Bob Dienstbach developed a love for tennis during the tennis boom of the 1970’s in suburban St. Louis. Many of his fondest memories date back to that time in his life when wood racquets and white tennis balls were the order of the day.

In 2016, he found himself frequently on the road with his sales job. One day in Denver, CO he stumbled upon a thrift store while driving aimlessly to get his mind off some bad news he had learned regarding his father’s health. His father introduced tennis to him as a child while growing up in Ballwin, MO, and the sight of a TA Davis Classic tennis racquet stopped him in his tracks. This was the very racquet that Bob had used when his father had taught him the game and buying it gave him a piece of the past that he could cling to. With that sentimental purchase, Bob was on his way to amassing an impressive collection of vintage tennis racquets and other artifacts from the game’s storied past.

Before long, Bob transformed the lower level of his home in Clarkson Valley into a virtual tennis museum. He has had several open house parties where tennis enthusiasts have stopped by to see the impressive collection. The collection displays about eight hundred racquets, as well as fifty tennis books, and an original patent pending stringing machine that was invented by St. Louisan Edmond Serrano. The pre-World War II stringing machine was found on a farm in Cedar Falls, IA.

Perhaps the most impressive purchase Bob made was when he rented a U-Haul and drove to Chicago to buy the remaining inventory of the Victor Sporting Goods Company. The company had been the stringer for the TA Davis Company in California, who like Victor Sporting Goods, went out of business in the mid-1980’s.

That haul included many New Old Stock (NOS) racquets that had been discontinued for years.

Retired Tennis Professional and St. Louis Tennis Hall of Famer, Doug Smith, remarked that the “museum is truly something to behold. Wall-to-wall racquets of every era, every manufacturer and veritably every model”. Smith went on to add that Bob was such a gracious host that he took a Davis “Imperial” frame off the wall that Smith was admiring and gave it to him to keep because he could see how much it meant to him. Bob Dienstbach’s collection is truly a labor of love.