Randy Walker

Randy Walker is a writer, tennis historian and a sports marketing, communications and media specialist. His first book – On This Day In Tennis History – is a compilation of his many years of research while working in various roles in the tennis industry. Called the “Roger Federer of tennis publicity” by SI.com, Walker spent 12 years in the Marketing and Communications Division of the U.S. Tennis Association from 1993 to 2005, concluding his tenure at the USTA in the position of Sr. Publicity Manager for Professional Tennis.

During his tenure at the USTA, Walker was an integral part of the USTA’s publicity and media operations team for the US Open, authoring and editing integral parts of the U.S. Open Record Book, coordinating post-event media tours for champions Patrick Rafter, Lindsay Davenport and Lleyton Hewitt, managing Heineken’s US Open Player Party in from 1997 to 1999 and working with US Open sponsors such as IBM, Continental, American Express, Evian, Lincoln, JP Morgan Chase and Olympus. Walker worked as the press officer for the U.S. Olympic tennis team at the 1996 Games in Atlanta, the 2000 Games in Sydney and the 2004 Games in Athens, managing gold medal media tours for gold medalists Andre Agassi, Lindsay Davenport, Venus Williams and Serena Williams. He was the press officer for the U.S. Davis Cup team from 1997 to 2005 where he worked closely with Davis Cup sponsors NEC and BNP Paribas and U.S. team sponsor AIG. Walker was responsible for numerous media successes including hits on The Tonight Show, Late Show with David Letterman, The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, ESPN, CNN, USA Today, New York Times, Vanity Fair, New York Times Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Vogue, among others. Walker earned the unique honor of a nickname from Hall of Fame journalist Bud Collins, who called him “Gringo Good Shoes” after Walker received international press attention when serving as press officer for the U.S. tennis team competing at the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Walker earned the nick-name after lending the shoes off his feet to U.S. tennis player Alex Bogomolov, who played and won his second round match after forgetting his tennis sneakers in his hotel room.

Since leaving the USTA in 2005, Walker has consulted in sponsorship sales, marketing, publicity and publishing for clients such as Jim Courier and the Outback Champions Series tennis circuit, the National Lacrosse League, International Fight League, the New York Titans professional lacrosse team, the international Tennis Hall of Fame, Spira Footwear, Radilla Advertising, the City of Delray Beach, Florida, Box NYC, New Chapter Press and Leverage Agency. Walker was responsible for creating publicity reaching over 30 million people for the National Lacrosse League in 2006, while his publicity efforts with the New York Titans professional lacrosse team in 2007 was called by the National Lacrosse League as “the best week of national U.S. press coverage the league has ever had.” For the Outback Champions Series, he generated over 80 million gross media impressions since the 2005 launch of the global “champions” tennis circuit. Walker partnered with Leverage Agency to implement marketing, branding and promotional initiatives for Spira Footwear called “marketing genius” by CNBC-TV during the 2006 and 2007 Boston Marathons. He has been responsible for generating over $500,000 in gross sales for New Chapter Press and has generated nearly a half million dollars in sponsorship revenue for clients.

Walker graduated from the Univ. of Georgia in 1991 with a degree in Communications and minor in History and English. He was a walk-on member of the Georgia men’s tennis team that won the SEC Championship in 1988 and 1989 and NCAA Finalists in 1989. He is the great, great, great nephew of James K. Polk, the 11th President of the United States. Randy resides in New York City.