Farhang Mohtadi

Farhang Mohtadi played basketball for Iran at the 1948 Olympics. He had earned a B.E. degree from Tehran University in 1945 but in 1948 was studying at Birmingham University in England. Mohtadi was better known as a tennis player and during his years in England played at Wimbledon seven consecutive years (1949-55), although he lost in the first round each year. In 1954 he lost in the final of the North England Hardcourts Championships to Polish player Ignacy Tłoczyński. Mohtadi also excelled at table tennis, making the final of the 1944 Middle East Championships, and squash, competing in the British Open Championships.

Mohtadi eventually earned a B.Sc. degree and later a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Birmingham. He finally settled in Canada where he taught at the University of Calgary, serving as chairman of the department of chemical and petroleum engineering and director of public relations in the engineering department. In Calgary Mohtadi started the Shad Valley Summer Science Program for high school students and was on the board of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and Child Reach.

His son, Nick Mohtadi, played briefly on the professional tennis tour, including a bronze medal win at the 1979 World University Games in mixed doubles and one doubles appearance at Wimbledon. Nick Mohtadi later became a renowned orthopaedic surgeon at the University of Calgary, with special expertise in sports medicine and clinical epidemiology.