John F. Bassett was a Canadian professional American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 club owner and notable tennis player.

Sports teams ownership

Bassett owned the WFL

World Football League

The World Football League was a short-lived gridiron football league that played in 1974 and part of 1975. Although the league's proclaimed ambition was to bring American football onto a worldwide stage, the farthest the WFL reached was placing a team – the Hawaiians – in Honolulu, Hawaii. The...

's Toronto Northmen/Memphis Southmen

Memphis Southmen

The Memphis Southmen were a franchise in the World Football League which operated in 1974 and 1975. They played their home games at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee, United States.-From North to South:...

 and the USFL

United States Football League

The United States Football League was an American football league which was in active operation from 1983 to 1987. It played a spring/summer schedule in its first three seasons and a traditional autumn/winter schedule was set to commence before league operations ceased.The USFL was conceived in...

's Tampa Bay Bandits

Tampa Bay Bandits

The Tampa Bay Bandits were a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. They were members of the United States Football League . They were a charter member of the USFL and folded along with the league after the 1985 season....

 team.

Bassett also owned the Birmingham Bulls

Birmingham Bulls

The Birmingham Bulls were a professional ice hockey team based in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. They played in the World Hockey Association from 1976 to 1979 and the Central Hockey League from 1979 to 1981. The Bulls played their home games at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center.Prior to being...

 of the World Hockey Association

World Hockey Association

The World Hockey Association was a professional ice hockey league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major competition for the National Hockey League since the collapse of the Western Hockey League in 1926...

.

Racket sports play

Bassett was Canadian junior tennis champion in 1955. He reached the second round of the 1959 U.S. National Championships in singles, in his only appearance in the main draw of the tournament. Bassett never played in a Davis Cup

Davis Cup

The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Britain and the United States. By...

 match for Canada

Canada Davis Cup team

The Canada Davis Cup team represents Canada in Davis Cup tennis competition and is governed by Tennis Canada.Canada currently competes in the Americas Zone of Group I. The team's best result came in its first appearance in 1913 when it reached the World Group final, losing to the United States 0–3...

, though he was apparently on the team, it would seem in 1959. He was also a member of Canada's 1959 Pan American Games

1959 Pan American Games

The 3rd Pan American Games opened on August 27, 1959 in sunny 90°F heat before 40,000 people in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The first Pan American Games held in North America, they were originally scheduled for Cleveland, Ohio, but the U.S. Congress’s decision to cut $5,000,000 in federal...

 tennis team.

Bassett was also an accomplished squash

Squash (sport)

Squash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball...

 player, having reached the semi-finals of the 1969 Canadian Open, and having been champion of Ontario in 1965 through 1967.

Businesses

Bassett was a motion film producer, President of Amulet Pictures, Ltd. He produced the film Spring Fever

Spring Fever (1982 film)

----Spring Fever is a 1982 independent film, set in the world of competitive tennis. It was produced with the participation at the Canadian Film Development Corporation and Famous Players Limited.-Plot:...

.

Bassett also owned a computer software company and real estate firm based in Sarasota, Florida

Sarasota, Florida

Sarasota is a city located in Sarasota County on the southwestern coast of the U.S. state of Florida. It is south of the Tampa Bay Area and north of Fort Myers...

.

Personal

Bassett is the son of Canadian Media mogul John W.H. Bassett

John Bassett

John White Hughes Bassett, was a Canadian publisher and media baron.Born in Ottawa, Ontario, he was the son of John Bassett , publisher of the Montreal Gazette, and Margaret Avery. Bassett attended Ashbury College and graduated from Bishop's University with a BA in 1936...

 and father of former women's professional tennis player Carling Bassett. He and his wife Susan had a total of four children and lived in Toronto and Sarasota.

Bassett attended the University of Western Ontario

University of Western Ontario

The University of Western Ontario is a public research university located in London, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus covers of land, with the Thames River cutting through the eastern portion of the main campus. Western administers its programs through 12 different faculties and...

, playing on the varsity football

Canadian football

Canadian football is a form of gridiron football played exclusively in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed prolate spheroid ball into the opposing team's scoring area...

 team for a year.

Bassett died on May 15, 1986 in Toronto General Hospital

Toronto General Hospital

The Toronto General Hospital , is a part of the University Health Network, and a major teaching hospital in downtown Toronto, Ontario. It is located in the Discovery District, directly north of the Hospital for Sick Children, across Gerrard Street West, and east of Princess Margaret Hospital and...

 after a long battle with brain cancer. A few months before his death, Bassett had been at odds with New Jersey Generals owner Donald Trump. Trump favored moving the USFL to a fall schedule. However, Bassett wished to keep the USFL a spring league. When it was decided that the USFL was going to go head in the fall with the NFL, Bassett announced that he was pulling the Tampa Bay Bandits from the USFl, and suspending team operations. Bassett had co-owned the team with Stephen Arky, and actor Burt Reynolds. An USFL-NFL lawsuit was in progress at the time.