50 Years of Influence, US Open: Joe Cullman

WATCH—Stories of the Open Era - Tennis in Media:

In the five decades since the first US Open, these are the players, innovators and newsmakers whose contributions have helped make it one of our nation’s essential sporting events

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. In the case of 1960s tennis progressives, Cullman was the man to know. The head of Philip Morris, Cullman was a tennis junkie and friend of Gladys Heldman. In 1962, when Heldman wanted to fly foreign players to the U.S. Nationals, Cullman was among the first to send a check.

The connection between Cullman and tennis only deepened. When the USLTA needed a sponsor for the first US Open in 1968, Cullman brought in Philip Morris. When it needed a broadcaster, he persuaded CBS.

It was the start of a 45-year-partnership that would raise the US Open’s profile and help make it the most lucrative tournament in tennis. Cullman also served as the Open’s chairman in its formative years.

In 1970, Cullman made his biggest commitment to tennis when he sponsored Heldman’s new women’s tour and branded it with Philip Morris’ cigarette line for women, Virginia Slims.

Cullman died in 2004 at age 92. In his final tennis act, he became president of the International Tennis Hall of Fame from 1982 to 1988; two years later he was inducted himself.