2023-07-31 00:16:08
Never did this weak little African-American, born in Richmond, Virginia, think that over the years he would become a great American football player and one of the best tennis players in the world. All added to his role as a social activist and defender of race equality.
By SERGIO RIED / Photo: ARCHIVE
His tenacity and his desire to succeed to be a champion of his race, made him become an excellent American football player, when he received a scholarship as a tennis player at the prestigious UCLA (University of California Los Angeles), he had to join the football team to be accepted by his peers who called him “sissi” (effeminate) for being a tennis player.
INIMITABLE CHAMPION
But this “sissi” didn’t take long to show his mettle and strength by helping his university’s football team to achieve the title of NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) champions and also to be the individual and team champion in tennis.
The titles and honors did not stop there for a champion of his stature, because he was the first and only “colored” tennis player, along with the Frenchman Yannick Noah, to win a Grand Slam, with the difference that he won three, Australia, the US Open and Wimbledon, while the Frenchman only established himself at Roland Garros, precisely the only “major” that the American did not achieve.
Until today he is the only “colored” tennis player to be crowned at Wimbledon, also being the first African-American tennis player to represent the United States in the Davis Cup. He did it for ten years, winning it four times and he was captain of the American team for four years, obtaining the famous Salad Bowl twice.
Parallel to his successes on the courts, Ashe fought for social causes, such as against “apartheid” that had denied him three consecutive years (1969, 1970 and 1972) the visa to play the Johannesburg tournament. After a hard battle with high level bodies he finally managed to enter South Africa and also managed to ensure that there was no discrimination in the allocation of seats in the championship. With his campaign, she got South African tennis players suspended from participating in ATP tournaments and the Davis Cup.
THE DAMN AIDS
Until this rosy life had a 180 degree turn, when after a heart operation at New York Hospital, he contracted the AIDS virus through a blood transfusion. A disease that was a social stigma and she was considered a disease of gays.
Arthur, together with his wife Jeanne, decided to hide the terrible disease to preserve his prestige as an outstanding tennis player, activist, television commentator, writer, thinker and philanthropist, and to protect their two-year-old daughter Camera.
But after five years, the secret was already vox populi when a journalist from the national newspaper USA Today called him to verify the story of his illness, because he was preparing a complete report on the case.
Arthur did not think twice and summoned the press to a press conference for the next day, April 8, 1992. He wanted the story to be told by him personally and not by a journalist. In a room at the Sheraton Hotel on Seventh Avenue, for three hours and with the support of his wife, he tearfully revealed his painful reality.
Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. passed away on February 3, 1993.
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