Jim Calderwood

Steve Virgen

There were two choices for Jim Calderwood while he was playing

football at the University of Oregon: be the quarterback for one more

year or concentrate solely on academics.

All he had to do was listen to John McKay’s question and the rest

was history. Or, in Calderwood’s case, you could say it was English

literature.

McKay, a former player and assistant coach for the Ducks, asked

Calderwood, “You like broken bones?”

Calderwood grabbed for the pen.

He went on to become an English professor at UC Irvine and now, at

73, he is retired, writing a memoir and still playing the sport he

came to love while at UCI. Yes, despite an artificial knee and a

pacemaker, Calderwood continues to play tennis.

“I just love the game,” said Calderwood, a longtime member at the

Palisades Tennis Club. “I enjoy the competition and, here at the

club, there are a number of older players who know one another and

play here. There is a pleasant social quality to the play as well as

the competition.”

Calderwood, originally from Oregon, competed in football,

basketball, track and field and baseball in high school, before

becoming a quarterback for the Ducks. In the late 1940s, Oregon had a

freshmen team and he was the signal-caller. During that season, Norm

Van Brocklin was the quarterback of the varsity team.

Calderwood started a few games for the Ducks later in college,

but, before his senior season, he decided to focus on his studies

rather than get beat up by linebackers and defensive linemen. He

graduated from Oregon with a degree in psychology, then served two

years in the Army, stationed on the East Coast.

After the Army, he was a technical writer for a corporation. He

then went to graduate school at the University of Washington, where

he earned a doctorate in English literature. That’s when he found his

niche. He became seriously interested in the works of William

Shakespeare. He also continued to write short stories and poems.

“Writing has always come easy to me,” said Calderwood, who holds a

great deal of respect for Shakespeare.

Calderwood wrote books, mainly textbooks, about Shakespeare and he

was a professor at Michigan State and at UCLA before moving on to

UCI, which was founded in 1965. The Anteaters welcomed Calderwood in

1966 and he helped develop the English department there.

He also built a friendship with UCI men’s tennis coach Myron

McNamara, who led the Anteaters to six NCAA Division II titles in the

1970s. McNamara helped Calderwood learn more about tennis and

Calderwood studied the game on his own, reading books on tennis and

continually playing with McNamara. Calderwood also learned by

watching the talented UCI players.

Calderwood continued to develop his love for the game through his

time at UCI. After he retired in 1994, he kept on playing and, while

competing in the United States Tennis Association 65s division, he

was ranked as high as No. 10 in doubles with teammate John Peterson.

However, rankings are not all that important to Calderwood.

“It’s just fun to get out there,” he said. “It’s fun just to play

the game and to enjoy yourself as much as you can.”

Calderwood, who lives in Laguna Beach with his wife, Cleo, also

enjoys the time he spends with his family. He and his wife have two

sons and three grandchildren.