On Saturday, July 12, the International Tennis Hall of Fame will induct its Class of 2008 - Michael Chang, Mark McCormack and Gene Scott - in ceremonies at the home of the Hall of Fame, The Casino in Newport, Rhode Island. Hall of Fame journalist Bud Collins profiles all three inductees in his just-off-the-press book THE BUD COLLINS HISTORY OF TENNIS ($35.95, New Chapter Press, click here for 39 percent discount). Today, we present to you the profile of Gene Scott.

Gene Scott

United States (1937-2006)

Hall of Fame-2008-Contributor

As a skilled and authoritative man-about-everything in tennis, Gene Scott had no equal. He was the game’s protean promoter-many times a champion on the court, but also championing the game itself in various roles.

A superb athlete, bright and literate, he was good enough with a racket to play Davis Cup for the United States, and bat­tle to the semifinals of the U.S. Championships at Forest Hills in 1967, as well as the quarterfinals of the French Championships in 1964, beating Marty Mulligan, a three-time Italian champ, prob­ably his best win.

Later, he won 40 U.S. titles in senior age group tournaments, the last in 2004, the 65s, when he also won the world grass court 65’s-all this as a veteran of double-hip-replacement surgery. Gene was also a champ at court tennis, the abstruce centuries-old ancestor of today’s just-plain tennis, winning the U.S. Open titles, 1973-77.

He cared so much for tennis that he pulled no punches when the people in charge deserved scolding-or lauding. This he did from his bully pulpit, the thoughtful, progressive column (”Vantage Point”) he wrote as the 1974 founder-publisher of Ten­nis Week magazine. Some called him the “conscience of tennis,” which fit well.

Eugene Lytton Scott was born Dec. 28, 1937, at New York, and grew up at St. James, N.Y. He died March 20, 2006, in Rochester, Minnesota. Attending St. Mark’s School, Southborough, Mass., he quickly made his athleticism apparent, playing for the varsities in hockey, track, soccer, tennis. After St Mark’s came Yale (‘60) where he scored letters in hockey, soccer, lacrosse and tennis. Then it was Virginia Law School (‘64), and a brief career as a lawyer. In 1967, his big year at Forest Hills, he tended legal duties during mornings in a Manhattan office, then took the train to the tournament.

He was too broad for that, preferring sports to torts, and entered into managing more than 200 tournaments, the most exotic launched in Moscow, 1990, the Kremlin Cup. With one dial phone in a decrepit office, and a lot of patience and gumption, he showed how it was done to amazed natives just shedding com­munism. Between 1977 and 1989, he ran the highly successful Masters, the men’s year-end championships at Madison Square Garden. He wrote 20 books on tennis, helped grass root programs such as the National Junior Tennis League, was a sharp TV com­mentator, served on countless administrative committees.

A trim 6-footer who easily made friendships across the planet, he ranked in the U.S. Top 10 five years (1962-63-64, 67-68), No. 4 in 1963. He played Davis Cup in 1963 and 1965, and went 4-0, winning three singles and a doubles, playing in two ties. He won a singles and, with Yale teammate Donald Dell, the doubles against Iran to open the 1963 campaign. Since the U.S. won the Cup that year, Gene played a small part, and was a spare in Aus­tralia for the final.

In 1966, Gene teamed with Croat Niki Pilic to set a Wimble­don record, longest doubles match (98 games) in beating Cliff Richey and Torben Ulrich, 19-21, 12-10, 6-4, 4-6, 9-7. (It was broken in 2007.)

Ever ahead of the parade he (along with Billie Jean King, Rosie Casals, Clark Graebner) played the U.S. Championships in 1967 with the strange Wilson T-2000 steel rackets that Jimmy Con­nors would make famous.

“Wood is dead, will soon be gone,” Gene predicted. He learned the game on a public court with chain-link nets, but later took some lessons from Elizabeth “Bunny” Ryan, holder of 19 Wimble­don doubles titles between 1914 and 1934. It seems fitting that he joined her in the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2008.

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1. Mark McCormack To Be Inducted In International Tennis Hall Of Fame