Tempe, AZ – The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (“ITA”) is pleased to announce today both the recipient and the establishment of the endowment of the ITA Chairman’s Award, an honor that celebrates lifelong service to our sport across a variety of mediums.
Honoring the longtime contributions of ITA Chairman Emeritus Jon Vegosen, John B. Hess, former Chairman and CEO of Hess Corporation, has endowed the ITA Chairman’s Award in Vegosen’s name as the ITA Jon Vegosen Chairman’s Award endowed by John Hess. Newly installed ITA Chairman of the Board, Neel Grover, has selected Vegosen as this year’s recipient of this prestigious award.
Hess said, “In addition to his decades of service as an outstanding lawyer, Jon Vegosen has been a remarkable leader, strong advocate and generous supporter of tennis at all levels. He personifies the criteria of the ITA Chairman’s Award.”
Grover said, “In addition to naming the Chairman’s Award in Jon’s honor, it is most fitting that he has been chosen as this year’s recipient of the award. Jon’s contributions to college tennis, and the ITA specifically, have propelled the sport forward during many tumultuous years. I am honored to be taking the baton from such a dedicated individual and look forward to building on the groundwork he laid as the Chairman of the Board.”
Vegosen has spent the past decade (2015-2025) devoted to chairing the ITA Board, advancing varsity collegiate tennis, and working on behalf of the dedicated college coaches and student-athletes from all divisions that the ITA serves. Under his leadership, the composition of the ITA Board has been broadened not only to include coaches who are thought leaders but also through the recruitment of individuals from various walks of life, such as business, law, medicine, sports administration, sports science, education, media, technology, marketing, entertainment, and philanthropy. The foregoing approach blesses the ITA with Board members from different backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and diversity of thought. In his role as Board Chair, Vegosen welcomed different ideas and brainstorming. As he often said, “It is not whether we disagree, but how – and that we do so respectfully.” Vegosen’s leadership of the ITA Board fostered a culture that focused on high-level matters such as big picture thinking, strategic planning, and the cultivation of creative ideas, and it resulted in well thought through decision-making. Vegosen’s other contributions include further professionalizing the ITA, improving its governance, outstanding fundraising, and helping to steer college tennis through some of the most unprecedented times in collegiate athletics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the USTA national level, Vegosen initially served as the Vice Chair and then the Chair of the United States Tennis Association (the “USTA”) Collegiate Committee. He spent eight years serving on the USTA Board of Directors, including as the 2011-2012 Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO of the USTA, and Chairman of the US Open. He skillfully served on other tennis boards, including the Grand Slam Board, the International Tennis Federation, the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and the USTA Foundation.
Both prior to and after his election as President of the USTA, Vegosen advocated fervently to protect varsity tennis college programs from being dropped, including educating coaches about the importance of varsity tennis programs being integral to their larger communities and writing an Op-Ed that was published in the New York Times entitled “Starve Football, Feed Athletics.” Vegosen’s passion for collegiate tennis and education is so great that, during his USTA Presidency, among other things, he created the Tennis and Higher Education Task Force to promote the importance of every American youngster obtaining a college education – and that tennis is the “Sport of Opportunity” for achieving this important goal. As part of Vegosen’s strategy to make tennis affordable and accessible to children from all socio-economic backgrounds, he oversaw the USTA’s “kid-sizing” of tennis. Vegosen’s other accomplishments while leading the USTA include establishing Military Appreciation Day at the US Open to honor our service members and advocating ardently for roofs over Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Vegosen said, “I am deeply grateful to my long-time friend, John Hess, for his generous support of college tennis for so many years and for endowing the Chairman’s Award in my name. I am also grateful to Neel Grover, the current Chairman of the ITA Board, for selecting me as this year’s recipient of the Chairman’s Award. I am humbled and honored by and thankful for these wonderful expressions of appreciation for my passion for, and work on behalf of, college tennis.”
As a co-founding member of Funkhouser Vegosen Liebman & Dunn Ltd. (“FVLD”), a nationally respected Chicago-based corporate and litigation law firm, Vegosen has thus far spent almost 50 years practicing law at the highest of levels. FVLD combined its practice with international law firm, Clark Hill, in 2023. Vegosen has received numerous honors for his work in the field of law including being named as an Illinois Super Lawyer and Leading Lawyer in Employment Law by the Leading Lawyers Network. Vegosen has been a member of CEO peer advisory organization Vistage International since 2002 and a Vistage Speaker since 2004. He received the 2022 Vistage Lifetime Achievement Award for the Chicago Region.
Having played college tennis himself, Vegosen was team captain at Northwestern University his junior and senior years. There he earned All-Big Ten Team honors and graduated Phi Beta Kappa before attending the Northwestern University School of Law where he graduated Cum Laude.
Vegosen shared, “I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to give back to the sport of tennis – which has been so good to me. Among many others, my great thanks to the past Presidents of the USTA who became before me and on whose shoulders I have stood; former ITA Chairman and CEO David A. Benjamin for his pioneering and inspiring example; ITA CEO Tim Russell for his brilliant servant leadership; ITA Board Chairman Neel Grover and CEO Dave Mullins for well assuming the ITA leadership mantle; my wonderful family and friends who have generously supported my dedication to tennis causes; and especially my loving and supportive wife, Shari, for giving me the space to serve tennis. I will forever cherish the many friendships, mentors, and collaborations I have been blessed to enjoy during this extraordinary journey.”
Being honored with the award now endowed in his name, Vegosen becomes the fourth recipient of the ITA Jon Vegosen Chairman’s Award. Previous recipients of the ITA Chairman’s Award include Charlie Hoeveler (2022), Dick Gould (2023), and Michael D. Case (2024).
Vegosen will be honored on Saturday, August 23rd during the ITA Leadership Awards Weekend which leads up to the 2025 US Open. At that time, Vegosen will be celebrated alongside other dignitaries as well as several student-athletes who have won national awards for their outstanding achievements in the areas of STEM, leadership, and much more.
The ITA is the governing body of college tennis and a coaches association, both an advocate and an authority for the sport and its members. The ITA is committed to serving college tennis and returning the leaders of tomorrow while promoting both the athletic and academic achievements of the collegiate tennis community. The ITA, founded in 1956, is comprised of more than 2,000 men’s and women’s varsity tennis teams representing more than 1,250 institutions, 3,000 college tennis coaches, 1,400 college tennis officials, while administering numerous regional and national championships, and the ITA College Tennis Rankings for 20,000 college varsity student-athletes across five levels of play. The ITA also bolsters an industry-leading awards program for players and coaches to honor excellence in academics, leadership, and sportsmanship. Keep up with all of the excitement around college tennis by visiting WeAreCollegeTennis.com and following the ITA on Facebook, Twitter (X), Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
