According to FICTS (Federation Internationale Cinema Television Sportifs) President Franco Ascani, Bruno Beneck (who founded FICTS in 1983) was no smaller an artist in cinema than Ingrid Bergman or Anthony Quinn, and that's why FICTS honored his memory with the Ghirlande d'Honneur.
Bruno Beneck was born on August the 1st, 1915. The son of a bohemmienne painter, he was a true artist himself, passing through several different stages throughout the course of his life. In his youth he was an officer of the Colonial Italian army in East Africa and a soccer player (center forward) in Italy’s 3rd Division, then he was a Parachuter and Marine during the Second World War. After September the 8th, 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".
Bruno Beneck was a man with 2 loves: his wife Gegia and baseball. After the war, he met Max Ott in his Torino, his home town, 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 then founded an Advertising Agency together with his wife, where his campaigns promoting movies were noticed by the infamous Metro Goldwin Meyer (MGM); later he became the movie giant’s Italian representative, campaigning for blockbusters like Ben Hur. Later on in his career Beneck was also to able establish himself as a respected TV Director.
In the late 1960’s Giulio Glorioso brought him back into the game of Baseball. Beneck met with FIPAB President, Giuseppe Ghillini and later became his communications consultant. However the position was not enough for his liking. Beneck ended up as taking over as the President of Lazio, and then campaigned against Ghillini for the FIPAB presidency. He won the elections in 1969 and the year after hechanged the name of the organization back to FIBS.
In the 1970’s and 1980’s he became 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) as well as the first ever Baseball World Cup (1978) played outside the Americas. Beneck also spent countless hours chasing the dream of getting baseball into the Olympics while serving as Vice President of the International Federation. During his terms in office, baseball in Italy reached levels of visibly yet to be surpassed. Beneck was also responsible for the introduction of American Football into Italy.
After the 1984 Olympics, that resulted in huge investments by FIBS, Beneck was accused of spending public money for private purposes. It took some 10 years to demonstrate he was not guilty. In the meantime, his career in Sports ended.
He died mostly forgotten in 2003. Riccardo Fraccari, president of FIBS, made him his Honorary President in 2002. After his death, Beneck was inducted in the Italian Baseball Hall of Fame as well as the Italian American Football Hall of Fame.
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), a book dedicated to bringing the memory of Bruno Beneck up to the standards for which it deserves to be.
