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Maureen Catherine Connolly (Little Mo) was a
professional tennis player born on September 17,
1934, in San Diego, California, United States.

As a child, an athletic Maureen Connolly loved
horseback riding but her mother was unable to pay
the cost for riding lessons and as such she took
up the game of tennis. A natural, with tremendous
power and accuracy from the baseline, at age 14
she won 56 straight matches and the following year
became the youngest ever to win the United States
national championship for girls eighteen and
under.

In 1951 she entered her first US Open (tennis)|US
Open at Forest Hills, Queens, New York|Forest
Hills, New York and in the finals, the 16 year old
Connolly defeated Shirley Fry, again becoming the
youngest ever to win America's most prestigious
tennis tournament. Her achievements made her the
darling of the media, and one of the most popular
personalities in the United States. She was named
Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year for
three straight years from 1951 through 1953. 

Connolly successfully defended her U.S. title in
1952 and won the Wimbledon championships|Wimbledon
championship. For the 1953 season she hired a new
coach (sports)|coach, the Australian Davis Cup
captain Harry Hopman. Entered in all four of the
Grand Slam in tennis|Grand Slam tournaments for
the first time, she defeated Julia Sampson in the
Australian Open final and Doris Hart three
consecutive times in the finals of the French
Open, the Wimbledon championships, and the U.S.
Open to become the first woman, and only the
second person, to ever win the world's four major
titles in the same year.

In 1954 she did not defend her Australian Open
title but successfully defended her French Open
and Wimbledon championships. On July 20, 1954,
just two weeks after she won her third straight
Wimbledon title, she was out horseback riding when
an accident with a truck crushed her right leg,
ending her brilliant tennis career at age 19.

Maureen Connolly accomplished more in her short
career than most achieve in a lifetime. She was
able to compete in nine Grand Slam tournaments,
and won them all. As a result of her incredible
accomplishments, she was elected to both the
International Tennis Hall of Fame and the
International Women's Sports Hall of Fame.

Grand Slam in tennis results for Maureen
Connolly's nine appearances:
#Australian Open - 1 time: Winner 1953
#French Open - 2 times: Winner 1953, 1954
#Wimbledon championships - 3 times: Winner 1952,
1953, 1954
#US Open (tennis)|US Open - 3 times: Winner 1951,
1952, 1953

In June of 1955, Maureen Connolly married Norman
Brinker, a member of the 1952 United States
Olympic Games|Olympic equestrian team who was able
to share her love of horses. They had two children
while she remained partially involved in tennis,
acting as a correspondent for some U.S. and United
Kingdom|British newspapers at major U.S. tennis
tournaments and as a coach for the British
Wightman Cup team during its visits to the United
States. In Texas, where the couple lived, she and
her husband established the "Maureen Connolly
Brinker Foundation" to promote junior tennis. 

Tragedy struck again in 1966 when she was
diagnosed with cancer. After a long battle with
the disease, Maureen Connolly Brinker passed away
at age 34 in Dallas, Texas on June 21, 1969 and
was interred in the Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial
Park Cemetery in Dallas.