Bio

Nadine Netter Levy '66 graduated with a degree in German and went on to earn a Master’s of International Affairs from Columbia University. Nadine has enjoyed a competitive tennis career that has spanned four decades and includes accolades at the collegiate and international levels. The Eastern Women's College Tournament champion in 1962, she also earned collegiate titles at the Eastern Intercollegiate Champion and New England Intercollegiate Women's Tennis Championship in 1965. She went on to play at Wimbledon the U.S. Open and the French, German Italian Championships and continues to play the game today.

It wasn’t quite four score and seven years ago when my address was “Wellesley, Massachusetts, (rather than Gettysburg). But it was more than 50 years ago, which is why, in great part, I was both surprised – and very honored — to receive a phone call telling me that I was to be inducted in the second class of the Wellesley College Athletics Hall of Fame.

When I entered Wellesley in the fall of 1962, I was coming to my future alma mater after lots (and lots!) of athletics at Scarsdale (N.Y.) High School. Wellesley, back then, had established a minimalist (at best) program of sports. I know . . . I skied on the soon to be-defunct ski team, stroked on the crew, and, of course, followed my first love – tennis.

The first time Wellesley kind of heard of me was my freshman year when I was literally pulled from a class so Sports Illustrated could take my photo for its “Faces in the Crowd” section. Believe me, that was far from the norm on-campus way before the Title IX days. No one asked me why there was a reporter at school - I had just won the Eastern Intercollegiate Championships in Wellesley’s name, but no one on campus thought to acknowledge that.

But back to why I am writing this today - because at the end of my junior year, I reached the finals of the National Collegiate Tennis Championships. Today that tournament would be called the NCAA championships, but back then, I was the only player in Greensboro, N.C. without any school support . . . no team, no uniform, no coach and my parents paying for airfare and hotel. I survived the field of 32 to reach the finals, where I lost in three sets to Mimi Henried of UCLA (a division one school), daughter of the actor Paul of “Casablanca” fame. 

If I was the “representative” of a school where sports were, at best, non-descript, you can only imagine my virtual anonymity to the public following the women’s tennis tour. I played at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the French, the German and Italian Championships and at other tournaments, traveling and competing with other “no-names” as Billie Jean King, Margaret Court and Maria Bueno, and subsequently with Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. I must tell you that while they did know me, they had never heard of Wellesley!

After tennis, I went on to serve the United Nations in both Geneva and at headquarters in New York City, and had a family. I wish that my children and grandchildren, and my late husband Peter Levy, could be with me to see me receive this honor . . . and an honor it is. I am humbled that my school has recognized me after all these years, and has embraced athletics as part of its on-campus experience.

Thank you so very much for this great and unexpected honor.