Kathy Wise is the undisputed queen of racket sports in our office. So when it came to our attention that a Dallas billionaire had more or less acquired the sport of pickleball and was planning to stage the BiOFREEZE USA Pickleball National Championships at Brookhaven Country Club, there was no question who would write the story.
I met Kathy about eight years ago, when D Magazine was in the market for an executive editor. She worked at another magazine in town, which was how she popped up on my radar. But here’s the real reason I asked her to coffee: after digging around online, I discovered that she captained a ladies’ tennis team called Sets in the City. I have a weakness for puns.
“Lady” is a descriptor that has fallen out of favor, I know. I mean no disrespect. Quite the opposite. Because after I hired Kathy, my wife joined her tennis team, and, at the start of the pandemic, I took up the sport. I’ve drilled with these women, and I’ve been drilled by them. It’s humbling. And when I get humbled, I cuss a lot. The women, though, as they send another cross-court shot out of my reach, they always behave like ladies. “Nice try, Tim!” Like that. It’s maddening. Gentlewomen’s tennis team? Is that better?
Kathy recently got promoted to editorial director, which means she’s my boss and I have to find off-court ways to impress her. So when she mentioned in an editorial meeting that for her pickleball story she couldn’t get time with Tom Dundon, the aforementioned billionaire, who rarely grants interviews, I confidently said, “Don’t fret, little lady. I’ll text him.”
Fifteen years ago, right after Dundon did the deal that created his wealth (I’m still kicking myself for not getting into subprime car loans), I’d finagled his number and gotten him on the phone briefly to talk about a house he’d built on Northwest Highway. My offer to text him was total unladylike braggadocio. Dundon now owns a hockey team and a piece of Topgolf Callaway Brands. No way would he still have the same number—or reply to my message if he did. But as is so often the case, I couldn’t control my mouth.
Dundon replied before our editorial meeting ended. As Kathy reports in her story, which is online today, it turns out that he has a soft spot for D Magazine.
Read it here and learn how Dallas became the most important city in the world for pickleball.
This story originally appeared in the October issue of D Magazine. Write to [email protected].
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