'The Great Fletch' : a story of a tennis player and a larrikin

Transcript

KERRY O'BRIEN: The late Ken Fletcher was widely known in the 1960s as a larrikin tennis player with the best forehand in the world, who never fulfilled his potential. But his death three years ago hardly made the headlines, and his friends fear his role in Australian sporting history has been largely forgotten.

That's why Brisbane author Hugh Lunn has written a biography of his childhood mate titled 'The Great Fletch'.

Hugh Lunn gives an insider's account of international sporting stardom before the age of multi-million-dollar sponsorship deals, and an unlikely partnership with an American philanthropist.

Peter McCutcheon reports.

HUGH LUNN, AUTHOR, 'THE GREAT FLETCH': I didn't just write the book because he was my best friend, but he was, you know, the most amazing larrikin in world tennis, and he had such a brilliant, dazzling career.

PETER MCCUTCHEON, REPORTER: Brisbane author Hugh Lunn has just completed the daunting task of writing a biography about his oldest and closest friend, the late Ken Fletcher.

So this is Ken at 17?

HUGH LUNN: Yes. He looks about 13.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: It's a story about the rise and fall of a 1960s sporting hero, and a partnership with an American billionaire, who kick-started massive investment in medical research in Brisbane.

CHUCK FEENEY, PHILANTHROPIST, (Australian Story, 2006): Ken was able to hook us up with the people that we thought we could work with.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Half a century ago Brisbane's Milton Courts were at the epicentre of world tennis. It was here that Ken Fletcher, as well as Grand Slam champions Rod Laver and Roy Emerson, cut their teeth in tournaments such as the 1962 Davis Cup.

KEN FLETCHER, ('Stateline', 1999): It was the golden age of tennis, I'd say, the '60s, late '50s, '60s. You had so many good players, it was marvellous getting in the team, and I think it was the first year ever that three Queenslanders were in the team.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Have you any idea why Queensland in the 1950s and '60s produced so many world tennis champions.

HUGH LUNN: I think that a) there was lots of land and so people had tennis courts, particularly in country towns and in Brisbane, Brisbane was covered in tennis courts. They knocked them all down now and put up houses.

And the kids were tough, you know, they were brought up in the heat, they played tennis in bare feet. And, you know, Ken said "They had the mongrel in them".

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Ken Fletcher was widely acknowledged as having the best forehand in the world, and he won the mixed doubles Grand Slam with Margaret Court in 1963.

MARGARET COURT ('Australian Story', 2006): Fletch and I just clicked. I probably enjoyed playing with him more than anybody I ever played with.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: But at the peak of his powers, Ken Fletcher fell out of favour with tennis officials after they clamped down on players receiving generous tournament fees by banning overseas travel before April.

HUGH LUNN: Kenny announced to the press, "We don't live in bloody Moscow," he always had a good way of summing things up, "So I'm going."

And so the five top Australian players at the time all agreed that they would go, and they left.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: So from 1964, Ken Fletcher lived in self-imposed exile in Hong Kong and later London, although he continued to be a regular fixture at Wimbledon.

Despite his well acknowledged tennis genius, Ken Fletcher never won a grand slam singles title. Was that bad luck, or does it say something about the way Ken Fletcher approached tennis.

HUGH LUNN: It's both. Ken didn't train and, you know, went out and gambled the night before his matches, and got home at 4:00am. But as he said, to win Wimbledon you need God on your side. And, you know, Ken used to go to Lourdes hoping to get God on his side, but God wasn't on his side.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Ken Fletcher found it difficult making a life for himself after tennis, and was declared bankrupt in the 1980s. But the tennis champion had many friends. One of those, an Irish American businessman whom Ken met in Hong Kong in the 1960s, had over the course of two decades became one of the richest men in the world.

CHUCK FEENEY, ('Australian Story', 2006): Ken was a great tennis player at a time when it didn't pay well.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Chuck Feeney made his fortune from duty free shopping, and was shocked when he renewed his friendship with Ken Fletcher in 1990.

HUGH LUNN: Chuck said to me, you know, "Ken was bordering on catastrophe." So Chuck employed Ken and he thought he should come home to Brisbane. And Chuck said Ken was Brisbane-oriented.

Chuck liked Ken because he was a friend from before when he became one of the richest men in the world.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Now Chuck Feeney was going through a life change himself. After spending three decades acquiring wealth, he started drawing up plans to give away his entire multi-billion-dollar fortune before he died.

CHUCK FEENEY, ('Australian Story', 2006): My own approach is kind of low key. I liked the thrill of the chase, but once you've done it and you've got money, there's got to be something you can do better with that money than unfortunately what's done by many people.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: The American philanthropist eventually set up Ken Fletcher as his scout in Brisbane, looking for environmental or medical science projects to support. But remarkably, they had trouble finding any takers.

HUGH LUNN: Kenny and Chuck were going around, looking to give money away, and Chuck doesn't dress up, and nor did Ken by this stage. And, you know, they were a couple of men in their 50s, wandering around town. And no one was taking any notice of them. It was sort of incredible. And eventually Chuck said to me, I said, "What are you going to do Chuck?"

And he said, "I know what to do, I'll give someone $20 million, and then they'll all want to talk to me".

PETER MCCUTCHEON: The rest is history. The $20 million went to the Queensland Institute for Medical Research, along with $10 million to the University of Queensland for a bioscience institute. So far Chuck Feeney has contributed more than $200 million to medical research institutes and universities in Australia.

HUGH LUNN: Ken was at the heart of bringing the money, you know, I list all the money he's given. He then gave money in Melbourne and Sydney, but most of it he gave in Brisbane.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: But Hugh Lunn is hoping his book will help his friend claim his rightful place in Australian sporting history.

HUGH LUNN: It's so sad that Ken has been forgotten because he was one of our greatest tennis players ever.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Peter McCutcheon with that report.