Silver Anniversary Honoree Profile: Leslie Gittess '88CC
2/11/2009 12:00:00 AM | General
The 2008-09 year marks the Silver Anniversary of the Columbia-Barnard Athletics Consortium. In a year-long celebration, Columbia Athletics will pay tribute to the administrators, coaches and student-athletes who have brought distinction to Columbia Athletics. During the next few months, gocolumbialions.com will post profiles on the former student-athletes named to the "25 Most Influential" list and the Silver Anniversary honor roll. The next in the series is former tennis standout Leslie Gittess '88CC.
It was “all in the family” at the Gittess household, and deciding where to go to college was never up for much debate. Columbia University and its athletics department are certainly appreciative of that fact.
“My mother (Carol, a graduate of Columbia Nursing School) and father (Ronald, a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia Dental School) definitely influenced my decision,” said Leslie Gittess, a two-time captain of the women's tennis team at Columbia and one of the 25 "Most Influential" student-athletes in the past 25 years of the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium. “Columbia is in my blood and it's certainly still in my blood. I just had a great experience and I want to help out Columbia wherever and whenever.”
Gittess grew up with Columbia Blue all around her, despite being over 1,000 miles away from the City of New York. Gittess was raised in Florida and attended Miami Palmetto High School in Dade County. From 1982-84, the Panthers' women's tennis team was the top-ranked team in the state and Gittess was a main part of it: at one point during her varsity career, she won 41 straight singles matches.
Miami Palmetto won two Florida high school state championships during her tenure at the school (in 1982 and 1984) and twice more later in the 1980s. This type of talent attracted top collegiate programs from all over the United States to South Beach to recruit and improve their women's tennis teams.
With teammates deciding to continue their tennis careers at universities such as Miami, Georgia, Florida and Virginia, Gittess chose a college that, while not as high profile as the other schools in terms of athletic reputation, trumped all of them in academic accord and, of course, had her family's blessing: Columbia College.
Gittess was part of a six-player recruiting class for the women's tennis team in the fall of 1984. One of her teammates that year was Alex Wallace (Creed), who would become her doubles partner and best friend, and would later become an executive producer on NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams program.
“Alex and I were roommates for three years at school and then, after graduation, we were roommates for four years in New York,” Gittess says. “We were a very close knit group of women and I've made lifelong friends from playing tennis at Columbia.”
As a sophomore, Gittess earned the team's most improved player award following a season that saw her make the semifinals of the New York State Championships. Gittess continued her success as a junior, being named team captain and going a perfect 4-0 in singles during the fall.
As a senior, Gittess remained a top-three singles and doubles player, earned captaincy for a third time and garnered her second Varsity C award, which is presented to a student-athlete based on “leadership, sportsmanship and ability.”
Also while at Columbia, she wrote a column for the school's Columbia Spectator newspaper titled “Inside Women's Athletics.”
After graduating with a degree in economics in 1988, she enrolled at Georgetown Law School and earned a J.D. from the school in 1991.
From there, Gittess returned to New York and found a job with Hughes, Hubbard and Reed law firm on Wall Street. After two years with the firm, which specialized in corporate transactions, Gittess decided her heart still lie in sports and landed a spot with the National Hockey League as a lawyer.
Six years later, she moved to the business side of sport and eventually served as the NHL's Vice President for Television and Business Affairs, negotiating television and broadcasting deals for the professional hockey league. Her focus was on negotiating and managing the digital media deals, including satellite and digital television, the Internet and mobile.
In 2006, Gittess decided to shift gears again and after 12 years with the NHL, moved to Major League Baseball, where she currently serves as VP of Business Development for MLB Advanced Media, the digital arm of MLB.
Through it all, Gittess has had a pair of constants in her life: her family and Columbia University. She currently serves on the Columbia College Alumni Committee, the Women's Tennis Advisory Committee and is a member of the Women's Athletics Leadership Committee.
Her devotion to Columbia has extended to her children: her two kids, Teddy (8) and Caroline (6), receive tennis lessons from Columbia tennis coaches every Monday at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center.
“I've always been involved with Columbia, and I've had a little more time over the past five years to do so,” Gittess says. “I like to be connected to the school and to the tennis team. It provided me a foundation.”
A foundation of success that is undoubtedly Columbia Blue.
