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Apr 5, 2023 · Directed by and co-starring Ben Affleck, who plays Nike co-founder Phil Knight, the movie centers on how Sunny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), a sports marketing executive, signed Jordan to his...
- 2 min
- Cady Lang
- He Grew Up Playing Football — Not Basketball
- He Founded The First National High School All-Star Basketball Game in 1965
- He Began Working For Nike in 1977
- Vaccaro Helped Convinced Nike to Sign Michael Jordan in 1984
- Nike Fired Vaccaro in 1991
- Vaccaro Signed Kobe Bryant to Adidas in 1996
- He Helped Bring Forward A Lawsuit Against The NCAA
- Vaccaro Has Been Married Twice and Has Four Children
- Matt Damon Portrays Vaccaro in The 2023 Film Air
Vaccaro grew up in Trafford, Pennsylvania, a town 17 miles east of Pittsburgh. His full name is John Paul Vincent Vaccaro, but his mother gave him the nickname "Sonny" — and it stuck. "My mother always told me that I was a shining light in her life," Vaccaro said in the 2015 ESPN documentary Sole Man. "I was the first child … that's how Sonny came ...
In 1964, Vaccaro and his childhood friend had the idea to launch a national high school all-star basketball game. The following year, the Dapper Dan Roundball Classic was born, where the best high school players from across the country were invited to the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh to compete. Because of its novelty at the time — there were "no high...
When he started the Roundball Classic, Vaccaro was working as a schoolteacher in his hometown of Trafford — but the sports entrepreneur had more ideas up his sleeve. He developed prototypes for different types of sneakers, including a "more casual, more stylish" tennis shoe and a basketball sandal, and traveled to Beaverton, Oregon, to present them...
Perhaps the biggest deal of Vaccaro's career — and the inspiration for the 2023 film Air— was his role in convincing Nike to offer Jordan his first-ever sneaker deal in 1984 — before Jordan had ever played a game for the Chicago Bulls. After having success in getting college teams to wear Nike sneakers and apparel, the brand was looking to "get a s...
Despite the pivotal role Vaccaro played in Nike's expansion into basketball and the success of the Air Jordan line, the relationship between Nike and Vaccaro soured in the early 1990s. The shift occurred when Nike head Knight forced Vaccaro out from the company in 1991 — just months after Jordan had won his first NBA Championship. According to the ...
Jordan wasn't the only major athlete Vaccaro landed an endorsement contract with: In 1996, he signed then-high school senior Kobe Bryant to Adidas, where Vaccaro had moved on to after his departure from Nike. "Nobody else wanted Kobe [aside from Adidas]. Nike was not involved because he was a high school kid," Vaccaro explained to Footwear Newsabou...
Though Vaccaro started his career by paying college basketball coaches, he's spent recent years working on allowing college athletes to be compensated — and has become an outspoken critic of the NCAA. "I always believed the kids got the shaft," Vaccaro told the New York Timesin 2016. "The NCAA would never allow the kids to have anything." Vaccaro b...
Vaccaro was married to his first wife Nancy Schiffaeur for 18 years. The former couple had four children together (two sons and two daughters) before splitting in 1979, according to Sports Illustrated. He later wed Pamela Monakee on May 5, 1984, in Las Vegas. According to Pam, she proposed to Vaccaro. "I just said, 'Hey, have you ever thought how g...
Oscar-winning actor Matt Damon plays Vaccaro in the 2023 film Air, alongside Affleck who portrays Knight and Chris Tuckeras Howard White, a former NBA player and vice president of the Jordan brand. "I didn't know about Sonny Vaccaro before the movie," Damon told PEOPLE in 2023. "I really genuinely like Sonny and I spent time talking to him and hear...
Apr 5, 2023 · Vaccaro’s storied relationship with Nike ended on a sour note when company chairman and cofounder Phil Knight fired him in 1991 without public explanation. Vaccaro claimed the FBI...
- colin.mcevoy@hearst.com
- Senior News Editor, Biography.Com
Apr 7, 2023 · Basketball marketing legend Sonny Vaccaro tells VF the real-life story behind Air, and about the message he just received from Michael Jordan’s mother, Deloris.
- 11 min
- Julie Miller
Apr 8, 2023 · It depicts Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, a guy who reaped the biggest harvest behind all this basketball shoe stuff, as only tangentially involved with the process of signing and marketing...
- 2 min
- Corbin Smith
Apr 6, 2023 · Sonny Vaccaro talks the accuracy of 'Air' with FN and remembers his unforgettable speech at Nike HQ to Michael Jordan and his family.
Apr 5, 2023 · Nike founder Phil Knight was not in favor of pursuing Jordan — not when he could sign three players for the same price. Others in the company weren’t for risking their entire budget on one...
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