"Tennis Hall of Fame not acting on Bob Hewitt; Abandons inquiry into complaints by women against inductee" by Bob Hohler |
Globe Staff, May 21, 2012
NEWPORT, R.I. - Visitors to the International Tennis Hall of
Fame find centuries of the sport’s history at their fingertips -
interactive tributes to 220 stars such as Pete Sampras and Steffi Graf,
Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson.
When they reach a touch-screen display honoring South African tennis
legend Bob Hewitt, they learn he was one of the most “enduringly
elegant’’ doubles players of all time. There is no mention of Hewitt’s
purported secret life.
Missing is any reference to the nearly dozen women on three
continents who last year accused him of sexually abusing them between
the 1970s and early 1990s when he was their coach and they were
underage.
Nine
months after the hall announced it would investigate the allegations -
“We’re going to be diligent about it and see what we can discover,’’
vowed Tony Trabert, the hall’s president at the time - it turns out
there is no inquiry. Executive director Mark Stenning told the Globe
that the hall scrapped the investigation in favor of drafting a policy
to address similar issues. He said the board will consider the proposal,
which he declined to explain, in July.
The decision, a striking contrast to the US Gymnastic Hall of Fame’s
swift expulsion last year of an inductee facing sexual abuse
allegations, has angered Hewitt’s alleged victims and several prominent
former players....
To the women and those who support them, the hall of fame’s
backpedaling is emblematic of leaders throughout professional tennis
distancing themselves from Hewitt’s alleged misconduct and the women’s
pain. The scandal looms as the tennis community prepares for the spring
and summer classics - the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open - and
the hall of fame’s annual induction ceremony in July.
Hewitt, 72, has not been charged with a crime. The statute of
limitations has expired in the United States on most of the allegations.
The statute does not apply in South Africa....
Hewitt, in a Globe interview last summer in South Africa, generally
declined to comment, other than to say, “I just want to forget about
it.’’
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Tennis Hall of Famers include Andre Agassi, who has acknowledged
lying to tennis authorities to avoid punishment after he tested positive
for an illegal substance (crystal methamphetamine); Boris Becker, who
was sentenced to two years probation and fined $300,000 for tax evasion
in his native Germany; Vitas Gerulaitis, who reportedly was implicated,
but not charged, in a cocaine distribution conspiracy; and Bill Tilden,
who was twice convicted of inappropriate sexual contact with young men
after his playing career.
The hall’s marquee inductee this summer will be Jennifer Capriati,
who was arrested in the 1990s for shoplifting and marijuana possession.
None of those hall of famers was accused of damaging as many lives as Hewitt.
However, the tennis hall of fame is not alone in honoring inductees who have been accused of wrongdoing.
Mike Tyson, a convicted rapist, is a boxing hall of famer. O.J.
Simpson, currently imprisoned for armed robbery and kidnapping, is a
football hall of famer, as is Lawrence Taylor, who pleaded guilty last
year to a charge of sexual misconduct involving a 16-year-old girl.
In Cooperstown, Duke Snider and Willie McCovey remain baseball hall
of famers despite their 1995 convictions for federal tax fraud. And the
Baseball Writers Association of America has taken no action against Bill
Conlin, a hall of fame columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News who
resigned last year after three women and a man alleged he sexually
molested them when they were children....
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