As a tennis
player, Arthur Ashe was one of the most prominent players of
his time; an all-out competitor who rarely beat himself. His
legacy, however, will be the positive changes he helped bring
about and the causes he championed, both within tennis and in
society as a whole. Though at his best he was for many the very
definition of tennis, tennis never defined Arthur Ashe.
As a child
growing up in segregated Richmond, Virginia, Arthur's physical
stature did little to indicate his future career as a professional
athlete. "Skinny as a straw," Arthur derived countless
hours of pleasure reading and listening to music with his mother,
Mattie. He also showed a surprising flair for tennis from the
first time he picked up a racquet. When Arthur was six, Mattie
passed away suddenly. Though heartbroken, Arthur's memory of
his beloved mother was a source of inspiration throughout his
life.
Upon graduation
from high school, Arthur was good enough to earn a tennis scholarship
to UCLA. It was at UCLA that Arthur became recognized for his
tennis ability on a national level, culminating with an individual
and team NCAA championship in 1965. He was growing as a person
as well, graduating in 1966 with a BA in Business Administration.
Ashe was
selected in 1963 to represent the United States in Davis Cup
play, an honor in which he took great pride. In doing so, he
also became the first African-American to be selected to play
for the American team. In actuality, Arthur Ashe was a trailblazer
for African-American males in tennis every time he succeeded
on the court, in much the same fashion as Althea Gibson had
for African-American females some 10 years earlier. The relevancy
of these accomplishments was not lost on Ashe. His determination
to succeed "despite" being an outcast in a historically
white sport was put to an even greater test in 1969.
In a year
(1969) when he was basking in the international fame he had
gained the previous year after winning the US Open and playing
a key role on the United States winning Davis Cup team, two
separate issues came to the forefront and helped shape Arthur
the activist, a role he never ran from throughout his life if
he believed in the cause. At a time when tennis' popularity
was growing by leaps and bounds, the amount of prize money being
offered to the players, the "drawing cards," was lagging
disproportionately behind. Ashe and several other players formed
in 1969, what later became known as the ATP (Association of
Tennis Professionals). It is from this small and visionary beginning
that today's top players enjoy the large sums of prize money
for which they compete. Later that year, as the #1-ranked American
and one of the best players in the world, Arthur applied for
a visa to play in the South African Open, a prestigious event.
His visa was denied because of the color of his skin. Though
Arthur was well aware that this would probably be the case,
he decided to take a bold stand. His call for expulsion from
South Africa from the tennis tour and Davis Cup play was quickly
supported by numerous prominent individuals and organizations,
both in and out of the tennis world. In effect, he raised the
world's awareness to the oppressive form of government apartheid
of South Africa. Buoyed by Arthur Ashe's initial efforts, blacks
in South Africa slowly but surely began to see change come about in their country.
By the mid-1970's,
people began to whisper that perhaps Arthur was spending too
much time on his causes and not enough time on his game. It
was from these doubts that Arthur began to refocus on his game,
determined to reach the level of play he once enjoyed. In 1975,
at the age of 31, Arthur Ashe enjoyed one of his finest seasons
ever and one of the shining moments of his career by winning
Wimbledon. He also attained the ultimate ranking of #1 in the
world.
Following
his retirement in 1980 and unexpected heart surgeries in 1979
and 1983, Arthur began reaping awards and branching off into
other professional areas, including journalism, the media, and
philanthropic endeavors. Included among those were jobs as a
commentator for HBO Sports and ABC Sports, as a columnist for
The Washington Post and Tennis magazine, the publishing of Arthur's
3-volume body of work, A Hard Road To Glory, a stint as captain
of the US Davis Cup team, a well-deserved election to the Tennis
Hall of Fame in 1985, and the founding of numerous charitable
organizations, including the National Junior Tennis League,
the ABC Cities Tennis Program, the Athlete-Career Connection,
and the Safe Passage Foundation.
Arthur looked
to be making a smooth transition into the second-half of his
life, even becoming a father in 1986, when his daughter Camera
Elizabeth arrived. During a doctor's exam in 1988, however,
the Ashe's lives were irrevocably changed.
While in
the hospital for brain surgery, Arthur received the overwhelming
news that he was HIV-Positive. He had contracted the virus through
a tainted transfusion during his two heart surgeries, almost
certainly the second in 1983. Wishing to maintain his and his
family's privacy, and well-aware of the prejudice and paranoia
that was often associated with the disease during it's first
years of existence, the Ashe's, with help from close friends
and trusted medical advisors, were able to keep the startling
information from the public's awareness. At issue were Arthur
and Jeanne's desire to raise their daughter Camera in as normal
an environment as possible, a desire that would have been made
impossible with a public disclosure.
Because
of pressure from a national newspaper that was indicating they
had on good record that he had AIDS, Arthur, rather than let
the rumors persist, elected to make his condition known to the
world through a scheduled press conference on the morning
of April 8, 1992. The knowledge that his life and the lives
of his family members would forever be altered was foremost
on Arthur's mind. After his admission to the world, an outpouring
of compassion and support arrived, inspiring Arthur to begin
AAFDA. This outpouring can only perhaps be compared to the day
Lou Gehrig announced his retirement and contraction of amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis. Arthur Ashe passed away on February 6, 1993,
having raised awareness of AIDS to a level where paranoia was
no longer the overriding emotion.
For Arthur
Ashe, tennis was a means to an end. What began on the public
recreation courts in Richmond, Virginia, ultimately became a
lucrative, illustrious 10-year career. In between were many
honors and awards, including three Grand Slam singles titles
and over 800 career victories. But for Arthur, it was always
more than personal glory and individual accolades. Rather, it
was the knowledge that his status as an elite tennis player
afforded him a unique and worldwide platform to speak out about
inequities, both in the tennis world and society as a whole.
That in and of itself was unique, but not outstanding. Arthur
stood out when he chose to utilize his status to bring about
change. That is what makes his legacy so unique and important.
(c)
Arthur Ashe c/o CMG Worldwide
Photo
Credit: Lynn S. Harkins/Virginia Heroes, Inc.
