Lesson With A Legend

Katie Van Buren ’82, a former president of the ODU Alumni Association, realized a dream in September when she spent nearly two hours on a Las Vegas tennis court with Andre Agassi. A 4.0-level player from Norfolk, Van Buren had bid on a one-hour tennis lesson with the eight-time Grand Slam champion in December 2005 during the Anthem Live! auction at ODU’s Constant Center. “I looked at my husband and said, ‘I have to have that,’” Van Buren recalled. Following her winning bid, she and her husband, Bill, finally met Agassi in his hometown on Sept. 15. When they had set the date months earlier, they had no way of knowing that their meeting would occur just a week after the legendary pro’s retirement. Van Buren, in fact, was in the stands to watch Agassi’s last match at the U.S. Open and hear his memorable words of farewell afterward. For Van Buren, who followed Agassi’s 20-year career from the time he was a long-haired teenager, the excitement of watching him play in person is now etched in her memory alongside the thrill of hitting with him herself. “It was a neat experience,” she said. “Wonderful.”