Does Tennis need many like the Howard's?

by Fernando Segal (3/6)

Tennis has been shaped by great players, coaches, but also by great thinkers. Behind every breakthrough in the tennis history stands someone who dared to challenge the status quo. In the case of modern tennis racquet, that transformation began with two Howards.

Howard Head, an engineer and visionary entrepreneur, creator of HEAD Racquets and other products. And Howard Brody, a physicist with a passion for understanding the game at its most fundamental level.

Together, they sparked a revolution in tennis equipment that reshaped our sport, not just technologically, but culturally and competitively.

Howard Head, former aircraft engineer, a visionary who applied aerospace concepts to tennis equipment. He had already transformed skiing by creating the first metal ski lightweight and more responsive than anything on the market.

At the end of 1970s, frustrated by how difficult tennis was to learn with traditional wooden racquets, Head set out to reimagine the tool of the game. What if a racquet could be more adaptable? What if beginners and professionals alike could hit with more consistency? The response: The Prince oversized racquet. A concept that would soon become one of the greatest paradigm shifts in tennis history

And Howard Brody: The physicist who made tennis understandable. Being Physics Professor at Pennsylvania University, he was a bridge between science and our sport. Researching about the mechanics of spin, impact, trajectory, and energy transfer in tennis, he has published more than 100 papers, articles, and books about it.

Brody’s work laid the groundwork for evidence-based coaching, racket design, and even the use of technology in judging ball trajectories and spin. When Howard Head's vision needed scientific validation and precision, Brody was the perfect mind to match the mission.

With 1974 Prince Patent, their collaboration created the basis of physical concepts behind that racquet. In those times came out the Prince Classic, later the Prince Graphite to life. The oversized racquet was more stable, powerful, and had a bigger sweet spot. It allowed players to strike the ball with greater confidence and control.

Players like Pam Shriver, Michael Chang, later Andre Agassi and Maria Sharapova helped bring it to the global stage.

Their legacy in modern tennis is present with lightweight, powerful, and technologically optimized racquets, tracing their efficiency directly to the work of the Howards. Even modern analytics in tennis borrow from Brody's early impact models and ball-flight equations. Today, everyone is playing with bigger racquets.

Together, they didn't just change equipment, they reshaped how tennis is played, taught, and understood.

Tennis means a global culture, a movement, a force for growth. We need a revolution of values, structure, and purpose in each next visionary, builder, and true leaders of tennis world like them.

We can do it!