CNN
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Arthur Ash hits slice serves with relentless precision, leaving the ball farther away from the court.
His highly preferred opponent and defending champion Jimmy Connors gets enough of his racket to the ball and sneak it in on the net.
But Ash is already midway through the court, hitting a short ball and punching a volley with ease to close out the Wimbledon title.
He shortened his arms, faced the box with a fist and waved Connors’s hand. This is a somewhat uncharranted response to one of the crucial moments of Ash’s career, and one of the most iconic moments in Wimbledon history.
But the response encapsulated Ash’s character in the court – cool, calm, and gathered people seemed rarely.
It’s been 50 years since Ash surprised the Connors in four sets, and now only today, Blackman won the Wimbledon Gentleman singles title. The importance of his 1975 achievements continues to grow only in each pass edition of the Championship.
In the last half century, Mariby Washington was the only black player to reach the men’s singles final at Wimbledon, losing to Dutch Richard Krajsek in 1996.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ash’s historic achievements, Wimbledon organizers have made many plans, including inviting their families to the Royal Box at Centre Court.
It also features a red phone box, an iconic London symbol installed in the Wimbledon Queue, playing audio clips from Ash’s victory as hundreds of fans get a chance to line up and put tickets on the premises every day.
“He’s a legend. He’s a legend,” said World No. 12 Francis Tiafoe, the highest-ranking black male tennis player at the moment, about Ash. “All icons on and off the court. Everything he meant was far greater than he did.
“It wasn’t just him. He’s always moving forward. He’s not only talking, but he did a lot with his actions. He’s a true role model, a human, and certainly a very similar situation.”
Born in Richmond, Virginia in July 1943, Ash was featured in Sports when his father, Arthur Sr., became the caretaker of Brookfield Park, an isolated playground equipped with a tennis court.
When Ash developed his skills, the opportunity to advance was hampered by separation. For example, he was often shunned by nearby Bird Park Youth Tournaments because public tennis courts were “white only.”
However, Ash was patient and was offered a full scholarship to join UCLA. In 1963 he became the first black American to play for the US Davis Cup team.
Photo: Tennis Great Arthur Ash
While he raised the ranks of men’s tennis, Ash remained politically neutral to quell his White’s colleagues, setting the boundary between publicly denouncement of the racism black athletes face.
However, it changed in 1968 when civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and politician Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated two months apart.
Speaking about King’s assassination, Ash said: “As a Black American, I felt an urgent feeling to do something, but I didn’t know what it was.”
Ash began using his platform as one of America’s best tennis players. In a 1968 interview, if you are black and in the public eye, you said, “You really have an obligation to do something.”
It coincided with his rise as one of the best tennis players on the planet. Ash won the Maiden Grand Slam title at the 1968 US Open, becoming the first and only black man to win a singles tournament.
The Australian Open titles continued in 1970, before his incredible feat at Wimbledon five years later.
After retirement, Ash continued to advocate for marginalized communities until his death in 1993. Ash learned that he was HIV positive five years ago, and in 1992 he publicly acknowledged his AIDS diagnosis and addressed the United Nations General Assembly on World AIDS Day.
“What I don’t want is what can be thought of when everything is said and finished, or when I remember as a great tennis player. That is, it’s not to contribute to society,” Ash said in a documentary interview about his life.
To this day, Ash’s legacy remains well beyond the courtroom, inspiring a new generation of athlete activists. Some of them play at Wimbledon this year.
In 2020, after being knocked out of the second round at Wimbledon this year after winning the Arthur Ash Humanitarian Award, Teafoe wrote an emotional letter to the late Ash, calling the award an incredible honor and great responsibility.
“I wasn’t growing much,” wrote Tiafoe. “My parents are both immigrants from Sierra Leone. My dad was the manager of a tennis facility in Maryland. I was lucky enough to be around sports from a young age, even though many of the other kids had no money or opportunities.
“None of that stopped me from dreaming big. I pushed myself to the limits every day with a big smile on my face.
“A little kid with big dreams is now associated with your name. That’s insane.”
