Here you will find all the information you ever wanted - and we know you want it! - regarding the 2020 Hall of 3.0 Fame voting process. Because you can't spell "transparency" without "D.F.O."
Preliminary List - Nashville - March
After agreeing on the procedures, the Voting Panel decided to meet in a neutral location exactly midway between the Voting Panel's domiciles to ensure fairness in voting.
And with that, the Voting Panel for the first time ever in D.F.O. history considered the greatest of the 3.0 greats, at the time a list of almost 100 (98 to be exact) more than worthy 3.0ers. Indeed, these 3.0ers spanned the previous two decades of official U.S.T.A. N.T.R.P. 3.0 play and were among the greatest of the 3.0 greats ever recorded. EVER RECORDED!
Which was part of the problem. The recording of the records was, well, not quite accurate.
As it turned out, several data mishaps (i.e., adding incorrectly) and omissions (i.e., forgetting entire groups of players) hindered the selection process, and while the Voting Panel left the traditional Nashville meeting spot where historical giants of yore have met throughout history (i.e., the local Longhorn Steakhouse) feeling they had completed their task of narrowing down their list of 98 to a final five, a final five who would be the inaugural and historic D.F.O. 3.0 Hall of 3.0 Fame class, it turned out this was but a preliminary list. For, upon returning to their respective states, the data mishaps and omissions were finally discovered, meaning the entire Nashville meeting was ... classified as a "preliminary meeting." For tax purposes.
Preliminary List 2.0 - April
With more adept data handling systems (i.e., calculators) and more dedicated time to research (thanks to the pandemic), another Preliminary List was created, this one with well over 100 potential 3.0ers! Once again, the Voting Panel commenced, this time via Covid-approved long-distance technology the likes of which much of the world has never before seen.
Like ... phones.
And once again, the Voting Panel, through a series of rounds of voting, narrowed the list down to under 10, and multiple conversations took place regarding the pro's and con's of league play versus playoff play, team titles versus tournament titles, years of service versus years of excellence (not quite the same thing, as it turns out). And finally, after much deliberation, the Voting Panel came down with their list of the six first ever D.F.O. 3.0 Hall of 3.0 Fame recipients!
And then the Voting Panel remembered the limit was ... five.
Unable to come to a conclusion between candidates #5 and #6 - or 5A and 5.1 - one who had more tournament wins and tournament titles versus one who had more overall wins and more years of service - the Voting Panel did what all great decision making bodies tend to do ... they did nothing.
Preliminary List 3.0 - May
Which worked out! For, as it turned out, there was an entire 3.0 summer season to consider! That's right, the 3.0 league season, as well as several tournaments, were to take place between May and November, thus allowing even more data and even more players to enter the Hall of 3.0 Fame preliminary list! Thus, the Voting Panel, in order to determine the true merits of who was worthy for this most unknown and yet incredibly time-consuming honor, decided to wait until the 2020 3.0 season was completely complete before finally, hopefully, honoring some of the greatest 3.0 players ever to play the game.
Preliminary List 4.0 - November
Over the course of the summer, and then fall, season, and thanks to quarantine and even more research, 50+ nominees were "found." How, you ask? Well, some nominees emerged thanks to their fine summer and fall play. But many, many more emerged when the D.F.O. Hall of 3.0 Fame Committee decided upon a major ground breaking, and potentially history changing, decision. That is, to ensure that as many eligible candidates were nominated to be eligible for Hall of 3.0 Fame consideration as possible, the D.F.O. expanded the opportunities available to be nominated (showing exactly how democratic the D.F.O. truly is!), opening up eligibility to not just those who had a 3.0 tournament title ... OR 50+ career 3.0 wins ... BUT ALSO any player who had been a member of a 3.0 team who had won Midwest Ohio State Championships Championship! WHOA!
What led to this fair, yet time-consuming, change? The D.F.O. Research Team, in researching various players through the decades (yes, decades), the D.F.O. Research Team discovered that certain areas of the state of O-H-I-O, in particular the western and southern areas, focused more on league and playoff play than league and tournament play. As such, some worthy players were being excluded ... and that's just not fair! So, thanks to the crack* D.F.O. Research Team, the nomination list climbed to 151 incredibly worthy nominees! SO MUCH RESEARCH!
Rounds 1-5 - December
With the 2020 season officially complete, the Preliminary List became THE list! FINALLY!!! The list, now with over 150 - 150! - nominees, was as prepared as a list could possibly be prepared. Months of painstaking research, numerous potential court orders to cease and desist, and countless hours agonizing over who to include and who to exclude were finally at an end and the Voting Panel could finally - finally! - do what they had waited so long to do ... VOTE!
And since they'd essentially stared at many of the same names and statistics for the better part of nine months, the rounds of voting went, well, a lot more quickly than one might imagine.
Round 1
Of the 151 nominees, 67 were unfortunately eliminated immediately, mostly because, well, they didn't qualify as nominees (which begs the question as to why they were on the Preliminary List at all, but after nine months of work, the Research Team was somewhat exhausted to make yet another list). This group of 67 were eliminated for one of three reasons (we here at D.F.O. like to do things in threes, as it turns out). One, they fell victim to the harsh but fair One-and-Done Rule. Two, they did not meet the minimum three career 3.0 years year requirement. Or three, they were currently active and did not meet the six year still active 3.0 tenure requirement. One could question why the best players were being left out, thought the rules are as clear* as can be, and as one of the Voting Panel is fond to say, "this isn't about who is the best tennis player, it's about who is the best 3.0 tennis player." Not the same thing!
Round 2
Of the 84 nominees who advanced to Round 2, 38 lucky 3.0ers advanced to the next round with the mandatory 100% of the vote. And while it is difficult to detail which particulars caught the Voting Panel's eyes when it came to who advanced and who did not, some themes were making themselves evident. And success wasn't necessarily one of them! Not that the 38 Round 3 advancees were not successful, but several super successful players did not make the cut ... so who did? In general, years of service, total matches, and overall wins seemed to be catching the eyes of the Voting Panel. Indeed, anyone with a decade-plus of 3.0 play or over 40 career wins journeyed on to the next round, while several quality candidates who enjoyed D.F.O. 3.0 Player of the Year recognition, multiple tournament titles, or even State Championships were left to ponder what had happened (in short, what had happened is they were too good!).
Round 3
Of the 38 nominees who advanced to Round 3, 21 continued a voyage that they had surely only dreamt of ... if at all! At this point, this deep into what had become a nine-month process, some trends were actually evident. Years of service and dedication to the 3.0 tennis dojo looked to be given major consideration, as more than 75% of the nominees who advanced to Round 4 had seven or more years of dedicated tenure to the world of 3.0 play. Next, overall play was given requisite attention. No, not play as in "good play," but play as in "amount of play"! Indeed, as over 75% of the Round 4 qualifiers had participated in more than 80 career matches, it was clear that this was an incredibly accomplished, qualified, and experienced group! Speaking of experience, this Terrific 21 (as we're sure they're being called), experienced another thing in common - WINS! Over 50% of the group enjoyed more than 50 career 3.0 wins during their 3.0 careers while more than 95% of the group had enjoyed a super-duper major win of some kind, whether a D.F.O. 3.0 Player of the Year award, a Major* tournament title, or a Midwest Ohio State Championships Championship (so nice you have to say it twice)! Do these guys know anything but winning?!
Round 4
For Round 4, the 21 nominees was cut down to ... 21. Indeed! So, with the 150 nominees narrowed down to an incredibly amazing group of 21 equally deserving 3.0 stars, the Voting Panel enlisted the aid of the Twelve Apostles ... of 2020 3.0 tennis! That's right, the Voting Panel joined forces with 11 carefully selected captains of 3.0 tennis, as well as the Grand Poobah of N.E.O. tennis himself, the Tennis Coordinator of N.E.O. tennis, to finalize the most important vote of the year (we're sure that statement is totally not over the top hyperbole). This diverse group of leaders, some of whom were even among the top 150 players on the Preliminary List(s) and even among the Round 4 names, were tasked to gather (virtually, at least) and help decide one of the most demanding and difficult questions of our time - who would be among the first ever five to be the first ever recipients to walk through the non-existent halls of the D.F.O. 3.0 Hall of Fame?!
As it turned out, the Twelve Apostles, seeing as it was the holiday season, couldn't bring themselves to eliminate any of the 21 nominees (or they deleted our email and didn't respond), so the list of 21 stayed at 21. The system is working!
Round 5
For Round 5, the Voting Panel got back to work, and the 21 nominees were further narrowed down, this time to a final 10 (which probably could have been done in Round 4, but the D.F.O. is nothing if not a system of checks and balances even if some of those balances are people not answering our emails). And boy howdy, what an elite group of 3.0ers were among the final 10! League success ... playoff success ... tournament success ... this group had done it all! And some of them had done all of the aforementioned things!
Sadly, only five would walk through (virtually, anyway) the D.F.O. Hall of 3.0 Fame as inductees, so which five would it be? One final round would determine their status, for, per D.F.O. Hall of 3.0 Fame voting rules, once a final 10 was found, for this round the Voting Panel would vote for a final five BUT would discuss each of the 10 nominees, and thus this would no doubt be the longest, most difficult round of all in which all the merits of all the nominees would be discussed in a verbal process that would certainly last days, if not hours, if not ...
Round 6
... well, minutes. Turns out, after nine months of looking at 3.0 stats and 3.0 figures and doing so across the continental United States in person and online, the Voting Panel agreed on the Final Five on the first go 'round.
Huzzah!
So when all was said and done, who - and what - won over the Voting Panel? Great question!
Summary
Clem's record setting marks in years, matches, and wins made him the easy put away overhead smash winner, if you will, of the entire 150+ list of nominees, and if there were a unanimous first-ballot selection (which this entire group turned out to be), Clem was it! Simply put, few have ever accomplished what Clem has accomplished, and the fact he's still active is just another feather in his 3.0 headband!
Barry and Richard, the Lebron and Kyrie of 3.0 doubles (we could have said "the Michael and Scottie" but this is Ohio, so our backup reference was the "Mark and Brad" or the "Johnny Football and Canadian Football"), who dominated the doubles courts during the first decade of the current millenium, were next up, as their individual wins, their wins as a tandem, and their multiple team titles made the decision to select the pair to the Hall of 3.0 Fame the equivalent of calling your opponents ball long during a crucial point during a match - easy!
Oddly, though, if not for the Preliminary List 4.0 Rule Change, the three players above may have been left out. Indeed, while all three easily met the 50+ career 3.0 wins requirement all three may have been overlooked if not for the crack D.F.O. Research Team looking into their membership on several Midwest Ohio State Championships Championship teams. HISTORY CHANGING INDEED!
Clem, Barry, and Richard's slam-dunk selections, however, are not to say that the next two inductees selections were anything less than worthy, though. Indeed, Bob and Matt, two-long time 3.0ers whose names are all over the 3.0 record books, were actually two of the finalists back in March and April! WHOA!
That's right, Bob and Matt had impressed the Voting Panel for a solid nine months, which is both impressive and ... creepy. But let's focus on the impressive, much like the Voting Panel did!
Bob, one of the big name players of the '00s, enjoyed league and tournament success, notching well over 50+ wins and a tournament title along the way. One of the the first names in not just 3.0 tennis, but in 3.0 tournament tennis as well, he played a huge role in helping to bridge the gap between league and tournament play, helping to quite literally legitimize and sponsor one of the biggest 3.0 events on tour!
Matt, one of the big name players of the '10s, enjoyed league and tournament and playoff success, making him the rare 3.0 triple threat! Indeed, with a winning mark in all three phases, over 50+ career 3.0 wins, a tournament title, and two team titles to his name, Matt was seemingly selected to the D.F.O. Hall of 3.0 Fame three different times, in March, April, and finally in December! Three selections for the 3.0 Hall of Fame ... it all adds up!
So, in summary, the inaugural induction class didn't take nine months to complete ... it took over 20 years to complete! Two decades of amazing* 3.0 play! Whether league, playoff, or tournament play ... whether singles or doubles ... whether together or separate ... championships or vice-championships ... congratulations to all 150+ nominees and all five of this year's induction class! Congratulations on an honor few have ever dreamt of ... and even fewer have ever heard of!
(And if we ever get our 3.0 act together, the inductees will receive the ultimate honor - a ceramic mug! Considering it took us nine months to get this far, though ... well ...)
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