A New Beginning

The History of the Salt Lake Tennis & Health Club

The Salt Lake Tennis Club was founded in 1912 and for 105 years our club has been the home for tennis in Utah. It has a storied past not only relating to Utah tennis history but to our nation. Did you know that the Salt Lake Tennis Club hosted the US National Clay Court Championships in the 1940s? Did you know that such tennis legends as Tony Trabert, Andre Agassi, Stan Smith, Arthur Ashe, and Jim Osbourne competed at the Club. With the building of the indoor courts, the club became the home to the Western Collegiate Hardcourt Championships in the 1960s.

The Tennis Club’s first location was at the Victory Park courts on 10th East and in the 1930’s it moved to 9th East, adjacent to the Forest Dale Golf Course. In 1963 it moved to its current location on 17th East near Sugar House Park and was re-named the Salt Lake Swimming and Tennis Club.

During the club’s first 101 years the club was owned by the members. As times changed, the club began experiencing financial difficulties and by 2013 it faced the possibility that it would be taken over by the bank and sold for an alternate use.

After extended conversations with the club’s board and membership, in the fall of 2013 Laury Hammel purchased the club in order to keep this important community institution alive and well. Laury has a long history with the Salt Lake Swimming and Tennis club. His father, Lee, managed the club in the 1950’s and 1960’s and during his tenure the membership grew and the first pool at the club was built. Laury and his siblings grew up at the club where they enjoyed summers and learned how to play and compete in the great sport of tennis. When the club moved to its new location on 1700 East, Laury was its first janitor and worked at the club until he graduated from the U in 1971.

Laury loves to teach and coach tennis and he continues to teach nationally ranked players. In 2000 the Lee and Ruby Hammel family was selected as the USTA National Tennis Family of the Year. Laury is a member of the New England Tennis Hall of Fame and he has coached more New England #1 players than any coach in New England. He is thrilled with the quality of the Club’s tennis professionals, the excellence of its programs, and the extraordinary success of our young junior athletes!

In 2013 (One hundred and one years after the Club’s founding), Laury Hammel purchased the Club and began implementing a plan to bring back the Salt Lake Tennis & Health Club to its former glory. Tennis is in Laury’s blood. His father managed the club in the fifties and sixties and built it’s first pool. Both his mother and father (Lee and Ruby) have been life-long tennis coaches and players and are both in the Utah Tennis Hall of Fame. In 2000 the Hammel family (including his sister Carolee and brother Brad) were honored with the USTA National Tennis Family of the Year Award!

Laury has spent the past 45 years in the Boston area and now owns a group of clubs that combined are one of the top 50 largest health/tennis club businesses in the US. His clubs have developed a national reputation for directing tennis camps that teach thousands of children tennis while helping them reach their full potential on and off the court. Laury has built a world-class team of tennis professionals who share his values and enthusiasm for the sport of tennis.

Since Laury purchased the club in the fall of 2013, he has invested significant capital in upgrading the facility, building a team of highly-skilled professionals, and developing extraordinary tennis programs. Our team teaches tennis using a system that is fun and ensures our students will improve their tennis game. The positive improvements and upgrades that Laury and his team made happen include:

• Built a state of the art, two story fitness facility which adds many services to the club including: GPP Fitness, weight lifting, fitness classes, yoga, basketball court, turf area for soccer and other use, every type of cardio equipment you could ask for, a cycling room for spinning class, pilates equipment, TRX equipment and bars for dance related workouts. For a full list of fitness class schedules and a description of each workout CLICK HERE.
• To accompany this new state of the art fitness club Laury has added to the tennis and swimming facilities, he hired some of the best fitness coaches and personal trainers in the area to provide the best training possible for the club’s members. CLICK HERE to review some of our fitness instructors and personal trainers.
• Hired a team of highly accomplished tennis professionals and trained the tennis staff so that the Salt Lake Tennis & Health Club once again offers the premier tennis programs in Utah.
• Resurfaced all indoor and outdoor courts and leveled the root damage on courts #17 and #18.
• Purchased a court sweeper that works and ensures the courts are cleaner than they have ever been.
• Re-lighted all the indoor courts with state-of-the-art LED lights that provide a much more enjoyable tennis experience and feature lights that will last for twenty years or more.
• Installed the PlaySight system which is an incredible new technology that gives a player invaluable information about the speed and spin of their shots as well as important statistics. All of this can be viewed on your smart phone or at home on your computer.
• Under the guidance of Julie Tate the Swim Team and swim lesson programs have become exceptional and we have a plethora of happy swimmers every summer.
• Installed a new software and check-in system that makes everything easier for everyone.

Like his father, Laury continued his family’s legacy of keeping the Salt Lake Tennis Club the center of tennis in the state of Utah. He has now transformed the club into a full-service health club and on January 1, 2017 the club’s name was changed to the Salt Lake Tennis and Health Club.

The Management Team worked on finding a new name for many months and chose this name because we wanted to keep the 105 Year-Old name in place-Salt Lake Tennis Club. We also wanted to introduce the concept of `Health’ because it includes all the various activities and benefits available at our club and it describes the essence of our mission as a business.