand was involved with LSU CHAMPS program and he is also an annual participant in the Thanksgiving Food Drive in November, Feed a Family in December and was a volunteer reader at several local elementary schools.