Roth Report
Television & Radio
Travel Center
Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center
From the south, take Interstate 81 north to exit 118B, following US 460 west to Blacksburg.
From West Virginia, take Interstate 77 south (West Virginia Turnpike) to exit 9. Exit and turn left onto 460 east. Follow 460 east to Blacksburg.
Once in Blacksburg, use the 460 bypass around the downtown area. Follow 460 to the signal at Southgate Drive (Va. 314). Turn right onto campus. Take the second right onto Tech Center Drive, Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center will be on your right.
The Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center is an outstanding facility for tennis and ranks among the best venues for tennis in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The facility includes the tennis center, which is located near Lane Stadium. The athletics department added six new outdoor courts to the facility in a project that was completed in the spring of 2009. These six new courts will be used by recreational sports on campus, while also being used by the athletics department for tournament competition.
Overall, the facility offers 12 outdoor courts with bleacher seating, and six indoor courts with a mezzanine viewing area and chair back bleachers. These were added in 2008.
The facility also includes locker rooms, coaches' offices, a team room and a social area. The Hokies' locker room in the facility underwent upgrades and renovations in the spring of 2004.
The tennis center is one of the few in the nation featuring digital video cameras on each indoor court. The system, created by XOS Technologies, records competition and team practices simultaneously on all six courts. The cameras are mounted at the back of each court in the center and are connected to a DVD recorder located in the tennis coach's office. The Virginia Tech system is one of the first all-digital systems in the nation. Members of the tennis center and other local patrons also use the system for stroke analysis.
In 2007, two large scoreboards were added indoors to allow spectators to follow the action on all six courts. The scoreboards are a product of Santech, Inc., the supplier of scoreboards at Disney's Wide World of Sports, in Orlando, Fla. The $40,000 addition was paid in part by a generous donation from Kent James and family.
The tennis center, which opened in 1992, was made possible by gifts from Dave and Betty Burrows of Roanoke; their son, Jack Burrows, and his wife, Lee, of Roanoke; and their daughter, Beverly, and her husband, Bobby Burleson, of Tallahassee, Fla. Jack Burrows and Bobby Burleson were teammates on Tech's tennis team in the late 1960s. Burrows participated in the NCAA Championships and earned induction into the Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame for his tennis exploits.
