Born on March 4, 1927, in Bayonne, New Jersey, Dick Savitt displayed excellent basketball skills and the sport remained his favorite until adulthood. He was considered a promising high school prospect. Tennis, at the time, was a secondary activity—Savitt had no coach and would later proudly claim he had never taken a single lesson. Still, he played effectively enough to rank No. 8 among American juniors and No. 17 among amateurs in 1945. In 1946, as a freshman at Cornell University, two injuries