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Bob Metcalfe, 2022 ACM A.M. Turing Award recipient

Credit: Alexander Berg

When he was a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe briefly considered pursuing a career in tennis. He was captain of the 1968–1969 MIT tennis team, which had a record of 15 wins and 4 losses, and he was ranked sixth in New England in doubles, even while taking classes and holding a programming job at defense contractor Raytheon. That, unfortunately, was not enough to make a go of it.

"There's playing pros and there's teaching pros," Metcalfe says. "I could easily be a teaching pro, but that just seemed boring. And for being a playing pro, I wasn't good enough."


 

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