This story originally printed in the Fall 2025 (Brown) Issue of the Portland Tennis Courterly
“Portland Athletic Club a.k.a. PAC Enters New Era”
By Jay Boss Rubin
Don’t call it a comeback–Portland Athletic Club, or “PAC,” has been here for years. Marion Blackburn founded the business in 1977. He was then, as he is now, the only proprietor of a single-owner, Black-owned tennis facility in the Pacific Northwest. PAC is currently under the general management of Marion Blackburn’s daughter, Nikki Blackburn-Orr. She works closely with the club’s Director of Tennis Programs, Laura Conway, who is the daughter of Portland soccer legend Jimmy Conway. In many senses, PAC is a bastion of continuity. But following the club’s recent court resurfacing, recruitment of new pros, and renewed emphasis on youth tennis, PAC is also boldly entering a new era.
Longtime PAC pro Jack Neer (Neer is yet another Oregon sports icon) remembers a color change to PAC’s courts sometime in the 1980s. But this past summer marked PAC’s first proper resurfacing since the club opened its doors nearly five decades ago. Back then, it wasn’t called PAC. The club was originally called Tennis Town. The name later changed to Raleigh Hills Racquet and Health Club before settling on Portland Athletic Club—a better fit, as Raleigh Hills doesn’t technically begin for another half mile down the road.
The resurfacing took place in mid-July, at the same time as the resurfacing at Irving Park. While that’s a coincidence, PAC and Irving Park were both known for having some of the fastest courts in town, and for being focal points of local African-American tennis culture. Following the resurfacing, PAC’s five courts—bluish purple with white lines, and a vibrant green between them—have remarkable visibility. The new surface, which is Har-Tru, is notably slower. But it’s also “perkier” and “the ball sits up better,” in the words of Conway, who was previously with Oregon Youth Soccer Association and Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District. The new surface has undeniably better traction. Courterly correspondents have investigated the new surface personally, and found that it lends itself to lengthy rallies and slowly sliding balls that might not have been reachable before.
The courts at PAC were actually slotted to be resurfaced several years ago. When the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020, Marion Blackburn delayed the costly project; he used the money he’d set aside to pay his employees instead. Following the pandemic, PAC got three different bids for the resurfacing job, and ended up going with the local chapter of a national company called Beynon Sports. Though the estimate for the job was twelve to fourteen days, it took three and half weeks. In order to resurface five courts, and fill in the 3 ½’’ dip between Courts 2 and 3, 40,000 lbs of sand were brought in, along with 40,000 lbs of urethane. The courts now slope up ever so slightly from the lobby, which features couches and chairs in a viewing gallery, as well as a long “homework table” where kids can be found after school and in the evenings. Entering the courts, players step onto a gently raised plateau. All in all, the project cost $100,000. Half of that came from a USTA grant, but only after the USTA was satisfied that the courts would contain a full 18’ of backcourt between the baselines and curtains. Before the resurfacing, PAC’s backcourts were 16' 4’’ (To be eligible for grant funding, the USTA also requires 12’ of space between courts).
Notably, there is no pickleball at PAC. But Courts 3, 4, and 5 have blended lines for kids and juniors. In conjunction with the resurfacing, PAC has recommitted to robust youth programming. They run a huge junior academy that attracts over 200 players—the biggest program of its kind in the area, according to Conway. PAC also hosts an off-season league for high schoolers, in which over 60 kids come twice per week: once a week to train and once for matches. All of PAC’s various youth programs are affordable and accessible. With the recent addition of top Portland-area pro Lew De Leon, youth tennis at PAC is set to skyrocket to a whole other level.
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While there is much to celebrate at Portland Athletic Club, the recent developments are undeniably bittersweet. Due to health reasons, Marion Blackburn is no longer involved in day-to-day operations. And his son, Anthony Blackburn, the club’s long-time head pro who touched the lives of hundreds if not thousands of Portland-area tennis players, retired from teaching in 2023, also for health reasons.
Most people speeding past the 5800 block of the Beaverton Hillsdale Highway likely have no idea of all the tennis and cultural history that lives on inside the club. If they glance down the driveway into PAC at all, they see a sunken parking lot. You have to look off to the side to notice the covered courts. And you have to look inside the building to get a sense of the business’s fuller story. When Marion Blackburn—who is originally from Huntsville, Alabama—moved to Portland in the 1960s, he was initially denied membership by the Irvington Club, even though he was a high-level player who lived nearby. It was only after the protests of Jack Neer, who was a pro at Irvington at the time, that Blackburn was admitted. When Blackburn decided to open his own tennis teaching business, he strung up nets in a concrete-floor, low-ceilinged warehouse on Macadam Avenue. Clients came by the dozen, but only to depart for fancier facilities after sharpening their skills. That venture, called Tennis Lessons Inc., was the predecessor to Tennis Town, which Blackburn built from the ground up.
PAC is currently in the process of putting together new USTA teams. And there may be some PAC tournaments on the horizon, as well. With the new chapter of PAC now officially begun, the club would also like to get more younger adults in the door. It’s the only private club in the area where you can literally “come in off the street,” Conway emphasized, and pay a modest guest fee to hit on an available court. PAC is waiting for you with the open arms of a multigenerational family business. Come see what this one-of-a-kind tennis facility is all about.