I’m starting this thread to show the number of ways in which the term “grand slam” was used from the 1930s to the 1960s. We’ve often debated whether the term should refer to taking the Australian, French, Wimbledon and USO in one season or across two calendar years – but that doesn’t even begin to show how many ways the term has been used historically. I’ll post links below to newspaper articles in which the term “grand slam” was used to describe all of the following things: Winning the Australian, French, Wimbledon and US titles in a single year Winning the above titles consecutively, across two calendar years (a meaning in use as late as 1953) Winning the Wimbledon, French, US and Italian titles Winning the US, Australian, Wimbledon and British Hard Court titles Winning the US, French and Wimbledon titles, in that order (that is, across two calendar years) Winning the Wimbledon, US and Davis Cup titles Winning the Australian, Wimbledon and US titles Winning the Wimbledon and US singles titles Winning the Wimbledon and US doubles titles One player taking the singles, doubles and mixed at Wimbledon One nation taking the men’s and women’s singles, doubles and mixed, at Wimbledon Players from the same international region taking the men’s and women’s singles at Wimbledon One nation’s team winning all the rubbers in a Davis Cup tie One player winning all of her singles matches in a Wightman Cup tie Players from one city taking all the singles and doubles titles at a public parks tournament A team sweeping all their singles matches on one day of play at a college tennis tournament A men’s team winning singles and doubles at a college tennis tournament A spectacular attack of offensive tennis in a doubles match Winning all the major championships in one season beginning with the US Indoors and including other unspecified tournaments, presumably Wimbledon and Forest Hills, but not the Australian and possibly not the French Winning various combinations of American tournaments during World War II, a time when three of the traditional Slams were suspended and only the US Nationals continued to be held Winning various combinations of American tournaments even after the war, as late as 1960 – for example all the major outdoor events in the country, or all the grasscourt tournaments in the eastern part of the country I found all these uses of the term “grand slam” by searching for “grand slam tennis” in the Google News archives, one year at a time starting with 1933. I will be posting links to some articles that use the term in the conventional sense of winning the four Slams in one season, but I have not recorded every such instance. Such instances are numerous, and listing them all would obscure the other uses of the term. So I have quoted from articles stating that Don Budge achieved his grand slam after winning in New York in 1938, for example. But I will not be listing every instance in which articles from the 30s and 40s, reporting on Budge’s pro matches, refer to him in passing as having won the grand slam of tennis. I’ve taken a similar approach to Lew Hoad’s bids for a Grand Slam in 1956 and Laver’s bid in 1962, since both of those campaigns – particularly the latter – were mentioned often and in many places. However, I have posted everything I could find on Jack Crawford’s bid in 1933, because that’s when the term “grand slam” was first applied to tennis. And how the term was first used in tennis is an important point in debates about the Grand Slam. I’ll post each link in its own separate post, in chronological order.