Background
Scott was the grandson of Doctor Eugene C. Sullivan, one of the inventors of Pyrex and chair and president of Corning Glass Works.
coach journalist Tennis player
Scott was the grandson of Doctor Eugene C. Sullivan, one of the inventors of Pyrex and chair and president of Corning Glass Works.
He graduated with a Bachelor in history from Yale University in 1960, where he was a member of Skull and Bones and lettered in tennis, hockey, soccer, and lacrosse.
He earned a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1964. Gene Scott"s highest United States. ranking as an amateur was Number. 4 in 1963, whilst he reached as high as World Number.
11 in 1965.
He founded the magazine Tennis Week in 1974. Later in life Scott remained among the best players in the world in his age group. Scott also played real tennis at New York City"s Racquet and Tennis Club.
Scott grew up in Saint James, New York, and played varsity hockey, track, soccer, and tennis at Saint Mark"s School in Southborough, Massachusetts
At Yale, Scott earned letters in hockey, soccer, lacrosse, and tennis. Scott also made it to the semifinals of the United States. Championships at Forest Hills in 1967 and the quarterfinals of the French Championships in 1964.
Although Scott remained active as a Court Tennis player, which he played at The Racquet Club on Park Avenue, Gene became one of the major figures in American tennis through his publication Tennis Week which he founded, published and edited. His editorials -- perceptive, authoritative and sometimes whimsical -- were considered a must read for all the game"s insiders as well as a tennis public who became educated about the game as a result of reading them.
At heart, Scott was an educator.
He took great pride in nurturing young writers and was not afraid to criticize their work -- sometimes harshly. He was also a mentor, on and off court, to the flamboyant young talent called Vitas Gerulaitis who regularly turned to Gene for advice as he rose up the world rankings. Scott ran tournaments in New York and New Jersey for many years before taking over as Tournament Director of the Association of Tennis Professionals Masters at Madison Square Garden.
In 1990, he was asked to start up the Kremlin Cup, a new Association of Tennis Professionals event in Moscow, with a remit to produce with one million dollars in sponsorship in nine months.
With some assistance from the Kremlin itself, where Boris Yeltsin, a tennis fanatic, was busy installing himself as President of Russia, Scott came up with Bayer as his first title sponsor and the tournament, played inside the vast Olympic Arena, immediately drew some of the largest crowds on the Association of Tennis Professionals tour. Scott died of heart disease at the age of 68 and was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2008 in the "contributor" category.
The impact Gene Scott had on the tennis world was clear for all to see at his Memorial service held at a large church on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The crowds spilled out onto the sidewalk, offering a true reflection of how many lives gene had touched.
At the time he was a member of the United States Davis Cup team, and was both teammate and roommate of Arthur Ashe.