Playing tennis for the first time at the age of four and in his first tournament at eight, David Wheaton grew up surrounded by the sport. Being the youngest, Wheaton watched on as his older siblings played for the University of Minnesota. Inspired by their example, Wheaton knew from a young age that he’d soon follow in their footsteps, “As I got into my late teenage years, I was doing well in the junior tennis world and some of my peers were turning pro directly out of juniors, and that was a consideration for me. I don’t think a strong consideration because again, it goes back to the idea that I would always go to college and even though I just went for one year that was the objective all along.”
Following his graduation from high school, winning the Minnesota State High School league singles tennis title as a ninth grader, taking home the U.S. Junior title in 1987 and being the No. 1 ranked junior in America, the Minnesota native ventured west to play for Coach Dick Gould at Stanford University. Playing one season at the Farm before turning professional, Wheaton helped direct Stanford to its then ninth national title in 1988 with a 5-2 victory over LSU.
During his time at Stanford, Wheaton earned All-American accolades and grabbed an All-Pac-10 selection, qualifying for both singles and doubles at the NCAA Championships. That same year, Wheaton helped lead the Cardinal to a 25-1 mark and 19-match win streak to close out the year.
Reflecting back on his most memorable moments while on the team, Wheaton fondly commented, “The daily practices and camaraderie with Coach Gould and the rest of the team at Stanford stick out in my mind and how he really, in a measured way, prepared us to peak for the NCAA tournament.” He continued on by stating, “Going back to the very beginning of the year, he would play songs about Georgia over the loudspeakers at the practice facility at Stanford to get our minds conditioned toward what we were trying to do.”
Adding on, Wheaton stated, “From a team standpoint, you realize that each member of a team or an organization is part of a whole and important. Some team members may get higher notoriety, but all members of a team are important and do a specific task that’s important. That’s something you take out of college tennis into the regular business world or whatever kind of career.”
Turning pro in 1988, Wheaton won his first singles title on the tour in 1990 and finished runner-up at the 1990 U.S. Open Men’s doubles. Wheaton reached the semifinals or better in every Grand Slam event, beating opponents such as Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg, Jim Courier and Michael Chang. Wheaton also competed as a member of the 1993 U.S. Davis Cup squad and reached a career-high world singles ranking of No. 12.
After thirteen years on tour, Wheaten retired in 2001 and found his passion outside the sport as an author, radio host and public speaker. Today, Wheaton resides in Minnesota with his wife and son, where he is the host of The Christian Worldview, a weekly radio program that airs on 150 stations. He is also a contributing columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and has authored two books, University of Destruction: Your Game Plan for Spiritual Victory on Campus and My Boy, Ben: A Story of Love, Loss, and Grace. Wheaton was inducted into the ITA Men’s Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame in Athens, Georgia in 2012.
About the ITA Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame – The Intercollegiate Tennis Association Men’s and Women’s Halls of Fame aspire to preserve and celebrate the history and further the development of intercollegiate tennis through the collection of historic memorabilia and with inductions of notable players, coaches, and contributors.
About the ITA – The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) is the governing body and coaches association of college tennis, both an advocate and an authority for the sport and its members. Comprised of 1,260 colleges and universities, 20,000 student-athletes, 1,700 varsity programs, 3,000 coaches, and 1,350 college tennis officials, the ITA empowers college tennis coaches at all levels to deliver vibrant tennis programs that are vital to their college communities and transformational to their student-athletes. Follow the 2023-24 college tennis season on the ITA website and ITA social channels on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube.
