CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Don McNeill (tennis)

US tennis player (1918–1996)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 8, 2025
Entity authorityQ491358 ↗
Source-derived summary

William Donald McNeill (April 30, 1918 – November 28, 1996) was an American tennis player. He was born in Chickasha, Oklahoma, and died in Vero Beach, Florida.

Biography

Don McNeill graduated from Kenyon College in 1940, where he became a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon.

McNeill won his first major title in 1938 when he defeated Frank Bowden at the U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships, played at the Seventh Regiment Armory in Manhattan, New York.

In 1939, McNeill became the second American to win the French Championships singles title (after Don Budge) when he defeated compatriot Bobby Riggs in the final in straight sets. Afterwards he played at Wimbledon, the only time he participated, and lost to Franjo Kukuljevic in the second round of the singles, reached the third round in the doubles and the quarterfinal in the mixed doubles. He won the All England Plate, a tennis competition held at the Wimbledon Championships, which consisted of players who were defeated in the first or second rounds of the singles competition.

In June 1940, McNeill beat Bobby Riggs to win the singles title at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships in Chicago. In August that year he also won the Southampton Invitational tournament after a victory in the final over Frank Kovacs. His run continued two weeks later when he won the invitational tournament at the Newport Casino.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Don McNeill (tennis)” as uS tennis player (1918–1996). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1918, 1996, 1940, 1938—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1918-04-30. The account is most persuasive where McNeill, tennis and player can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as uS tennis player (1918–1996). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 8, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q491358. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1918, 1996, 1940 and 1938.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Don McNeill (tennis)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Don McNeill (tennis) primary sources, Don McNeill (tennis) archive and McNeill research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Don McNeill (tennis)”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Don McNeill (tennis)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.