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| I Remember Arthur Ashe Biography |
Author: Mike Towle
Hardcover · January 2004
224 Pages
Arthur Ashe grew up in segregated Richmond, Virginia. By the age of six he demonstrated a natural gift for tennis, a sport historically dominated by whites. Ashe later attended UCLA on a tennis scholarship, winning the 1965 NCAA individual championship and leading the Bruins to the team title.
Two years earlier, in 1963, he had broken down a social barrier as the first of his race selected to represent the United States in Davis Cup play. In 1968 he won the U.S. Open. Just one year later, Ashe joined with several other tennis pros to form the Association of Tennis Professionals, an organization that remains one of the most influential sports bodies in the world. Denied a visa to play in the South African Open in 1969, he called for the boycott of South Africa by the tennis tour and in Davis Cup play, a moment that raised the world's awareness of the evils of apartheid.
Throughout his tennis career, Ashe excelled as a tennis player, winning the 1970 Australian Open and Wimbledon in 1975." "Ashe retired from tennis in 1980, by which time he had already undergone the first of two heart surgeries. During the second surgery, in 1983, he was given a blood transfusion contaminated by the AIDS virus, a condition that ultimately took his life on February 6, 1993." Here dozens of peers, friends, family, and others close to him offer their favorite memories of a great man and champion whose legacy still lives.
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