The premier social event during the US Open, The Legends Ball is always an extraordinary evening and serves as a beneficial fundraiser for the International Tennis Hall of Fame in the mission to preserve the history of this great sport!

 

About The Legends Ball
During one of the most exciting weekends of the tennis calendar, US Open finals weekend, the International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum will once again add to the festivities with The Legends Ball, a gala event to be held on Friday, September 7 at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City. The Legends Ball will pay tribute to the Hall of Fame Class of 2012 and will honor will honor several additional people and organizations who have contributed greatly to tennis by presentation of special awards.

Proceeds of The Legends Ball, which has been held annually since 1980, will benefit the International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum and support the mission of preserving the history of the game, honoring the legends and inspiring the future.

Honorees
The Legends Ball will pay tribute to the Hall of Fame Class of 2012 which features former world No. 1's Jennifer Capriati and Guga Kuerten, as well as Spanish tennis great Manuel Orantes, tennis industry innovator and promoter Mike Davies, and wheelchair tennis star Randy Snow, who will be inducted posthumously.

Eugene L. Scott Award
2012 Recipient: Chris Evert
The Eugene L. Scott Award honors an individual who embodies Scott's commitment to communicating honestly and critically about the game, and who has had a significant impact on the tennis world. Scott founded Tennis Week magazine and wrote the most widely read and well-respected column about the sport, "Vantage Point" until his death in 2005. Past recipients have included Dick Enberg, Andre Agassi, Martina Navratilova, John McEnroe, Billie Jean King, and Arthur Ashe.

A champion of the highest level on the tennis court, Chris Evert has long been a respected voice for the tennis world. During her Hall of Fame career, she won 18 Grand Slam singles championships, including a record seven championships at the French Open and a record six US Opens. She also captured 3 major doubles titles. Evert was the year-end world No. 1 player seven times, and she captured a total of 157 singles titles and 29 doubles titles. Evert’s decade-long rivalry with fellow Hall of Famer and good friend Martina Navratilova is considered one of the greatest in sports history. Since retiring in 1989, Evert has focused her time on philanthropic efforts. She hosted the first Chris Evert Celebrity Pro-Am just one month after retiring from her 17-year playing career, and over the years her efforts have contributed more than $20 million to an ongoing campaign against drug abuse and child neglect in Florida. Still an active leader in the tennis community, Evert is a publisher of Tennis magazine. In 2011, to the delight of tennis fans across the nation, she officially took a spot behind the broadcast booth, joining the on-air team for ESPN’s Grand Slam coverage. Evert was inducted to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1995. Topping off the immense contributions she has made to the sports community, Evert’s personal greatest achievement lies in her children. She is the proud mother to three sons.  

Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Award
2012 Recipient: BBC
The Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Award is given in honor of the man who served as president and chairman of the Hall of Fame from 1982-88, and was responsible for elevating the organization to worldwide recognition. The award recognizes an exceptional company that shares Cullman's enthusiasm for tennis and has also made a significant contribution to society at large- both philanthropically and through outstanding generosity of spirit. Past recipients have included Campbell Soup Company, Tennis Channel, and Mercedes-Benz.

The BBC brought tennis to the airwaves of Great Britain in 1927, with the first radio coverage of Wimbledon. This contract with the All England Lawn Tennis Club continues today- making it the longest running multiplatform rights contract in world sport. 

The BBC has always strived to bring technological innovation to tennis- the first ever live television coverage of a sports event (1937), first color TV broadcast (1967), first use of Hawkeye in tennis, first multi-platform coverage, and in 2011, the first ever 3D transmission on the BBC. As host broadcaster at Wimbledon, the BBC currently brings live coverage of the event from nine courts, producing over 900 hours of tennis coverage distributed to 160 countries. Over the years, many great voices of the sport have delivered BBC's coverage, including Dan Maskell, "The Voice of Tennis" for BBC from 1949 -1991, John Barratt, Bill Threlfall, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Bjorn Borg, and Jimmy Connors. Today's team is led by Sue Barker and includes John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Lindsay Davenport, Virginia Wade, Tracy Austin, John Lloyd, Pat Cash, and Tim Henman.
 
As well as Wimbledon, the BBC covered many World Championship Tennis tour events throughout the 1970's, and has been the host broadcaster for Olympic tennis from Atlanta, Athens, and London, with live coverage everyday from the 2012 Olympics. Over the years the BBC has covered all the Grand Slams with many years at the French and Australian Opens. Additional tennis coverage has included annual tournaments such as Queens, Eastbourne, and Bournemouth, as well as Davis Cup, Wightman Cup, the ATP World Tour Finals, and the Masters events from The Royal Albert Hall.
 
Today's multi-platform coverage includes the Wimbledon Championships, as well as the Australian Open Finals, the Barclay's ATP World Tour Finals, and the AEGON Championshpis at Queen's Club on television. BBC Radio 5 Live has commentary from all four Grand Slams, all the key ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events, and Wimbledon warm-up events, plus key Davis Cup and Fed Cup ties. News and reports throughout the year across BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC news channel, and BBC sport online round out the tennis coverage.

Co-Chairs
The Legends Ball will be co-chaired by Guillaume de Ramel, of Newport, R.I., a real estate investor and director of F.H. Prince & Co., and his wife, Molly; Todd Traina, an independent film producer from San Francisco, and his wife, Katie; and Gene Yoon of Seoul, South Korea, who is the chairman and CEO of Global Fila. In addition to co-chairing The Legends Ball, Mr. de Ramel, Mr. Traina, and Mr. Yoon all serve on the Board of Directors of the International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum, having joined the Board in September 2011

Guillaume de Ramel was born in France, but resides in Newport, R.I. He is an independent investor, director of F.H. Prince LLC and trustee of the de Ramel Foundation. His foundation is committed to children and health; among many interests, and his organization founded RhodySquash, building the first successful urban squash program in the state. de Ramel serves as chairman of Newport Hospital's F.H. Prince Memorial Fund, and Rhode Island Hospital's Advisory Committee for the Norman Prince Neurosciences Institute. Active in politics, de Ramel was named one of "25 Movers and Shakers" by Rhode Island Monthly magazine during his run for Secretary of State. Most recently, he was appointed by Governor Lincoln Chafee to Rhode Island's Coastal Resources Management Council, a quasi-judicial agency that is responsible for the preservation, protection, development, and restoration of coastal areas in the state. de Ramel earned a master's degree in real estate development from Columbia University and he graduated from Hobart and William Smith College, with a bachelor's degree in architectural studies. de Ramel, his wife Molly, a former Fox News Channel reporter, and their two children are avid squash and tennis players.
 
Todd Traina is an independent film producer and founder of Red Rover Films. Some of the feature films Traina has produced over the last 15 years include: "What Maisie Knew" with Julianne Moore; "Goats" with David Duchovny and Vera Farmiga; "Another Happy Day" starring Demi Moore, Kate Bosworth, Ellen Barkin, Thomas Hayden Church and Ellen Burstyn; "The Romantics" starring Katie Holmes, Anna Paquin, Josh Duhamel, Malin Akerman, Candice Bergen, Adam Brody and Elijah Wood; and "Morning" starring Jeanne Tripplehorn, Laura Linney, Elliott Gould and Leland Orser. Traina also produced the feature films "Archie's Final Project," "Blood & Bone," "Night Train," "What We Do Is Secret," "Stanley's Gig" and the popular documentary "Punk's Not Dead."Many of Traina's films have played or garnered awards at top film festivals including Sundance, Berlin and SXSW. In 2007, Traina was named a "Top Ten Producer to Watch" by Daily Variety. Traina began his career with producer Douglas Cramer at NBC Productions working on the Danielle Steel Movies of the Week. In addition to film production, he has developed real estate, owned or partnered in a number of successful Hollywood restaurants and is a partner in Mombo LLC, a Northern California investment company. Traina recently co-founded Social Media Productions, which develops and creates on-line games, programming, shows and webisodes. Traina serves on several boards including the San Francisco Film Society and the Vision of Hope Advisory Board, which serves and funds eight California inner city schools. Traina is a graduate of Connecticut College and was born and raised in San Francisco where he lives with his wife Katie and daughter Daisy. Traina and family are long-time Newport summer residents and are all active in the preservation and support of the community.
 
Gene Yoon is the chairman and CEO of Global Fila and has been associated with the Fila brand since the early 1980's when he served as the company's first footwear sourcing agent in Korea. In 1991, Yoon launched a subsidiary in Korea for Fila's Italian owners and quickly turned Korea into one of most successful markets for the Fila brand. Today Fila Korea operates through a network of over 850 franchise stores. In 2005, Yoon led a management buyout of the Korean subsidiary from Sports Brands International (a holding company of Cerberus Capital Management) and entered into a long-term license for the Fila brand. In 2007, Yoon fulfilled a life-long dream and acquired the worldwide operations and trademark rights of the Fila brand making him the first Korean entrepreneur to acquire a global brand. Following the acquisition, Yoon used his vast experience to develop a long-term licensing model with direct operations in the key Korean and US markets and, as a result, has revived the Fila brand and increased brand revenues around the world. In 2010, Yoon led the initial public offering of Fila Korea on the Korean Stock Exchange (KRX), one of the most successful IPO's in the history of the exchange. In May 2011, Yoon led a consortium of Korean investors in the winning bid for the acquisition of the Acushnet Company, one of the largest golf equipment companies in the world, which includes the premium and storied brands Titleist, the #1 ball in golf and a leader in high performance golf clubs, and FootJoy, the #1 shoe, glove, and performance outerwear brand in golf. 
 
Prior to founding Fila Korea, Yoon was the president of LINE IND. Corporation as well as the Daewoon Trading Company. Early in his career, Yoon worked with Hwasung Company, Ltd., and JCPenny. Yoon has been the executive vice chairman of Korea International Trade Association (KITA) since 2009 and was awarded the Chevalier of the Order of the Merit of the Italian Republic in 2008 and named Honorary Citizen of Biella, Italy in 2010. He has received several awards for his outstanding business management including the Korea-Europe Top Management Award from Korean Society Contemporary of European Studies and the Professional Management Award from the Korea Academy of Business Historians, and the President's Awards on National Taxpayer's Day in 1998 and 2007. Yoon holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science & Diplomacy from Hankook University of Foreign Studies.
 

Auction
Always a highlight of the evening, The Legends Ball auction will feature an array of exclusive experiences and luxury items that will excite tennis fans and non-tennis fans alike. In the past, auction items have included hit sessions with tennis luminaries Pete Sampras and Monica Seles; ticket and travel packages to Grand Slam events; golf at legendary courses like Winged Foot; autographed tennis memorabilia from Roger Federer and Andre Agassi; exotic vacation packages; and golf, baseball, hockey, basketball and football tickets and memorabilia. Click here for a list of past auction items and donors, and for information about becoming a donor.

For tickets, sponsorship opportunities, or to learn more about The Legends Ball contact Meredith Forts at 401-324-6284 or via email at mforts@tennisfame.com.