He met his wife at tennis, his son's became Australian top-10 players and successful coaches and his family opened, and then ran, the Hawker Tennis Centre.

So it was fitting Larkham was inducted into the Tennis ACT Walk of Fame on Saturday alongside Thomas "Charlie" Boag OAM, a man he crossed paths with when he was starting his playing career.

Larkham was the first ACT player to tour Europe, jumping on a ship for a four-week journey to play at events in England, Holland, Switzerland, Austria and Germany, as well as the Wimbledon qualifying singles.

But the best part of his trip wasn't winning drop shots or firing down aces. It was meeting his future wife, Stephanie.

"I'd planned to do the trip [to Europe] with Ray Manning, but Ray pulled out at the last minute and bought himself a VW," Larkham said.

"I went ahead and bought a return-trip ship fare and came home two years later. Tennis has been a passion all of my life, I love it.

"The best thing that happened in Europe was that I met my wife. That was definitely the highlight and tennis was such a big part of our lives.

"It was inevitable Todd and Brent would become tennis players, but it was a long, hard road. They did really well and we're very proud of them, and their coaching has been fantastic, too."

Larkham, 75, was an ACT junior champion in the under-13, under-15, under17 and under-19s age divisions. He also won eight resident men's singles, four men's doubles and two mixed doubles titles in Canberra from 1966-75.

Larkham, the brother of former ACT rugby president Geoff and uncle of Brumbies star Stephen, was also a coach for 32 years at Braddon, Turner and Higgins before opening the Hawker Tennis Centre.

Larkham and Boag were honoured at a Tennis ACT awards function on the weekend, where Nick Kyrgios was named the ACT player of the year, Annerly Poulos and Charlie Camus were the junior players of the year and Larkham's son Todd, won the high performance coaching prize.

Boag, who was 94 when he died in 2008, was described as an "icon of Canberra tennis" after a celebrated playing career and significant impact as an administrator.

His son and granddaughters were at the function, where officials paid tribute to Boag for being one of driving forces behind the tennis development at Lyneham in the 1950s and 60s.

He was one of the top players in the capital at his peak, but also took a hands-on approach to maintenance. When he was 80, Boag and volunteers worked to re-lay synthetic grass courts at Lyneham to ensure an Australian Seniors Championship was able to go ahead.

"Charlie was an absolute icon. He played in the first night tournament in Canberra in the 1930s," said Tennis ACT director Colin Adrian.

"He was one of the top players in the lead up to World War II. He served at the Kokoda Track ... but perhaps the key thing was he and Ken Willis negotiated to get the site at Lyneham to build the first Lyneham tennis centre.

"He was involved physically until he was in his 80s. I also came across that in the time he was doing all of that work, he was also very senior in the health department.

"He was the assistant director in charge of the tuberculosis program from 27 years ... he was a top player, a fantastic public service career and tennis administration. He really was an iconic Canberran."

Meanwhile, the North Woden tennis club won the most outstanding club award after a 25 per cent growth in membership in the past 12 months and Ros Balodis, a Walk of Fame member, was the most outstanding 35-plus senior.

TENNIS ACT AWARD WINNERS

Walk of Fame: Bruce Larkham and Thomas "Charlie" Boag

ACT player of the year: Nick Kyrgios

Junior female: Annerly Poulos

Junior make: Charlie Camus

Most outstanding tennis senior: Ros Balodis

Most outstanding athlete with a disability: Matthew Leggett

Club player of the year: Tony Winston

Junior club player of the year: Abby Wigney

Most outstanding inclusion initiative: North Woden wheelchair tennis

Excellence in officiating: John Blom

Most outstanding school: Canberra High School

Coaching high-performance excellence: Todd Larkham

Coaching talent development excellence: Nathan Price

Coaching club excellence: Nelson Parker

Volunteer achievement award: Graham Hamilton

Most outstanding club: North Woden