Tennis Association Sued By a Former Top Umpire

NEW YORK -- Cecil Hollins, the only African American among 30 or so gold badge tennis umpires in the world, was whacking tennis balls with another black umpire in the early morning hours before the start of play at the 1998 U.S. Open.

White umpires played on either side. But a white groundskeeper walked straight toward the black umpires.

Using a racial epithet, the groundskeeper ordered the black men to "get off the court," according to the sworn testimony of both umpires.

Hollins had refereed matches with Pete Sampras and Boris Becker and John McEnroe -- and even the brattiest stars had praised him. He often questioned why the U.S. Tennis Association would not assign him to umpire a men's singles final, an honor never accorded to a black man. But he knew how to keep his cool.

So Hollins walked off the practice court and reported the incident to the USTA.

But in the years since, the USTA stripped Hollins, 50, of his gold, silver, bronze and white umpire's badges. Three years ago, the association terminated him as an umpire. Hollins and a black female umpire have responded by suing the USTA, alleging racial, sex and age discrimination.

Now five members of Congress and several prominent civil rights and women's organizations have rallied to the side of the black umpires. They point to what they call a disturbing pattern.

No black man or woman in the history of the U.S. Open has umpired a men's semifinal or final singles match. Nor has a female umpire worked on any of the top 16 male matches at the U.S. Open, a point recently acknowledged in court papers filed by the USTA.

Of the 2,000 umpires certified by professional tennis's ruling bodies, less than 1 percent are black.

"I was the first gold-badge black umpire ever, and if I didn't have a conscience and could ignore that so many blacks and women are being discriminated against, I'd still be umpiring important matches," said Hollins, who serves as an administrative law judge with the state housing agency in New York.

Chris Widmaier, director of public relations for the U.S. Tennis Association, declined to comment on the case. Nor would he provide the number of black and female judges who work for the USTA nor the rounds and matches that those umpires had worked. The U.S. Open is the most prestigious tennis tournament in the United States, and it begins in late August.

"Obviously, we're not going to comment because of the litigation," Widmaier said.