Breakers smart to be aligned with CPP

Jim Warsaw spent his professional life building an empire through

logos and baseball caps. His revolutionary sports marketing company

led the world in licensed sports headwear and later he founded the

Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon’s

Lundquist College of Business.

Nearby Nike -- a little sportswear company in Beaverton, Ore., you

might have heard of -- purchased Warsaw’s company in 1993. Life was

pretty good.

Six months later, Warsaw was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

“Now, he’s devoting his life to this,” said his friend and

partner, Hal Spielberg of Newport Beach, referring to the

organization Warsaw founded, inspired and spearheaded -- Cure

Parkinson’s Project.

CPP, based in Newport Beach and established for the purpose of

“accelerating the cure” for Parkinson’s, is the primary charity for

the Newport Beach Breakers, the new World Team Tennis franchise that

will play seven home matches in July at Palisades Tennis Club,

including two with Lindsay Davenport.

Warsaw, of Newport Beach, is a Parkinson’s research advocate who

works countless hours with fellow volunteers raising funds and

awareness in search of a cure for the disease. In December, he hosted

a historic conference at the Omni Hotel in Chicago, where 50 of the

world’s top Parkinson’s researchers, scientists, advocates and

funders discussed methods to increase collaboration for Parkinson’s,

a neurodegenerative disease that affects over one million Americans,

including Muhammad Ali and Janet Reno. Actor Michael J. Fox also has

the disease.

Warsaw, whose generosity in the Newport-Mesa community and beyond

has made a difference in many lives, has also founded the National

Parkinson’s Foundation and the James H. Warsaw Foundation to Cure

Parkinson’s Disease.

With his sports marketing background -- Warsaw and Spielberg

raised several million dollars for Hebrew University with the Jewish

Sports Hall of Fame -- he heads the ideal charity to join the local

WTT franchise, which needs all the local connections it can get to

secure sponsorships.

Spielberg, who spent 23 years with Gillette working in global

promotions and once signed Pele as the first athlete to make a

commercial in three languages (English, Spanish and Portuguese), said

he’s involved to help his friend, Warsaw, get well. He’s a volunteer,

but has a vested interest in seeing the WTT franchise succeed,

because that means more money for Warsaw’s charity. And that’s the

bottom line.

*

While Warsaw and Spielberg might be the insiders the Breakers need

to flourish at the box office, the team is already hustling in the

community.

Today, the WTT franchise is helping to sponsor a tennis clinic for

high school players and coaches at Hank Lloyd’s Costa Mesa Tennis

Center. The clinic is from 9 a.m. to noon.

Wayne Bryan, father of potential U.S. Davis Cup players Mike and

Bob Bryan, and local pros Phil Dent and Tim Pawsat are the primary

instructors at today’s clinic, which Lloyd has hosted for 18 years.

WTT co-founder and director Billie Jean King has vowed to dig her

heels in the local tennis community. The league owns the Breakers.

For details on the clinic: (714) 557-0211.