COACH’S CORNER JULY 13, 2000
THE HEART OF A CHAMPION

She was a sharecropper’s daughter, born on the wrong side of the tracks in a segregated town in the rural South. When she was three, her family moved to the North to escape the grinding poverty of the cotton farms of South Carolina. She was thin and she was tall, and deep inside her beat the heart of a champion. From the moment she was born, she knew that she wanted to be somebody.

She found that she had a knack for whacking a ball with a racquet, and pretty soon she was a paddleball champion. And there she might have stayed if a Police Athletic League coach named Buddy Walker had not seen the greatness in the tall, skinny girl playing paddleball in the streets of Harlem. He persuaded her to try another game with a ball and a racquet. He bought her some old wooden tennis rackets and taught her the rules. She immediately began to dominate on the asphalt courts of New York. She won the New York State championship six times before 1950, and was ranked Number 1 in the all-black American Tennis Association for seven consecutive years. And so she fell in love with the country club game, the genteel sport of polite applause and dainty skirts, where the players dressed in white and curtsied to the Queen. Althea Gibson was born to play tennis.

But the Big Show in tennis was played in the country clubs of the rich and the privileged, on grass courts that might as well have been as far away from her as the moon. She was denied entry to every white tournament she attempted to enter. Then, in 1950, when it appeared that her entry into the US National Tennis Championship would also be denied, four time champion Alice Marble shocked the Tennis establishment with a blistering editorial in which she railed against the bigotry in the sport and warned them that it was time to stop acting like “sanctimonious hypocrites”. The door finally cracked open. In her second round match Althea was one game away from a win when the match was halted by a storm so severe that lightning knocked a cement eagle from the stadium. Though she lost the match the next day, Althea understood the sign: “When lightning put down that eagle,” she said later, “maybe it was an omen that times was changing.” Within two years, she was ranked among the top 10 players in the world.

But prejudice dies hard. Althea was denied entry into hotels and restaurants in the cities where she played. Predominantly white crowds cheered her every mistake. “Nothing was easy for Althea,” said Mary Hare, an English player who once practiced with Althea when the American players refused to do so. She almost quit in 1956, and who could have blamed her? The human psyche, even in the great ones, can tolerate only so much.

But in 1957, she shocked the world by winning Wimbledon; and in 1958, she did it again. New York City honored her with a ticker-tape parade down Broadway. In 1957, and again in 1958, she was voted Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press.

Althea retired from tennis in 1958, having won 56 singles and doubles matches. This multitalented lady then cut a record album and eventually joined the Women’s Professional Golf tour, the first Black woman to do so. She was Named New Jersey State Athletic Commissioner in 1975, and along the way established the Althea Gibson Foundation whose purpose is to encourage and provide financial support for urban kids in the sports of tennis and golf.

We imagine our heroines retiring to a comfortable old age, honored and respected by all. But in her late 60’s Althea was felled by two strokes, and was living alone on social security, depressed, isolated and seemingly forgotten. To their eternal credit, the tennis community rallied behind her, raising thousands of dollars on her behalf. The International Tennis Federation has introduced the Althea Gibson Cup in her honor. If you want to write to her or send a contribution, surf over to www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/3555 – The Friends of Althea Gibson.

So as we honor Serena and Venus Williams for their awesome achievements at Wimbledon, we need to remember that these young ladies stand on the shoulders of a giant. She broke down the barriers and held her head high through the taunts and the loneliness of all great pioneers. She is one of the greatest athletes of the 20th Century. Althea, you will never be forgotten.
2000 Adrienne Larkin

From the Friends of Althea Gibson:


A small group of concerned Atlantans have joined together to form the "Friends of
Althea Gibson" Host Committee. We are asking you to become a "Friend of Althea
Gibson" and join us as we assist a great woman and athlete who needs our support.
Althea Gibson, former U.S. Open, French Open, Australian and Wimbledon champion, is
suffering from a terminal illness due to two cerebral aneurysms and a stroke which have
left her partially paralyzed. She is currently 69-years old, unemployable, uninsurable, and
existing on a small Social Security income that barely pays for basic needs, not to
mention necessary medical treatment and medication. Additionally, she is isolated,
dejected, very depressed and lonely.

We, as her adoring and indebted public, simply cannot allow one of our living legends to
live her remaining years without dignity or care. Remember, it was Althea Gibson who
paved the way for so many athletes and African-Americans to achieve great success.
Yet, she was a champion in a society which rewarded her with almost no material
benefits. Until Althea's situation was recently brought to public attention by her former
tennis doubles partner, Angela Buxton, like all of us, you probably thought that she was
working for a sports-related enterprise and doing fine. But, sadly, as revealed in Buxton's
article featured in Inside Tennis (September, 1996), that is not the case. News of Althea's
condition made all of us realize that if Althea passed away ill, forgotten, lonely and
destitute, we would all deeply regret our inaction. We are therefore enlisting your support
as we attempt to assist this great competitor.

The "Friends of Althea Gibson" Host Committee is soliciting our friends and other
concerned persons to become a "Friend of Althea Gibson" by making a tax deductible
contribution to Georgia Tennis Association Patrons Foundation, Inc./Friends of Althea
Gibson. I hope you will join me and others by contributing to this worthwhile effort, in any
amount you can afford. We hope you will consider sending a gift of either $50 or $100, or
more, if possible. No donation is too small or large, and all contributions will be greatly
appreciated.

For your contribution, you will receive acknowledgment and a 501(c)(3) statement for tax
purposes. You will also know that you are helping to allow a living legend to live her
remaining days with dignity. Please join the "Friends of Althea Gibson" by sending
in a tax deductible contribution to:

Checks should be payable to:
GTA Patrons Foundation, Inc./
Friends of Althea Gibson


GTA Patrons Foundation, Inc./Friends of
Althea Gibson
6100 Lake Forest Drive, Suite 120
Atlanta, Georgia 30328