Althea Gibson August 25, 1927-September 28, 2003 In 1950, Althea Gibson became the first athlete to break the color barrier in international tennis. Six years later she won the French Open championship, becoming the first person of color to win a Grand Slam title. In 1957, Gibson won both Wimbledon and the U.S. Nationals (the precursor to the U.S. Open), a feat she repeated in 1958. She was the number-one-ranked female player in the world and in the United States in both 1957 and 1958, and was named Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press in both years. For her career she won 56 national and international titles, including 11 Grand Slam titles. During this era, however, tennis was an amateur sport, so any income she earned was largely limited to expense allowances. Following her U.S. Nationals victory in 1958, Gibson turned pro, but there were few tournaments and prizes for women, and even fewer invitations for Gibson to compete. A few years after turning pro, Gibson retired from tennis. Following her retirement Gibson, who was an accomplished jazz singer, saxophonist and actress, recorded an album and appeared with John Wayne in the movie Horse Soldiers. In the […]
The NCAA cited UCONN for a secondary violation of its rules after reviewing women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma’s congratulatory call to 13-year-old Little League star Mo’Ne Davis. “There’s guys playing college basketball driving around in cars that cost more than my house and we’re worried about a phone call that I made?” So said Coach Auriemma. What say you? Let us hear from you. We’ll post the top response next week.