Tennis gave father way to succeed

One look at the bright lights of the Strip convinced Richman Mahlangu that if he ever had children they would get the opportunity to get a quality education in the United States.

Mahlangu had developed into a good tennis player and was working in a tennis club in Austria in 1986 when he befriended someone who knew then-UNLV tennis coach Craig Witcher. The person convinced Witcher that Mahlangu was good enough to play college tennis, and Witcher gave Mahlangu a scholarship. He would play two years for the Rebels (1987-88).

But it was a long, tough road for Mahlangu to get to Las Vegas.

Born in 1964, he had grown up on a farm in South Africa during that country's apartheid era. His father died when he was 11, and his mother moved him and his four brothers and sisters to a black township near Durban.

Like most African-born children, Mahlangu was consumed by soccer. He was quick, tough and could read the game well.

"Everyone played soccer," Mahlangu said. "I didn't know what tennis was."

But his life changed when he found a broken tennis racket and started hitting a ball against a wall. One day, Tim Gray, a teaching professional, saw Mahlangu , stopped his car, and watched him .

Gray gave Mahlangu a couple of tips, then made an offer: If Mahlangu worked at the tennis club where he was teaching, Gray would give him a 30-minute tennis lesson every Saturday.

Mahlangu agreed, even though it meant taking two buses to the Mitchell Park Tennis Club. With Gray's help, and with a real racket and sneakers that fit , Mahlangu eventually was beating more experienced players.

"My mother knew I was playing tennis but she never got involved," Mahlangu, 47, said. "She was too busy raising five kids. She never saw me play."

But Mahlangu realized tennis could be his ticket out of his racially oppressed country. It was 1975 and he was aware of Nelson Mandela, Steven Biko and Walter Sisulu, who were opposing the apartheid regime. Mahlangu believed if he could achieve success through tennis, perhaps he could help eliminate apartheid.

"I always dreamed of going to America and playing in the (tennis) clubs there," Mahlangu said. "I knew the importance of an education, and I thought if I could go to America and play tennis and go to college, what a wonderful life I could have."

In 1984, Ray Schwegman visited Mitchell Park and met Mahlangu, now 20 years old. Schwegman, who owned a tennis resort in St. Wolfgang, Austria, was so impressed he offered Mahlangu a job. The following year, Mahlangu met Witcher's friend, Norman Mauz, and after a couple of sets was offered a chance to make his dream come true.

Now, his 18-year-old son Nicholas will attend Harvard and play tennis while his 16-year-old son Yannik is being recruited by virtually every Ivy League school, along with Stanford and Davidson.

"I believe God had a plan for me," said Mahlangu, who has written a yet-to-be-published book about growing up in apartheid South Africa in the 1970s . "I knew America offered me the best chance to live a successful life, and when I had my two sons and we were living in Austria, I was determined that they would also get the same opportunity I had.

"That is why we came back to Las Vegas (in 1992). But if I don't meet Tim Gray when I was 11 years old, none of this happens and who knows where I would have been?"