South African doubles legend Bob Hewitt, who won four grand slam titles in both men’s and mixed doubles, was suspended indefinitely today by the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Hewitt had been under investigation by
the organization after the Boston Globe and HBO’s Real Sports revealed accusations of rape and abuse against him.
“Suspension of Mr. Hewitt is appropriate given the serious allegations that have been made and the findings presented to our Executive Committee,” said Mark Stenning, CEO of the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Hewitt’s suspension comes after a six-month Boston Globe investigation that unearthed allegations of a dozen or so women who made serious accusations of abuse. One example came in March, 2011 when a former student, Heather Crowe Connor, said that beginning in the 1970s Hewitt abused or harassed her when she was as young as 10 years old. Women on three continents came forward and accused him of sexually abusing them between the 1970s and early 1990s when he was their coach and they were underage. The South African Tennis Union investigated after 1992, but 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, where the National Prosecuting Authority is investigating complaints from at least five of Hewitt’s former tennis students. 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.’’ He has not spoken publicly since South Africa’s Weekend Post quoted him in September as saying, “I only want to apologize if I offended anyone in any way.’’
Conner joined four other alleged victims – three from South Africa and one from New Zealand – in asking the hall of fame to remove Hewitt, who won 15 majors in doubles and starred on South Africa’s Davis Cup teams in the 1960s and ’70s. “We do not dispute his ability as a tennis player … but we dispute any recognition being granted to a man who has initiated and participated in such evil acts with innocent minor girls,’’ the women wrote.
Media pioneer Mary Carillo told IT, “I’m glad the Hall of Fame did the right thing. I got to know four of Bob Hewitt’s victims, all of whom have been deeply crippled by him. If the Hall’s action has given them any measure of comfort and relief, has lessened their lifelong limps, then perhaps re-living it was worth it to them. I surely hope so.”
Conner told the Boston Globe, “I am thankful the Hall stood strong for decency and have made him be held accountable for his actions and for the lifelong damaging effect and robbing young girls of their innocence.’’
Jetta Bernier, the director of MassKids, which seeks to curb child sexual abuse, told the Globe, “Their suspension of Hewitt is an encouraging sign that organizations serving youth are taking to heart lessons learned from the Catholic Church, Penn State, and Boy Scouts scandals.”
In the months after the Globe report, the tennis community eventually began to show outrage over the Hewitt scandal. For instance, Billie Jean King, who won the 1970 French Open mixed doubles title with Hewitt told Washingtonian magazine in June, “I’m very upset, and he needs to be in jail. If he’s guilty, which it looks like he is, he should be on trial.’’
The Hall of Fame hired the law firm of Hinckley, Allen & Snyder to conduct its own investigation. Attorney Michael Connolly said he interviewed more than two dozen people over several months. He spent 10 hours interviewing Hewitt, who was accompanied by two South African lawyers, in September, but would not characterize those discussions.
“We identified as many of the victims as we could, spoke to them, spoke to their family members and spoke to a host of others with relevant information,” he said.
Connolly made a final presentation to the panel in New York City on Wednesday, according to Stenning, and all who were present. voted to indefinitely suspend Hewitt.
Earlier this year, Hewitt’s former Davis Cup teammate Raymond Moore, who now heads the BNP Paribas tournament in Indian Wells, told IT, “People would make rude jokes that Bob would go to a coaching lesson and not bring his tennis equipment. … We’d all snicker, but we didn’t know the extent. A lot of girls’ lives were ruined. He impacted the lives of so many women, it’s unbelievable.”
In October, Moore had this exchange with Inside Tennis publisher Bill Simons:
IT: Could you talk about your involvement in the Hewitt case?
Moore: Firstly, I’ve seen a lot of the evidence, I’ve seen the letters. And when I was in South Africa, there was always a suspicion about Bob and young girls. Nothing was ever proved, and I think we were too immature at that time to really ask the searching questions. But it was kind of an underground rumor, ‘Oh, Bob’s been seen with that young girl,’ that was always around. Then there were several reports of parents who were going to take Bob to court for molesting their daughter. But we never knew the extent of it. We didn’t know that he had actually raped some of them, or had intercourse with these girls. We just didn’t know.
There was a case in some city where the case was basically stopped on the court steps. This seemed to be recurring at a more frequent pace. There was stuff in England, then there was another one in Italy, and this just kept going and going. And all of us thought ‘One day, Bob’s going to come a cropper. Something’s gonna happen, somebody’s gonna shoot him.’ But we never knew. I think if we had known, it’s like (Jerry) Sandusky at Penn State. If we had actually known what he was doing, I think he would have been stopped much earlier.
But again, you’ve got to understand South Africa: police state. Information was not that easy to get. The first girl who was going to bring charges, she was lawyered up and the police went to her parents and said, ‘Do you want your child to be dragged through the papers and on the TV? He was a superstar, and he’s gonna put her on the stand and gonna grill her.’ It’s just pathetic. These poor girls were frightened and scared, I mean Hewitt is a big superstar. At Penn State, Sandusky’s not a superstar.
Finally, one girl came forward, a girl in Boston, Massachusetts, and … these girls kept coming out of the woodwork. Now, the problem that all of them have is the statute of limitations in most cases has expired. But these girls are a mess. The damage that he has done to them, emotionally, to the families. Some of the girls have been excommunicated from their families because there is so much shame attached to this. Again, you’ve got to go back to this old world of South Africa.
I had a tragic case myself, my daughter was violently raped. It was terrible. My daughter wasn’t underage, but it was a violent rape. Now, she’s turned her life around, thank God. She was a mess for three years. She’s now a counselor at Betty Ford for alcohol and drug abuse, she’s doing great. So this thing resonated with me a little bit, in terms of, I’m very sensitive to it. And the girls reached out to me, and I’m trying to help them right now. I’ve actually just applied to the Secretary of State of California, I’m forming my own charity. It’s called HATS, and that’s for four girls, Heather, Amanda, Twiggy, and Sue Ellen, who all were raped by Bob.
Just after Hewitt’s suspension was announced, IT interviewed Stenning, the Hall of Fame’s Executive Director:
IT: You’ve worked with so many of the greats in tennis, in your gut, what’s your feeling about the move by the Hall?
Stenning: I think it’s a good thing. We’ve lived this thing for the last 14 months. I’ve been privy to numerous conversations with everyone involved in this tragic situation and I fully support the Hall of Fame’s action.
IT: What was your response when you learned and read of the reports of Bob raping and abusing women in the Boston area who were very under age?
Stenning: Naturally, I was shocked like everyone else was, and as the allegations mounted it became even more serious for the Hall.”
IT: The Hall is an institution which celebrates heritage and the greatness of the sport. If you could take a half step back, what do you think the message is on this situation?
Stenning: That the Hall of Fame not only represents the highest level of competition in our sport, but certainly character is important and that behavior like this is not going to be tolerated by the Hall of Fame and its honored members.
IT: We have a fabulous sport, it’s a coed sport where men and women interact very closely, there are a lot of coaching situations, a lot of history of abuse. Do you think it’s still something we need to be aware of in our sport?”
Stenning: “I think it’s something we need to be aware of in society as a whole.”
IT: A lot institutions have been slow to pick up on this, I understand it was a unanimous vote by your executive group, 25 people or so, is that correct?”
Stenning: “Exactly. They felt this was the right thing to do.”
— The Associated Press and Boston Globe contributed to this report.
