BUTLER TWP - Tennis and the Barkley family - the two go hand in hand.

Jack and Judy Barkley, along with daughter Jenny Ivory and son Jay, have a combined 115 years of tennis membership at the Butler Country Club.

"Jack and I have been members at the club for 50 years and have been in the tennis program for 30," Judy Barkley said. "Jenny and Jay played junior tennis here.

"Jack is 58 and still plays competitive doubles three times a week. The sport has gotten us all involved, and gives us something we can always do together," she added.

The younger Barkleys played so much tennis at club that both were able to play for college teams despite never playing high school tennis.

With their family based in the Saxonburg area, the Jenny and Jay Barkley attended Knoch High School in the late 1980s and early '90s, which was before Knoch had a tennis program.

Jenny Barkley wound up playing for Washington & Jefferson while Jay played at Westminster College.

"I played here (at the club) all summer long when I was a kid," said Jenny Ivory, now married and the mother of two. "I was one of Whitney's (club pro Snyder) assistants when I was a teenager.

"The competition was stronger in college, but I knew the game and had played a lot. I played some singles at W&J," she added.

Jay Barkley, 28, is considered the best player in the family. He played No. 1 singles at times for Westminster.

"I played basketball in high school, so I knew the competitive nature of sports at that level," Jay Barkley said. "But tennis has always been my game."

Tennis has been the Barkleys family game since the late 1960s, when Jack Barkley was in the Navy and stationed in Norfolk, Va.

"All of the people we knew there played tennis, so we just started playing," Judy Barkley said. "And we've never quit."

She said there are about 12 families who joined Butler Country Club to play tennis when they were young and now have brought their children through the program.

The Barkley family vacations together once a year and gets together on the court.

"It's the big thing we have in common," Judy Barkley said. "Tennis is part of our family history.

"Whit has a lot to do with building and maintaining interest in the sport," she added. "He gets everyone involved and the kids love him. He's like the Pied Piper out here the way they all follow him."

Ivory's 4-year-old son, Andrew, is learning tennis at the club now. Jay began playing when he was 3.

"The competition and drive to get better keeps bringing me back to it," Jay Barkley said. "I hope I'm playing until the day I die."

Ivory plays tennis two or three times a week at the Oxford Athletic Club and still takes lessons.

"It's a game you can play for life and I want to stay on top of it," she said.

With the next generation of Barkleys already learning the game, tennis won't be leaving the family anytime soon.

"I hope it never does," Judy Barkley said. "It's fun, it keeps you physically fit and it's a vehicle with which to meet new people and make new friends.

"I can't imagine my life without it."