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People and Pop Culture

Names In The News

JESSICA PEGULA, the daughter of Bills Owners TERRY and KIM PEGULA, has qualified for the U.S. Open, and "despite some obvious financial advantages," her path there "has been anything but simple." In '11, Pegula at age 17 "chose to turn professional after winning her first-round qualifying match and reaching the third round of the doubles main draw with TAYLOR TOWNSEND." But in '13 she "suffered what would become a major setback" with a knee injury. The ordeal "forced her out of the game for a year and a half." Now, she has "worked her way back" to No. 257 in the world (TENNIS.com, 8/30). 

INSURANCE POLICY: U.S. Olympians "now have officially qualifying health insurance," after the federal government and the USOC "reached an agreement last week on the status of their coverage." The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had said that the USOC plan "didn’t count as insurance" under the '10 Affordable Care Act, a decision that "meant athletes enrolled in it were subject to penalties for being uninsured even though they thought their coverage was fine." U.S. diver DAVID BOUDIA: "This coverage is what we need" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 8/31).

COURT REPORT: Court papers filed Friday show that NASCAR driver TONY STEWART said that he "didn't see" driver KEVIN WARD walking on the dirt track in upstate New York last year "before he struck and killed him, and noted the racer was impaired by marijuana and shouldn't have been outside his car." Ward's family "filed a lawsuit last month that accused Stewart of gross negligence" (AP, 8/29). The Ward family's lawyer MARK LANIER on Saturday called Stewart's claims "appalling" (AP, 8/29). 

AWARDS & HONORS: Late Blues radio play-by-play man DAN KELLY on Saturday night was inducted into the St. Louis Amateur Hockey HOF along with six other inductees, including Blues Owner TOM STILLMAN (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 8/29)....MLB Giants Senior Scouting Advisor ED CREECH was inducted into the Professional Scouting HOF earlier this month (Giants)....Former U.S. track & field coach ED TEMPLE “had the honor of unveiling a 9-foot bronze statue of his likeness with a granite base” on the greenway next to First Tennessee Park (Nashville TENNESSEAN, 8/29)....The Philadelphia Business Journal honored Turnkey CFO & Chief Administrative Officer MELISSA DEAN as a Minority Business Leader (THE DAILY).

NAMES: HUNTER and STEPHANIE EDWARDS have given $2M to the UNC-Charlotte football program, which “moves this year" to FBS. School officials said that the promenade area at Jerry Richardson Stadium “has been named for the Edwards” (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 8/29)....Equinox President SARAH ROBB O’HAGAN, who previously held the same role at Gatorade, was profiled in the WALL STREET JOURNAL’s “Weekend Confidential,” which noted the company has been “expanding its technological offerings as well as its social-media presence.” A large Twitter following “can make a difference for Equinox job applicants.” Robb O’Hagan said, “I wouldn’t just hire because someone had lots of Twitter followers, but you can see more easily through social media people who are thought leaders, who have original thinking” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 8/29)....Cavaliers Owner DAN GILBERT on Friday said that he is “buying the long-vacant 38-story Book Tower skyscraper and two other adjacent buildings on Washington Boulevard” in Detroit. He said he has plans to transform them into a "a game-changing, mixed-use development.” Gilbert’s Bedrock Real Estate Services “doesn’t release purchase prices.” But sources said that he is paying about $30M “for the package that also includes the 13-story Book Building and an adjacent 2-story community center.” The buildings total “about 517,000 square feet.” The acquisitions “are the latest in Gilbert’s five-year shopping spree of major real estate in greater downtown” (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 8/30)....Former MSG VP JOHN CIRILLO will join the NYU School of Professional Studies Tisch Institute for Sports Management, Media & Business as an adjunct instructor this fall, teaching PR in the school’s M.S. in Sports Business program (NYU).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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