A PLACE IN UCLA HISTORY : IT WAS 1933 WHEN JACK TIDBALL WON ITS FIRST NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP.

Byline: Joe Jares

UCLA has won 188 individual NCAA titles and could stack on two more later this month from tennis stars Keri Phebus and Justin Gimelstob.

That impressive run of champions - runners, jumpers, gymnasts, swimmers - began in 1933 at the Merion Cricket Club in Haverford, Pa., with a gifted serve-and-volley tennis player from Hollywood named Jack Tidball.

He's now an 84-year-old retired businessman living on a quiet, dead-end street in Van Nuys, and the memory of that long-ago pioneering triumph has faded. But he does remember that it was considered a big deal back then.

``Well, yes, it was rather important,'' he said, ``because it was the first time UCLA had been recognized on the East Coast in the sports page. They knew about the University of California, but UCLA - they thought it was just part of Cal. They didn't know it was a different school.

``It was so long ago that I don't remember how much of a fuss was made, but I know that a big oil company had some signs made up for UCLA. But the USLTA said, `You're going to make them professional if you do this advertising at the stations.' So they made them take the signs away. . . .

``In those days, it meant a hell of a lot to us. I think it still does.''

Although details of the match and the opponent are fuzzy in his mind, Tidball considers it his greatest victory.

That's saying a lot, because the same year, 1933, he teamed with USC's Gene Mako to win the U.S. clay-court doubles. And in the quarterfinals of the Pacific Southwest tournament in Los Angeles, he was down 5-0, 40-0 in the third set to the great Ellsworth Vines (who had won Wimbledon the year before) and fought back to win 7-5.

Tidball regularly beat Bobby Riggs and had victories over Mako, Aussies John Bromwich and Adrian Quist, Joe Hunt, Ted Schroeder, Bitsy Grant and other notables.

But there was little opportunity for a player to turn pro in those days (just the occasional tour), and World War II was on the horizon. Tidball got married, served in the war (stateside; he saw no action) and went into the aviation surplus business.

He continued playing friendly tennis until he had open-heart surgery in his 70s, and he was remembered by the sports public only on special occasions, as when he was inducted into the Intercollegiate Tennis Hall of Fame.

Tidball's two sons (and daughter and a granddaughter) also played tennis. John was a member of USC's fine Stan Smith-Bob Lutz team that won the NCAA title in 1967. Steve, now the head pro at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., was an All-American at UCLA that same year and was a Bruins co-captain in 1969. He got to play at Wimbledon, which his dad never did.

The brothers played for Van Nuys High and were brought up in the game. Their dad and noted teacher Jack Tuero (another ex-NCAA champ, from Tulane) often played doubles against them.

``That way we teach them a lot of tactics, because we'd do certain things to them,'' said Jack. ``Make them have to do things. We played down to them to keep the match going real good.''

Proud dad had to use caution when he attended UCLA-USC matches that pitted son against son (although the Tidballs didn't ever meet in an individual college match; they were at different rungs on their respective ladders).

``I think he handled it by just sitting quietly in the stands, instead of jumping up,'' said Steve. ``Usually, if he was unhappy, he'd get up and walk around a lot. But on those occasions, he sat in the stands very quietly. He was very still, and that's very unusual for my father.''

It must have tickled Jack to visit Westwood and see the changes. When he went there, the school had just moved west from its original site downtown. There were about 6,000 students, he said. The men's gym, many years later to be surpassed by Pauley Pavilion, was being built. There were no tennis scholarships; he chose UCLA because he liked the easygoing coach, Bill Ackerman.

When Ackerman was named graduate manager in Tidball's senior year, the star player was often in charge of organizing practices, which weren't as intense then. There was no running, no weight lifting.

``Bill would have me go down and organize its matches, who would play whom, because we had a lot of challenge matches. I was the team captain that year, so I was the logical one to do it.

``I decided we'd have a little card game before we played the matches. We'd all straddle benches and play, then we'd get the tennis going in maybe three-quarters of an hour. Some way or the other, Bill happened to come down. He looks at me and says, `Jack, you're off the team.'

``I think he kicked me off for three or four days.''

Student unrest '30s-style.

Today, Ackerman and Tidball are in UCLA's sports hall of fame. And on any list of the Bruins' NCAA champs, Tidball's name always will come first. Quite an honor.

``That's exactly right,'' said son Steve. ``I was not a great athlete, although I had great hands. I worked hard and I had great coaching from my dad, but you can only go so far. I don't want to be put in the same category as a player. He had tremendous quickness, running ability, jumping ability - he was a great champion.

MEMO: Staff Writer Joe Jares' tennis column appears Mondays in the Daily News. You can send him e-mail at10352.1030CompuServe.com.

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