Every Thanksgiving during his childhood John Noble sat on the floor and watched his family's legacy unfold on 16 mm films.
As the flickering slides transposed their history on his grandfather's wall, Noble fixated on the black and white images of his father's tennis matches as the day went by with his family sitting behind him and his grandfather narrating.
Coming in as an unknown to the college tennis scene, Noble had a rich tennis pedigree behind his lanky frame when Ball State University coach Bill Richards noticed him.
Four Mid-American Conference titles and more than 100 career wins later, the boy sitting on his grandfather's floor will be memorialized by a bronze plaque inside Worthen Arena as part of the Ball State Hall of Fame.
"He had a storybook career," Richards said. "John is probably one of the greatest success stories we've ever had."
Family ties
Those films started Noble's drive in tennis early in life. His father, Carl Noble, had Noble out on the tennis court when he was eight years old.
While his interest didn't spark at first, once Noble saw his brother, father and uncle on the tennis court and started attending tournaments that members of his family competed in, he decided to start his lifelong passion.
"Being the youngest brother of four children, part of it was being dragged to those things," Noble said. "I was that typical younger, obnoxious brother who wanted to compete and always be doing what everyone else is doing."
Noble's family history shows how tennis became a staple of his life. His grandfather grew up in Danville, Ill. where he ran the Western Tennis Association and worked with upcoming stars such as Rod Laver, who had the No. 1 world ranking for seven straight years.
His coaching filtered down to Noble's father and uncle, who both played at the University of Illinois in their collegiate career. Noble's father went on to play in Forest Hills, the professional circuit in the 1950s and his uncle participated in the Canadian PENN tour in the 1970s. Following in their father's footsteps, both men took on coaching later in their lives as their professional careers drew to a close.
Noble said his tennis success is because of his parents' lessons growing up.
"I give all the credit in the world to my parents," Noble said. "Some of the first times I played tennis I was eight years old and crying. My mom bent down and said, 'you can't cry, you're going to lose and lose a lot. It's part of accepting and playing the game.' Soon the tears stopped and I was able to play again."
Following his uncle's footsteps as a member of Lake Forest High School tennis team, Noble won the Illinois state doubles championship his senior year.
Carl Noble said his son's tennis success was because of his solid mental attitude.
"Unlike most players, he spent less time ranting and raving around, which left him more energy to win matches," his father said.
Despite winning the state tournament, college recruiters saw a nationally unknown junior still trying to grow into his body, Noble said.
However, with the help of his family, the future Cardinal would soon be on his road to the Ball State Hall of Fame.
"I think my grandmother said it very well when I was about 17," Noble said. "She said 'losing builds character and you've built plenty of character, so it's time to start winning now.'"
Rising through the ranks
When Richards recruited Noble, Richards said he saw many strengths in the Lake Forest senior and decided to take a chance.
"I noticed he was a great competitor," Richards said. "His thin body had a lot of potential. I thought he had a good mental approach to the game and thought he was going to develop well. As a coach sometimes you are right and sometimes you are wrong. In this case, I was right."
The long-limbed Noble was not a highly known player coming into his college career. Being a low-key recruit, he was scouted by a half-dozen schools including Northwestern University, University of Arizona, University of California-Berkeley, University of Washington-Seattle and Ball State.
With his top two choices between Seattle and Ball State, Carl Noble said Richards won Noble over during recruitment.
"Billy just kept coming to see him even though he wasn't a highly ranked junior," Carl Noble said. "They kind of won him over since it was such a friendly place, so he decided to go to there."
Not being ranked at 16 years old, Noble slowly gained ground in the tennis landscape when he became ranked No. 4 in Chicago and No. 60 in the Westerns by his 18th birthday.
"I just bloomed a lot later then most folks," Noble said. "So, I spent my first year of college basically beating a lot of players who trampled me in the juniors ... which was kind of fun actually."
Starting at No. 6 singles his freshman year, Noble struggled through surgery on a torn rotator cuff midway through the season. As he healed he also practiced and Noble moved up three spots to No. 3 singles his sophomore season.
However, the time frame between Noble's second and third year would show the greatest improvement in his game, as he transcended into the Cardinals top position in both singles and doubles.
"As his game continued to grow and he was continuing to mature physically, he just made a big jump in a short period of time," Richards said. "It's one thing to make that jump and another to win some matches and do a good job when you are playing at that position. I wouldn't say that it is the biggest improvement that anyone has made in one year, but I would be hard pressed to find anyone to match it. "
Noble's said his jump in talent manifested into one moment in his Ball State career. During the MAC tournament of his senior year, Noble was playing No. 1 singles and doubles against the University Miami, a team he struggled against in the past.
In both singles and doubles Noble defeated the RedHawks in straight sets, recording his first doubles' wins against Miami. He went on to claim the No. 1 singles and doubles championships that season and cleared a personal hurdle for him as a player when he captured the wins.
"It was not the most exciting day for tennis, but it was a good set of wins for me," he said.
Noble was a four-time letter winner with his time at Ball State. He helped lead the Cardinals to four-straight MAC championships and compiled a 104-53 record in his four years. Noble currently ranks as one of five Cardinals to record triple-digit wins and has the fourth best career record.
Even with the statistics apparent to him, Noble said he remains surprised about his entry onto the Hall of Fame walls.
"[The Hall of Fame] was not something I was expecting at all." Noble said. "I've been told of all the statistics and all that stuff, but when I listen to them I think, 'yeah, maybe I should. I was pretty good.' But I never thought of it that way. As an athlete I remember my losses. I remember a lot of my losses. I remember all the things we didn't achieve, and I think that's what drives most athletes. You just aren't satisfied with the wins."
The final curtain
In the spring of 1990, the recently graduated Noble was ready to pursue the next page of his tennis career. With the tassel flipped to the other side of the hat, the professional tennis tour was now on Noble's horizon as long as he had his father's approval.
"The deal with my dad was if I was going to play the tour, then I was going to treat it like it was my job," Noble said. "I took that to heart and I practiced and played with the passion of this is what I wanted to do."
However, his professional tennis career would last eight tournaments.
In Tulsa, Okla. while playing his seventh tournament, Noble fell awkwardly on his right hand. Continuing through the pain and unknown to Noble, he would play in one more tournament as a professional before going through a three-month rehabilitation schedule to repair his injury.
The rehab wouldn't prove to be enough for Noble. After breaking his hand a second time, the Ball State graduate acquired several different medical opinions on the severity of the injury before the general consensus among the doctors was the same: Noble couldn't play tennis anymore.
"I think the physical pain I went through with my hand and through college, I just spent too much time in rehab," Noble said. "The additional rehab and training is just a lot of wear on the body. It got to the point where I just couldn't compete at that level anymore."
With a world ranking that never broke 100th in doubles and a top singles standing of 4th among amateurs, Noble insisted his professional tennis career was not impressive.
"That is kind of a dubious ranking when a lot of the good amateurs have world rankings," Noble said. "It is kind of like being the best ping-pong player on your block."
When his tennis career drew to an abrupt close, Noble did not know what the next step of his life would be. Taking his sister's lead, he enrolled at Northwestern University and began taking theatre, acting, singing and voice lessons to supplement his post-tennis career path.
"Performing and doing theatre work was no different to me in a lot of ways then playing tennis." Noble said.
When his sister, Ann Noble, started writing plays, Noble decided to fall back on his Ball State business degree and help raise money for his sister's efforts. After almost fully funding the performance, it didn't take long before his ability to raise money was sought out by others in the theatre business.
Since that time, Noble has assisted in more than 20 theatrical productions around the world. His efforts have allowed him to be a part of "Death of a Salesman", "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" in 2001 and "Thoroughly Modern Millee" in 2002.
In addition, four of Noble's six Broadway shows have won a Tony Award.
"That's not bad," Noble said."The Tony's were entertaining to be a part of and they were fun, but they were rewarding from the fact of doing nothing theatrical."
Despite his success in theater, Noble said being inducted into the Hall of Fame is more telling of the success in his life.
"[The Hall of Fame] means that I can feel good that I achieved some of the dreams from an athletic and achievement perspective," Noble said. "My family has always taken pride in things I have accomplished, but this is permanent. I feel happy that they can look at it from a proud mother and father and see that their son was able to achieve these things."
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