In 1985, Matt Battaglia was an All-American football star at the University of Louisville. A decade later, he helped start a Derby Eve gala that has since raised thousands of dollars for the school’s Brown Cancer Center. Today he’s a successful producer in Hollywood. But he finds himself embroiled in a lawsuit with his alma mater.

He explains his position clearly in a letter published in the Courier-Journal today.

There are those who say this little dispute over the Mint Jubilee is petty, that the c0-founders should just allow U of L to have what it wants, to take over its annual party and continue on its merry way. Battaglia, and co-founders Chris and Tom Thieneman, should have just signed over their rights to the Mint Jubilee trademark when U of L asked them to last year.

But they didn’t want to let go of something that had become important to them. And they certainly didn’t want to sell their trademark. Their ideas for raising money for cancer treatment clashed with U of L’s plans for the party. A split was in order.

And as Battaglia’s letter makes clear, officials at U of L were determined long ago to not only continue with their own event, but to thwart efforts by the c0-founders to take the goodwill generated over 14 years to another charity — especially one supported by its new arch nemesis, Norton Healthcare.

Which brings us to the heart of the matter. Battaglia writes that he’s heard U of L officials intend to drag out the legal process as long as possible, in hopes it can damage the Mint Jubilee’s plans for an event benefitting Norton. It doesn’t seem to mind spending money that should be going to fighting cancer on legal fees if it means that it can prevent Norton from benefitting from a rival Derby Eve ball.  That, essentially, is what the school is doing.

U of L, by signing a simple document, could make the dispute go away.

After the Jump, Read a Slightly Longer Version of Battaglia’s Letter to the C-J

I hope you will consider printing my letter in your “Letter to the Editor” portion of the Courier Journal.  Obviously there will be rumors and opinions running through Louisville about the business going on between the Mint Jubilee, the UofL Foundation and the JGBCC and I thought that I would try and provide a great deal of truth and disclosure to anyone interested so that this situation does not get turned into people pointing fingers at one another and so the community does not get caught up in arguing points on blogs when they may or may not know all of the facts.

Let me start out by thanking the Courier Journal for providing an editorial page so as to allow it’s readers a forum with which to be heard.

For those that don’t know me, I am a former All-American football player from the University of Louisville during the Howard Schnellenberger era. I graduated from UofL with a business degree, played a short time in the NFL and have been an actor and producer in Hollywood for the past 20 years.  But for all of my accomplishments in life, one of the most greatest has been co-founding The Mint Jubilee – a non-profit charity formed to raise money for cancer patients in Kentucky, while at the same time heightening awareness for this dreaded disease.

As everyone knows, the Mint Jubilee was founded almost 14 years ago in memory of my mother, Nancy Van Cleve Battaglia, who succumbed to cancer in August of 1993.  One of the things that she had enjoyed most in her life was attending UofL football games and during my 4 years at UofL, she didn’t miss one of the 44 games, whether they be at home or away.  She would have been proud to know that we formed this non-profit charity to help others less fortunate.  In the past 14 years, we have raised millions of dollars and have been successful in getting worldwide exposure for the UofL Foundation and the James Graham Brown Cancer Center (“JGBCC”) in over 200 million homes and 130 countries, being televised internationally on NBC, ESPN, Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood & E! Entertainment Tonight.  We funded a resource center at the JGBCC which helps to provide assistance to cancer patients and it’s family members.

Though always a co-founder, I have not been actively involved with the Mint Jubilee for the past 7 years.  Whatever has brought the end to the partnership between The Mint Jubilee, the UofL Foundation and JGBCC has nothing to do with me.  As far as I know, up to this point, the 3 groups have had a fine working relationship.  But as of May 1st of this year, I came back into the mix, hoping to assist in the future in raising more money than The Mint Jubilee have ever raised before.  I have been both surprised and disheartened by what has been taking place within the UofL Foundation and the JGBCC.  Though not a party named on the lawsuit filed, I cannot help but naturally show support for The Mint Jubilee’s effort to protect it’s rights.

On April 30th, the night before this year’s event, The Mint Jubilee received an email from Keith Inman from the UofL Foundation stating in part….” I wanted to let you know that we will be making an announcement of a new direction for the Brown Cancer Center and a Derby event at the Mint Jubilee this year”.  This was our first official confirmation that the UofL Foundation and the JGBCC wanted to terminate the partnership.  The following day, the Mint Jubilee had it’s legal council forward an email to the UofL Foundation and the JGBCC that we respectfully respect their decision to move on with their new course  of action and would appreciate them signing a termination agreement so that we could move forward as well.  That night, at The Mint Jubilee, the UofL Foundation had one of their celebrity guests on stage state with a microphone in front of over 1,000 Mint Jubilee attendees “that as of tonight, there will no longer be a Mint Jubilee event”.  I sat with the other co-founders in complete shock wondering why such an inappropriate and untrue statement would be made public by the UofL Foundation and the JGBCC.

A week later, when we had not received any termination letter, I respectfully requested a phone conversation with all parties involved.  Finally, on May 11th, all three Mint Jubilee co-founders and five or more individuals at the UofL Foundation and the JGBCC, including Keith Inman and Dr. Donald Miller.  The result of that conversation was that they confirmed we would have the signed termination letter by no later than May 13th.  Three weeks after they first told us that they wanted to part ways, we still don’t have a signed termination agreement.

The UofL Foundation and the JGBCC continues to move forward in planning for next year’s event, meeting with corporations about sponsorships and building a team of volunteers, but the Mint Jubilee is left with not being able to form legal partnerships with any other charitable foundation that might want to receive our good will, financial contributions and exposure.

Probably most telling that the UofL Foundation and the JGBCC’s has ill intentions for the Mint Jubilee is that on February 25th, 2009 (three months ago), the UofL Foundation filed for the trademark JULEP BALL, clearly confirming their plans to end their relationship with The Mint Jubilee.  The UofL Foundation must have been contemplating the parting ways for sometime, as we all know it takes several channels of communication within both UofL and the JGBCC to have the decision makers required decide that they would like to start a new fundraiser, separate of the Mint Jubilee.  One might ask how long ago did they start planning to part ways?  Additional time and expense has been spent towards that resolve when on April 20th, 2009, they filed another mark with the trademark office complete with artwork and the inclusion of the JGBCC in their mark, verifying that both UofL and the JGBCC were knowledgeable of their intent to part ways with The Mint Jubilee.  They made internal decisions not to continue business as usual and chose to withhold this information from the co-founders and the charity that has worked so professionally with them for the past ten years.  In the spirit of full disclosure, common courtesy and professionalism, shouldn’t they have made their intentions known and provided paperwork for termination to us sooner?  Why would they publicly state at this year’s Mint Jubilee that as of next year, The Mint Jubilee would no longer exist?

The three co-founders of The Mint Jubilee have never taken a penny for all of our hard work, nor has any of it’s volunteers.  We have committed 14 years of our lives to trying to help cancer patients in the state of Kentucky by funding research and facilities in local hospitals, while at the same time heightening awareness for this cause.  It seems deplorable that the UofL Foundation and the JGBCC is placing The Mint Jubilee, a non-profit charity for cancer patients, in this position after we not only contributed all of our proceeds to them over the past 10 years, but willfully licensed the right for them to host The Mint Jubilee over the past 5 years.

Now, the Mint Jubilee is having to spend money to defend it’s trademark and it’s future so as to receive a termination letter that UofL has confirmed by email and phone conversation as forthcoming and the UofL Foundation and JGBCC is spending legal fees tying this up so as to negatively affect what they seem to feel is their competitor for future Derby events.  I don’t understand how the two organizations that we have been so generous to for the past 10 years would treat us this way.  Ten years ago we could have given our funds to anyone and we chose them, because we have the upmost respect for UofL and the JGBCC and this is how we are repaid.  It’s doesn’t seem fair to the cancer patients who will be adversely affected when the Mint Jubilee raises less money than it could have.

The UofL Foundation and the JGBCC have placed The Mint Jubilee in a position that it did not ask to be in. I am a former All-American athlete and graduate from UofL.  I love my alma mater, the community and the state of Kentucky. It breaks my heart that after being gone from The Mint Jubilee for the past 7 years, I return under these conditions.  Ten years ago, I would never have fathomed in my wildest dreams that our partnership would have come down to them placing us in a position in which a lawsuit had to be filed.

The Mint Jubilee is committed to protecting it’s rights, the rights of it’s trademark and the rights of the cancer patients that we work for.  We have been told by a couple of internal sources close to the UofL Foundation that they intend to drag this out as long as possible.  The cancer patients that we have worked for during the past 14 years and continue to work so diligently for cannot afford to have delays in their fundraising efforts.  Lives are at stake and we take that very seriously.

This editorial was written to provide facts to the community and to all parties involved.  Now that a legal complaint has been filed with the district court, these facts and more will most assuredly come to the surface and if needed, this case will go to court for a jury of it’s peers to form a resolution. It doesn’t have to be this way.

I truly hope that cooler heads will prevail at the University of Louisville and the JGBCC and that those people of influence in this community will encourage the UofL Foundation and the JGBCC to resolve this matter amicably and with the upmost expedience so that we can all get back to the most important business at hand — helping cancer patients and their families.

Sincerely yours,

Matt Battaglia