John McEnroe’s 1977 US Open Debut Was Rocked by a SHOCKING SHOOTING in the Stands — Then the Match Took an Even Stranger Turn.

John McEnroe was in the midst of making his debut at the US Open when a fan was shot in the stands.

On Sept. 4, 1977, then-18-year-old McEnroe was playing his third-round match against ninth-seeded Eddie Dibbs, when shouts in the stands stopped play. A spectator, 33-year-old James Reilly, was shot in the leg, per The New York Times.

“We were switching sides and then there was some commotion up in the stands, and the umpire said to us, ‘Someone’s been shot in the stands,’ ” McEnroe recalled to The New York Post in May 2023.

That wasn’t the only headline-grabbing moment of the 1977 tournament. There were also protests, a bomb threat and a near-riot when officials attempted to switch the time of a scheduled match.

Here’s what to know about the 1977 US Open shooting.

Someone shot into the stands

US Open crowd after shooting in 1977.

AP Photo/BE

During the very first changeover of McEnroe and Dibbs’ match, the players heard a commotion and an umpire told them that someone had been shot in the stands. Upon hearing the news, McEnroe said that “Eddie Dibbs was like, ‘I’m getting the hell outta here!’ ”

“We walked off the court, and we sort of waited to find out what was going on,” he continued to the New York Post.

The match resumed shortly afterward

John McEnroe during the 1977 US Open.

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Roughly six minutes after the shooting, the match restarted. McEnroe defeated Dibbs two sets to one, as previous US Open rules had men play best of three sets in the early rounds, according to The New York Times.

“It was certainly a bizarre first US Open for me,” McEnroe told the New York Post. “We went back and played the match, which was one of my biggest wins of my life at that time.”

The victim never spoke publicly about the incident and the shooter was never found

Reilly was first removed from the main stadium to a first-aid room, and then taken to St. John’s Hospital. He was reported to be “in satisfactory condition,” according to The New York Times.

It’s not clear where Reilly is today. The New York Times attempted to find him in 2012, but no updates have been published since.

Additionally, the shooter was never found. Police identified a possible suspect as “a male Hispanic wearing a red shirt and dark pants,” per The New York Times.

The shooting wasn’t the only headline-grabbing moment of the 1977 tournament

Renee Richards in 1977.

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1977 marked the final summer that the US Open took place in Forest Hills before it moved to its current location in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. It was also the last US Open to be played on a clay court, and the change caused an uproar among board members and fans. But several events during that tournament — including the shooting — also grabbed headlines.

During that tournament, there was a bomb threat, several protests against the participation of South African players and a near-riot in the stadium when officials tried to change an afternoon match to an evening session, per The Washington Post.

Additionally, during the first week of play, Dr. Renée Richards stepped on the court and made history as the first transgender woman to play in a professional tennis tournament.

Richards had reached the finals of the US Men’s 35-and-over championship in 1975 and underwent a gender-affirming surgery that same year, per the US Open. After initially being told she could not compete, Richards took the United States Tennis Association (USTA), the United States Open Tennis Championship Committee and the Women’s Tennis Association to court, and a New York State Supreme Court justice ruled in her favor to play in the Open, per The New York Times. She lost in the first round to former US Open champion Virginia Wade, 6-1, 6-4.

On the men’s side of the competition, the “spaghetti racket” caused a 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝓃𝒹𝒶𝓁. Michael Fishbach, then 23, was dominating lower-level tennis circuits with his “weird racquet,” according to The New York Times.

The racket had fewer cross strings than a traditional racket, and instead of being interwoven, its strings stacked on top of each other. Fishbach had spotted the design while on a European tour and decided to replicate it at home with his brother. After previously being ranked No. 200 in the world, he qualified for the US Open with the racket, where he dominated his first two rounds.

Fishbach’s victory over US Open and Wimbledon champion Stan Smith made the racket especially controversial. Weeks later, the design was banned from tournaments, per The New York Times.