John F. Bassett

John Frederick Bassett (February 5, 1939 – May 14, 1986) was a Canadian tennis player, businessman, and film producer.

Athletic career Bassett won the Canadian Open Junior Doubles Championship in 1955 when he was 15 years old. though he was on the team in 1959.

Bassett was also a successful squash player; he reached the semi-finals of the 1969 Canadian Open and was champion of Ontario from 1965 to 1967. From 1984, Bassett sparred with New Jersey Generals owner Donald Trump over the league's schedule. Trump favored moving the USFL to a fall schedule, while Bassett held fast to the USFL's original concept as a spring league. When a majority of the USFL's team owners voted to go head-to-head with the NFL in the fall, Bassett announced he was pulling the Bandits from the USFL and starting another spring league for competition, at one point—possibly driven by cancer-induced delirium—suggesting his league's teams would play multiple sports. CFL Commissioner Douglas Mitchell denied Bassett's team entry into the league due to its U.S. location, although the CFL later expanded into the United States (1993–95). He sold his stake in the Bandits in 1985. While the USFL defeated the NFL in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in an antitrust lawsuit under U.S. federal law, the league was awarded only $3 in compensatory damages.

Honours In 2010, Bassett was elected as an inaugural inductee into the World Hockey Association Hall of Fame in the builders category.

Personal life Bassett was the son of Canadian Media mogul John W.H. Bassett and attended Upper Canada College in Toronto and the University of Western Ontario.

He and his wife Susan had four children, including former women's professional tennis player Carling Bassett. They lived in Toronto and Sarasota.

Bassett died on May 14, 1986, in Toronto General Hospital after a long illness, suffering from two brain tumors.