Hamilton Jordan and the ATP's founding

[Brian Purdie]

I had this fellow speak at my graduation on Friday. His name is Hamilton Jordan and in addition to founding numerous camps for kids with cancer (Camp Sunshine), serving as cheif of staff for Jimmy Carter, bringing the Jaguars to Jax, and having been diagnosed with three different types of cancer, he was noted as having founded the ATP tour.

Now, he gave us a copy of his new book, but it said nothing about this except a small line about it in his bio. Wasn't the ATP created by a bunch of protesters in the parking lot of the US Open back in 89 or 90? I recall they were out there declaring that they were going to take over the mens game. Isn't the ATP a corporation?

Bottom line: Has anyone ever heard of this guy, his contibution, or know of the beginning of the ATP back then?

[lemons]

Brain,

Yep, its all true. Hamilton Jordan is a real person. He was Jimmy Carter's chief of staff and the first head of the ATP when it took control of the tour in '88 or '89. I think that parking lot incident at the US Open happened in '87.

By the way, how was the speech?

[Brian Purdie]

The speech was actually pretty bad. Alot of people were disappointed. He has had melanoma, non-Hogdkin's lymphoma, and prostate cancer. His trials with cancer were an appropriate topic for a medical college graduation, but it was not very encouraging. I think he has probably done alot of wonderful things with his life, and I wished he had focused a little more on optimism.