Currently the world's top-ranked tennis player in the men's over-60 circuit, King Van Nostrand '56 has been a highly regarded American player and coach since he and his brother, Cortland Hall of Fame member Allan Van Nostrand '53, were collegiate tennis standouts at Cortland in the 1950's. In his career, King Van Nostrand has won more than 20 United States Tennis Association (USTA) gold tennis balls for national titles and 10 silver tennis balls as a runner-up.
Van Nostrand has captured more than 17 individual and team trophies in international competition. He has represented the United States internationally in the Stevens Cup, the Dubler Cup and Austria Cup. He has won championships in 11 countries on five different continents. For the past decade, Van Nostrand has been nearly invincible in American and world competitions. He has earned a number one ranking in the U.S. in six different years in his career and has been featured in Sports Illustrated. For his contributions to the sport, Van Nostrand was inducted, along with the late Vitas Gerulaitis, among others, into the Eastern Tennis Association Hall of Fame in 1995. Van Nostrand was inducted into the Long Island Sports Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame in 1991. The Bay Shore High School tennis courts were renamed in honor of the Van Nostrand family in 1994.
A native of Brightwaters, N.Y., Van Nostrand was a scholastic singles and doubles champion for Bay Shore High in league and Long Island competition. At Cortland, Van Nostrand posted a 35-3 record in three years of singles play. He was a 1952 Eastern Intercollegiate finalist at West Point and an Easter Intercollegiate semifinalist on the grass courts of Wilmington, Del., in 1954. That same year, he captured the Rider College Tournament title. A two time tennis Red Letter winner, he helped coach the Cortland team for one season. Van Nostrand also competed on the Red Dragon varsity basketball team. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Cortland in 1956.
Between 1956 and 1960, Van Nostrand served in the U.S. Navy. While on active duty, he won several Navy tennis championships and was also selected to the All-Atlantic Fleet Tournament basketball squad. From 1960 until his retirement in 1989, Van Nostrand taught mathematics in the Bay Shore School District. He coached the Bay Shore junior varsity tennis team to 233 wins and only four losses between 1960 and 1976. During one stretch, his teams won 161 consecutive games over a 10-year period.
Van Nostrand has been involved in many tennis exhibitions for local charities. He has been an active fund raiser for a number of organizations, including the Arthur Ashe Foundation, Zonta International, and the Great South Bay YMCA.
King met his wife, Yvonne Lyons Van Nostrand '56, while at Cortland and credits her with being his "trainer, coach, scout and nutritionist." The Van Nostrands have four children, all of whom learned tennis from their parents at an early age and later competed at the collegiate level. Two of them, Molly and John, turned pro and were coached by their father.
UPDATE- March, 2015: King Van Nostrand has won close to 40 USTA National Championship gold balls as of the end of 2011. In 2007, he was the first inductee in the Naples Tennis Hall of Fame. He is a nine time International Tennis Federation world senior tennis champion. A five time International Tennis Federation world doubles champion. He represented the USA by leading the USTA senior international team to the International Tennis Federation world team titles on fourteen occasions. In addition, Van Nostrand continues to volunteer his time for Meals on Wheels since 2007. He is an active participant in Florida’s Charitable Tennis Exhibitions, tennis clinics, and other tennis and golf functions.
