By Riccardo Schiroli
According to FICTS (Federation Internationale Cinema Television Sportifs) President Franco Ascani, Bruno Beneck was no smaller artist in cinema than Ingrid Bergman or Anthony Quinn. That’s why FICTS honored his memory with the Ghirlande d’Honneur.
Bruno Beneck was born on the first day of August in 1915. The son of a bohemmienne painter, he was a true artist himself and lived several lifes. In his youth was an officer of the Colonial Italian army in East Africa and a soccer player (centre forward) in the Italian third division, then he was a Parachuter and Marine during the second World War. After September 8, he was involved in the Resistance to the Nazi-Fascists and happened to be in Nettuno in 1944, when he saw: “A pair of huge black guys throwing a white ball the size of a tennis ball and catching it with a leather glove”.
Beneck had 2 loved ones in his life: his wife Gegia and baseball. After the war, he met Max Ott in his home town Torino and helped him found the Lega Italiana Baseball (LIB). When LIB merged with FIBS (Federazione Italiana Baseball Softball) to become FIPAB (Federazione Italiana Palla Base), Steno Borghese became the President and Beneck was sidelined.
He founded an Advertising Agency together with his wife and his campaigns to promote movies were noticed by Metro Goldwin Meyer. He then became their representative in Italy (he campaigned for such blockbusters like Ben Hur).
After an unsuccessful try with fiction, he later established himself as a respected TV Director.
In the late 1960ies Giulio Glorioso involved him in baseball again. Beneck met FIPAB President Giuseppe Ghillini and became his consultant for Communication. It was not enough for him. Beneck took over as the President of Lazio and campaigned against Ghillini for the chair of FIPAB President. He won the elections in 1969 and in 1970 changed the name of the organization back to FIBS.
In the 1970ies and 1980ies he was a key figure in the world of International Baseball. He served as the President of the European Baseball Federation, founded the European Softball Federation, organized in Italy the first ever Intercontinental Cup (1973) and the first ever Baseball World Cup (1978) played outside the Americas. He spent countless hours to chase the dream of Olympic baseball while he was Vice President of the International Federation. During his terms baseball in Italy reached a level of visibility that was never again achieved.
Baseball was not enough for him: he introduced American Football in Italy and founded (1983) FICTS.
After the 1984 Olympics, that resulted in huge investments by FIBS, Beneck was accused of spending public money for private purposes. It took more than 10 years to demonstrate he was not guilty. In the meantime, his career as a Sports Manager ended.
He died mostly forgotten in 2003. Riccardo Fraccari had made him his Honorary President in 2002. After his death, Beneck was inducted to the Hall of Fames of Baseball and American Football in Italy.
FIBS Communication manager Riccardo Schiroli wrote a book titled “Sotto il segno del Leone” (difficult to translate in English, because in Italian Leone identifies the big cat and also the zodiac sign of Leo), trying to give to Bruno Beneck’s memory what had been taken away from him in his late years.