by Joe Favorito
@JoeFav
I have been lucky enough in my life to have been able to have been a fly on the wall for so many events big and small; especially ones that started out as a germ of an idea that blossomed into something well beyond the original scope. One of those that continues to bear fruit was Arthur Ashe Kids Day.
My first brush with Arthur Ashe was when I was actually working as Sports Information director at my alma mater, Fordham University. Frank McLaughlin, our Athletic Director, called me and asked me to come up to his office as he wanted me to meet the person who was going to be the new women’s tennis coach for the Rams…Arthur Ashe. He was going to replace another tennis legend, Pat Rooney (who also ran the ball kids program at the US Open for decades), but Arthur was interested and all felt it would create a great opportunity and send a message to the collegiate tennis world of inclusion and diversity that was much needed. Alas, a few weeks later Frank got a call from Arthur to say that he could not accept the job because of some rising health issues, and shortly after that it was revealed that he had AIDS, which eventually took his life way too soon. A fleeting but memorable brush with greatness.
Flash forward several years later, as my career had gone from Fordham to the Philadelphia 76ers and then to the WTA, I was out in a position to again have an opportunity to help extend the legacy of Arthur Ashe, in another unconventional way…with the birth and expansion of Arthur Ashe Kids Day.
This year would have been the 25th version of AAKD in its current form, as my colleague Michael Fiur pointed out this past week. One was lost due to Hurricane Irene, and this year’s is gone because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the ones in between have been a gateway to exposing kids not just to tennis, but to showing how sport and music can be a driver for positive change.
Now when we got to the WTA and headed towards the US Open in 1997, an event tying Arthur’s legacy, awareness of HIV, and raising funds was not new. Even having music as the bridge to sport was not a new idea. There are stories of the Jensen brothers and their band, fresh off their Roland Garros title, playing as the Open began several years before, and exhibitions featuring players like John McEnroe for Arthur Ashe Day leading into the Open were already in the mix. However, there was little ever done on the scale of what the USTA, under USTA Presidents Harry Marmion and then Judy Levering and USTA Sales and Marketing Director Pierce O’Neil wanted to accomplish with what Arthur Ashe Kids Day would become; to work with CBS and create a global event to unite sports and entertainment in what was a very nontraditional way at the time. Namely to give young tennis stars a chance to showcase their personalities on a national stage on the eve of the Open, and bring in some of the brightest rising names in pop music to expose their talent not for the traditional Open crowd who would fill the new Arthur Ashe Stadium in the coming weeks, but to an audience who may never get to experience the vibrancy of the Open in person. That experience was not just limited to the Stadium show on a Saturday afternoon; it included bringing in literally thousands of young people from around the New York area to play tennis and see what the USTA National Tennis Center (now named after Billie Jean King) was all about. By doing those two things…using entertainment tied to sports and creating a massive grassroots festival in advance of the Open…you could continue to expand the brand beyond the traditional and show sides of the game that many not tied to the sport did not realize existed. It was all part of a massive outreach spearheaded by leadership, amplified in the coming years by Arlen Kantarian and then continued to this day, to make the Open the mega event on the calendar it has become.
As far as the music talent in those early days was concerned, the combination of O’Neil and the CBS leadership team, from Sean McManus and Rob Correa and Bob Mansbach on down, was to find those rising stars who would resonate (in the years before social media today) with a non traditional audience, play well on TV (the stadium show was always taped and then shown in an edited form on the Sunday before the main draw began) and have some rudimentary understanding of the goals of the event. Like the kids showing up to run through drills and do face painting, you needed to get the talent while they were young and rising, and hopefully, free of entourages. Looking back at the lineups for the first few years…Hansen, Brittany Spears, Jessica Simpson, OTown, 98 Degrees, and then as we migrated into diverse voices like Lil Bowow, the decision makers certainly had a look not just to who would resonate with a young audience, but who was on the way up in their careers, much like you saw rising stars like Venus and Serena Williams, Andy Roddick, Martina Hingis, Levar Harper Griffith, Lindsay Davenport and James Blake get mixed in with Jennifer Capriati, Monica Seles, Andre Agassi, John McEnroe, Mary Pierce and Pete Sampras in the early days of the event. Were there a few misses? Passing on a young rising star like Kenny Chesney early on was probably one, but for the most part, the hits on the tennis side and the musical side kept going and growing.
The other key point in expanding AAKD to what it has become was linking the messaging of the Arthur Ashe Foundation, and Arthur’s legacy of inclusion and awareness to a generation both on and off the court who may not have known the story…one which resonates all these years later just as loud as it did then.
Over the years as I moved away and then back to tennis and away again, at least on the work side, I have been amazed, impressed and in awe of how AAKD continues to evolve, especially along the lines of diversity and inclusion and linking entertainment to sport. The challenges, as well as the opportunities, along with the demands of elite performers and athletes are probably bigger today than ever, and the demands on time are just as unique as they were way back in the past century when we were able to jumpstart this event.
While the 25th AAKD has been put on hiatus this year, the Open and the goals of the event are no less impactful and important, and it will be great for when the anniversary can be celebrated late next August, when hopefully all the challenges of the past few months and those coming in the fall will be a memory.
For now, the memories of those early days of AAKD also remain vibrant, as did the mission. It was a pleasure, first at the WTA and then at the USTA, in having been involved in those early days, and I look forward to seeing the event continue to evolve into the future as a vibrant celebration of sports and culture, just like the Open has become.
