2007 Hall of Fame Inductees
Susan Butt and Mike Kohlhoff
Susan Butt was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and during the early 1950’s won many junior tennis titles as well as the Victoria women’s singles and doubles championships in 1955. While attending the University of British Columbia in 1958, she won the doubles title and was a runner-up in singles at the U.S. Collegiate tournament.
Two years later, Susan was the No. 1 ranked women’s singles player in Canada, an accomplishment she repeated in 1961 and 1966. She went on to compete internationally and play in the Australian, French, and United States national championships prior to the Open era.
Susan also played in two Wimbledon Championships where in 1961 she advanced to the third round before losing on Centre Court to top-seeded Sandra Reynolds of South Africa. In 1967, she was invited to play on Canada’s Federation Cup team and served as the non-playing captain from 1970-72.
Her other achievements on court included winning seven consecutive British Columbia Open women’s singles title from 1958-63 along with singles, doubles, and mixed titles in tournaments around the world as well as throughout Canada and the Pacific Northwest. In 1971, she earned the No. 1 Ladies’ Singles ranking in the British Columbia Lawn Tennis Association and in 2000 was inducted into the Canadian Tennis Hall of Fame.
Off the court, Susan received her Ph.D. in psychology and from 1967-2003 was on the faculty of the University of British Columbia’s Department of Psychology. Much of her academic work focused on sports and she authored the book “The Psychology of Sport: The Behavior, Motivation, Personality and Performance of Athletes” in 1976.
Michael Kohlhoff, a resident of Lake Oswego, Ore., has held numerous tennis volunteer leadership positions in the USTA at the national and sectional level. He served two consecutive two-year terms as a USTA Vice President and Board Liaison to the national Communications/Marketing Division.
Mike also served two terms as USTA Secretary-Treasurer, one term as a Board Director at Large, and as Chair of the Audit Committee. During that service, he coordinated the development and adoption of the USTA’s first five-year Strategic Plan, a blueprint to help tennis growth in the U.S.
Mike’s involvement with the USTA included volunteer positions with the Constitution and Rules Committee, the Section Delegates Assembly, the Section Presidents Committee, as well as the Olympic, Nominating and US Open Committees.
At the sectional level, Mike Kohlhoff served as President of the USTA Pacific Northwest from 1984-87 and as Section Delegate. He is a former president and board member of the Irvington Tennis Club and trustee of the Portland Tennis Center.
Mike’s community involvement includes helping to raise $20,000 for improvements to the Lake Oswego tennis courts and co-chairing a tennis fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis, that netted $30,000.
On the courts, he was a four-year letterman in tennis and an NAIA District 2 singles finalist while pursing his bachelor’s degree from Lewis and Clark College in Portland. He won the Oregon State High School Doubles Championship, an accomplishment repeated by his son, Casey, 32 years later.
Mike is an active USTA League Tennis participant, has reached three league national championships, and has been ranked in the top five in the USTA Pacific Northwest in men’s open doubles. In 2001, he was honored as a recipient of the Lewis and Clark College Athletic Lifetime Sport Achievement & Leadership Award.
Kohlhoff has a degree in law from the University of Oregon, and is currently the city attorney for the City of Wilsonville, Oregon, a position he has held for twenty-five years.