Graw was a talented player who won several awards, including the 1958 Women’s Falls City Championship as a teenager. In 1960, Don Kaiser, UofL’s men’s tennis coach, needed more athletes to compete, so he invited Graw, a then-18-year-old freshman, to tryouts. Two other women, Liz Crady and Nancy Butler, also tried out for the team. All three made it.  

According to Graw’s husband, Paul, also a former UofL athlete, Kaiser wanted to harness Graw’s championship energy for the team. In fact, Kaiser offered her a partial athletic scholarship for joining the team, making Graw the first woman at UofL to receive such an honor.

“Coach Kaiser thinks so highly of (Graw’s) potential that she was given a partial scholarship,” wrote Marvin N. Gay, Jr. in a 1960 sports column in the Courier Journal. “Athletic director Peck Hickman said (Graw) is the first girl in the school’s history to receive aid because of athletic ability.”

At the time of Graw’s scholarship, most financial aid was based on academics or need rather than athletic ability, said Nancy Worley, associate sports information director for the Cardinal tennis teams.

It would take many years before other women had the opportunity to follow in the shoes of Graw, Crady and Butler.

“Officially, we did not have women’s athletics until 1975 when Title IX was interpreted to include sports for women,” Worley said. “The NCAA did not offer women’s sports until 1982.”

Tennis led to love off the court for Graw, too. She met Paul, a former track athlete, in the summer of 1962. Paul loved Martha’s exceptional talent for the sport and how happy tennis made her no matter where she was. The pair became engaged their senior year, in 1963. That year, both also lettered in varsity sports.

When Paul left for Texas to attend Officer Training School, Martha taught tennis in the Louisville Public Parks program. The couple married upon his return and Martha took a step away from tennis to have two children. After moving to Wright Patterson Air Force Base during Paul’s service, Martha found there was an incredible tennis program, and she even got Paul to share in her passion. 

“Marty (Martha) and I played singles together a lot. It was an awful long time before I won a set from her, but eventually I could win a set every now and then,” Paul said. “We liked to play mixed doubles. Over the years, that became really important. We, through her, got to be a part of the local tennis scene.”

Graw was a natural athlete who took pride in her athletic victories and shared her love for the sport that helped pay her way through college with anyone who was willing to learn. She died in 2014 after a battle with cancer, but her legacy lives on in the hundreds of women who have taken the courts, fields, tracks and pools for UofL since Graw’s first serve

The former UofL women’s tennis player and head coach has a rich history of success on the court. She holds the school’s top two positions for singles wins in a season, is second with most career doubles victories, and ranks third in career singles wins. She secured all-conference honors twice, the first in school history to earn the distinction. In 1987, she was voted the Kentucky College Coach of the Year.

Peavy was inducted into the UofL Athletics Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Kentucky Tennis Hall of Fame five years later. Though highly prestigious honors, Peavy has strived – and succeeded – to be synonymous with more than her on-court success.

For more than 30 years, including her time as leader of the Cardinals’ tennis program, Peavy dedicated herself to the city of Louisville.

Under her watch, teams were highly involved in the community, volunteering in soup kitchens from 1983 to 2002. Still, Peavy wanted to affect more lives throughout the community.

“I remember sitting in a committee meeting of the KTA (Kentucky Tennis Association) on a rainy day, discussing how to make our small parks tennis organizations gain a bigger piece of the pie from grant funds available from the USTA,” Peavy said. “It occurred to me as the KTA Minority Participation director, we would be more powerful as a fist than individual fingers.”

That meeting paved the way for Rising Stars of Kentucky Tennis, an inner-city program that provides year-round tennis instruction to kids. Beyond teaching a sport that has helped her impact lives, she has donated racquets, shoes and clothing since 1994.

“Rising Stars is in its 25th year of putting smiles on faces, including mine,” Peavy said. 

Also, since 2000, Peavy has been an instructor for the Kentucky Special Olympics and the KTA Wheelchair summer tennis camp.

In September 2018, the United States Tennis Association identified Peavy as a WLKY Bell Award recipient, recognizing her for demonstrating the true “spirit of Louisville” through selfless volunteer efforts and as someone who seeks to inspire all residents to engage in community service.

“The Bell Award was literally over the top,” Peavy said. “I received a certified letter, no less. I’m proud, thrilled, humbled, delighted, and as you can imagine, shocked.”

Peavy remains active on the court, but she hopes to continue to make more of a lasting impact off of it.

“Being involved with those who need help doesn’t cost anything and only asks for a bit of your time and whatever skill you have to offer,” Peavy said. “It could be helping someone to speak a new language or learn basic skills. No matter what, just have your heart in it and you will be rewarded thousand-fold.”