Jack May (tennis)
John "Jack" Bernard May (17 November 1925 – 10 August 2012) was an amateur tennis player who won over 200 tennis titles in Australia. History. May played many sports but his favorite and best was tennis. One of his most important achievements was to reach the mixed doubles final of the 1951 Australian Championship. He was trained and practiced as a dental technician, but May’s love of tennis and many more sports saw him become an employee of Spalding Australia (A.G Spalding). After progressing to the Managing Director role he grew Spalding from a small supplier to  become a big sporting goods manufacturers leading the way especially in golf ball production with the "Hot Dot" and "Top Flite" balls. In 1965 he and his family moved from Sydney to Melbourne (Spalding Head Office) where he remained for the rest of his life. He purchased the Sherrin Football Company in 1972, who manufactured AFL footballs in agreement with Tom Sherrin (Sherrin’s owner). The desire to improve Spalding’s overall performance and market share saw May concentrate on the large golfing market. "Hot Dot" and "Top Flite" golf balls became big sellers and took Spalding’s market share  from under 20% to almost 70%. Robert Molitor, the Spalding Senior Vice President and Head of Technology in USA, had asked Jack to move firstly to Canada with the intention of moving him to the Executive Office in the USA, but Jack’s family decided to remain in Australia, so he turned down the offer. In his 1979 autobiography Jack Kramer recalled the occasion he saw May play in Australia. Unaware of who he was but impressed with his skill, he enquired as to who is that on court to be told he is ‘"just a weekend player"’, to which  Kramer quoted ‘"he must be the best weekend player in the world"’. Private life. Jack was married to Patricia May (Everitt) on 3 August 1957. They have four children: Michelle, Jon, Martin and Rod.