September 9, 2025 • 10 mins
Join us on Daily Sports History as we revisit Arthur Ashe's groundbreaking win at the 1968 US Open, where he became the first African American man to claim a Grand Slam singles title. Explore the significance of this historic achievement, Ashe's impact on the sport, and how his victory helped pave the way for greater diversity in tennis.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On September ninth, nineteen sixty eight was an unforgettable day
in tennis and was a historic day for the fight
of equality in sports when amateur tennis player Arthur Ash
went from unknown to winning the US Open, becoming the
first black man to win a Grand Slam title. But
(00:20):
Arthur was not just a won and done. He went
on to do so many things on and off the court,
being an inspiration to this day. And today we're going
to dive into how it all began on Daily Sports History.
Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide
(00:42):
to help you learn more about sports history as you
become more of a sports expert. And today's trivia question
is what is the only Grand Slam that Arthur ashe
did not win? Now, Arthur Ash was born in the
nineteen forty He's in Richmond, Virginia, which at the time
was involved in all the Jim Crow laws, so separate
(01:05):
but equal was in effect, and that actually shaped how
he grew up his mother. At the age of six,
his mother passed away due to complications to childbirth at
only the age of twenty seven. Him and his brother
were left to be raised by his father and his
father ended up being the caretaker of the Brookfield Park,
an eighteen acre black only park, the largest in the
(01:26):
Richmond area, and this shaped Arthur Ash as he was
a skinny kid and his father didn't want him to
be playing football as many other kids did, as he
didn't want him to get hurt. But growing up in
this park, they had playgrounds, basketball courts, a pool, baseball
and four tennis courts, and at the age of seven,
he began to pick up the sport, which is something
(01:48):
at the time was very uncommon in the black community,
as tennis was viewed as a mainly white sport and
there was actually a lot of segregation in the sport
and unintentional segregation as they wouldn't put tennis courts in
inner cities or in black communities. They were mainly white communities,
so the black community was not given the opportunity to
(02:08):
play tennis. Now that has changed a little bit. There's
been a major push to it to where they are
now at eleven percent of the tennis playing community is black,
still a small percentage, but is a lot more than
what it was in the nineteen sixties back when Arthur
Ash was growing up. But he had natural talent and
that was spotted by Virginia Union University students who was
also a part time tennis instructor, Ron Charity, who was
(02:31):
one of the best black tennis players in the area,
and he helped teach Arthur that. He got him in
touch with Robert Walter Johnson, who was the coach of
Alitha Gibson, who was the first black person to win
a Grand Slam when she won the French Open in
nineteen fifty five, and Johnson also helped train Arthur ash
(02:52):
and taught him the importance of racial socialization through sportsmanship
and etiquette, which Arthur, ashe exemplified. He was also always
even keel, always showed sportsmanship, was someone you always looked
up to. That's how a player should be. And it
all started growing up how he was taught and after
(03:12):
he was having challenges in high school being able to
play tennis as he wasn't able to play against white
youths in the area and there was very limited courts
in schools in the black community that had tennis. He
moved to Saint Louis his senior year to be able
to compete more freely and to develop his game even
more and he became the first African American to win
(03:34):
the national junior tennis title, and with his success, he
was awarded a scholarship to UCLA in nineteen sixty three
and becoming a member of the ROTC program, which required
him to serve and in the act of military upon
graduation exchange for money for his tuition, as his tennis
scholarship did not cover the entire tuition, and he went
on to graduate with a degree in business administration and
(03:56):
join the US Army in nineteen sixty six, becoming a
second lieutenant and was assigned to the US Military Academy
at West Point, where he worked as a data processor,
and while he was there, he headed up the academy's
tennis program and became a first lieutenant in nineteen sixty
eight and was honorably discharged in nineteen sixty nine. But
what was happening for him on the court. In nineteen
(04:18):
sixty three, he became the first black player ever selected
to the US Davis Cup team, and while he was
in college, he got ranked number three in the United
States and won a national championship while in college for
singles and doubles, while also helping UCLA win the team
competition that in nineteen sixty six and sixty five he
was able to compete in the Australian Championship. Now, at
(04:41):
this time in tennis, it was known as the Open Era,
which began in nineteen sixty eight, where all major tournaments,
including Grand Slams, could include both amateurs and professionals competing
against each other. Prior to this, only professional players could
compete at these tournaments, which meant anyone in college could
not attend or in the Olympics wouldn't be able to
(05:02):
participate in these as they would give up their amateur
status to turn professional. And this really helped grow the
sport as players could compete when they were younger and
allowed tennis to grow as more competition produced better tennis.
And this is how Arthur Ash was able to participate
in the US Open as he was still an amateur
and wanted to keep his amateur status to compete on
(05:24):
the Davis Cup team. But in order for him to
even participate in this due to his military obligations, he
had to make a deal with the US military to
avoid being deployed to the Vietnam War. During this time,
his brother took his place head to war so that
Arthur depete at the US Open. So without the love
(05:45):
and support of his family, this would have never happened.
And entering the tournament, Arthur wasn't just a nobody no
one in the tennis community in the world. Many people
didn't know who Arthur ashe was the tennis community. He
was a fifth seed, so he wasn't at no. But
he was still an amateur and in the first round
he won in straight sets and moved on to the
second round, where he again won in straight sets. In
(06:08):
the third round was a tough match for him, facing
off against Cliff Drysdale of South Africa in a five
set match where he won the final set, eking out
a seven to five final set victory, and in the
quarterfinals he was able to win again in straight sets
and the competition got even more heated as he got
to the semi finals, facing off against Clark Garbner, who's
(06:29):
a fellow American and amateur just like him, and the
game went back and forth, lasting five sets, where Arthur
was able to win the final two sets to make
it to the finals of the US Open, facing off
against Tom Aker, who was a Dutch player who in
nineteen seventy four. He would go on to be the
ranked number three overall in the world, despite never winning
(06:49):
a singles Grand Slam title, in this being his only
US Open final, so just like Arthur, he was determined
to win, and the first set was incredibly tight, as
Ash took it fourteen to twelve as both players held
their serve and Atch broke through after extending the tiebreaker,
but Oarker bounced back, winning the second set seven to
(07:10):
five as Arthur started to struggle, showing some unforced errors,
allowing Archer to capitalize, but being poised to determine, Arthur
came back and regained control, winning six to three in
the third set, playing more aggressive and showing his dominance,
and in the fourth set, Oker wasn't going to let
this die down as he won six to three, forcing
a decisive fifth set to decide at all. In the
(07:33):
fifth set, was able to keep his calm, using a
tactical approach, mixing in powerful serves as well as well
timed volleys to win six to three, becoming the first
African American man to win a Grand Slam title in
the first amateur to win as well. But like we said,
he wanted to maintainage amateurism, so he did not accept
(07:53):
the fourteen thousand dollars prize money and it went to occer,
which is a nice constellation for losing to get the
prize money, which just shows the person he was now
he wouldn't just compete, and he would go on to
win the nineteen seventy Australian Open and Wimbledon in nineteen
seventy five, as well as winning the Australian and French
Open in doubles. But despite all his success, he was
(08:16):
never actually ranked number one in the world as he
has other accomplishments in other duties, as he became a
civil rights activist, working with doctor Martin Luther King on
many different avenues, as well as becoming an HIV and
age activist after in nineteen eighty three, he had a
heart bypass surgery and had a blood transfusion and contracted HIV.
Not at the time, HIV was relatively new and many
(08:40):
didn't know. Many thought you could only get it if
you were homosexual, and that raised questions in his life,
but he knew that wasn't the issue and he fought
for the rest of his life to help raise awareness
and funds for the research of HIV that's still going
on to this day. Because of this diagnosis, it cut
his legacy short as he was not able to continue playing,
but in nineteen eighty five he was inducted into the
(09:02):
Tennis Hall of Fame and his legacy should never be forgotten.
And ESPN and their SB Awards hands out the Arthur
Ash Award for Courage every year to a person in
sports that faces courage through diversity, just like Arthur Ash
shit not only dealing with the racism he had to
deal with growing up and through all his tennis career,
(09:23):
handling it with sportsmanship and etiquette. That award exemplifies everything
Arthur ashe stood for. But sadly, Arthur Ash passed away
in nineteen ninety three due to complications with HIV, but
he should always be remembered for not only the great
tennis player and the great barriers that he broke down,
but who he was exemplifying what sports is about. The
(09:43):
love of the game is not about the money. It's
about being the best person you can be. And I
hope you enjoyed this episode. If you liked it, please
leave us a review wherever you're listening. It really warns
my heart every time I see a rating or review
and bring us out of my face. It only takes
a little bit of time to do. And come back
tomorrow for more daily sports history and did you catch
(10:05):
the answer today's trivia question, what is the only Grand
Slam that Arthur Ashe did not win? The answer is
the French Open. The farthest he made it in the
French Open was to the quarterfinals, which he made in
nineteen seventy and nineteen seventy one.
On September ninth, nineteen sixty eight was an unforgettable day
in tennis and was a historic day for the fight
of equality in sports when amateur tennis player Arthur Ash
went from unknown to winning the US Open, becoming the
first black man to win a Grand Slam title. But
(00:20):
Arthur was not just a won and done. He went
on to do so many things on and off the court,
being an inspiration to this day. And today we're going
to dive into how it all began on Daily Sports History.
Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide
(00:42):
to help you learn more about sports history as you
become more of a sports expert. And today's trivia question
is what is the only Grand Slam that Arthur ashe
did not win? Now, Arthur Ash was born in the
nineteen forty He's in Richmond, Virginia, which at the time
was involved in all the Jim Crow laws, so separate
(01:05):
but equal was in effect, and that actually shaped how
he grew up his mother. At the age of six,
his mother passed away due to complications to childbirth at
only the age of twenty seven. Him and his brother
were left to be raised by his father and his
father ended up being the caretaker of the Brookfield Park,
an eighteen acre black only park, the largest in the
(01:26):
Richmond area, and this shaped Arthur Ash as he was
a skinny kid and his father didn't want him to
be playing football as many other kids did, as he
didn't want him to get hurt. But growing up in
this park, they had playgrounds, basketball courts, a pool, baseball
and four tennis courts, and at the age of seven,
he began to pick up the sport, which is something
(01:48):
at the time was very uncommon in the black community,
as tennis was viewed as a mainly white sport and
there was actually a lot of segregation in the sport
and unintentional segregation as they wouldn't put tennis courts in
inner cities or in black communities. They were mainly white communities,
so the black community was not given the opportunity to
(02:08):
play tennis. Now that has changed a little bit. There's
been a major push to it to where they are
now at eleven percent of the tennis playing community is black,
still a small percentage, but is a lot more than
what it was in the nineteen sixties back when Arthur
Ash was growing up. But he had natural talent and
that was spotted by Virginia Union University students who was
also a part time tennis instructor, Ron Charity, who was
(02:31):
one of the best black tennis players in the area,
and he helped teach Arthur that. He got him in
touch with Robert Walter Johnson, who was the coach of
Alitha Gibson, who was the first black person to win
a Grand Slam when she won the French Open in
nineteen fifty five, and Johnson also helped train Arthur ash
(02:52):
and taught him the importance of racial socialization through sportsmanship
and etiquette, which Arthur, ashe exemplified. He was also always
even keel, always showed sportsmanship, was someone you always looked
up to. That's how a player should be. And it
all started growing up how he was taught and after
(03:12):
he was having challenges in high school being able to
play tennis as he wasn't able to play against white
youths in the area and there was very limited courts
in schools in the black community that had tennis. He
moved to Saint Louis his senior year to be able
to compete more freely and to develop his game even
more and he became the first African American to win
(03:34):
the national junior tennis title, and with his success, he
was awarded a scholarship to UCLA in nineteen sixty three
and becoming a member of the ROTC program, which required
him to serve and in the act of military upon
graduation exchange for money for his tuition, as his tennis
scholarship did not cover the entire tuition, and he went
on to graduate with a degree in business administration and
(03:56):
join the US Army in nineteen sixty six, becoming a
second lieutenant and was assigned to the US Military Academy
at West Point, where he worked as a data processor,
and while he was there, he headed up the academy's
tennis program and became a first lieutenant in nineteen sixty
eight and was honorably discharged in nineteen sixty nine. But
what was happening for him on the court. In nineteen
(04:18):
sixty three, he became the first black player ever selected
to the US Davis Cup team, and while he was
in college, he got ranked number three in the United
States and won a national championship while in college for
singles and doubles, while also helping UCLA win the team
competition that in nineteen sixty six and sixty five he
was able to compete in the Australian Championship. Now, at
(04:41):
this time in tennis, it was known as the Open Era,
which began in nineteen sixty eight, where all major tournaments,
including Grand Slams, could include both amateurs and professionals competing
against each other. Prior to this, only professional players could
compete at these tournaments, which meant anyone in college could
not attend or in the Olympics wouldn't be able to
(05:02):
participate in these as they would give up their amateur
status to turn professional. And this really helped grow the
sport as players could compete when they were younger and
allowed tennis to grow as more competition produced better tennis.
And this is how Arthur Ash was able to participate
in the US Open as he was still an amateur
and wanted to keep his amateur status to compete on
(05:24):
the Davis Cup team. But in order for him to
even participate in this due to his military obligations, he
had to make a deal with the US military to
avoid being deployed to the Vietnam War. During this time,
his brother took his place head to war so that
Arthur depete at the US Open. So without the love
(05:45):
and support of his family, this would have never happened.
And entering the tournament, Arthur wasn't just a nobody no
one in the tennis community in the world. Many people
didn't know who Arthur ashe was the tennis community. He
was a fifth seed, so he wasn't at no. But
he was still an amateur and in the first round
he won in straight sets and moved on to the
second round, where he again won in straight sets. In
(06:08):
the third round was a tough match for him, facing
off against Cliff Drysdale of South Africa in a five
set match where he won the final set, eking out
a seven to five final set victory, and in the
quarterfinals he was able to win again in straight sets
and the competition got even more heated as he got
to the semi finals, facing off against Clark Garbner, who's
(06:29):
a fellow American and amateur just like him, and the
game went back and forth, lasting five sets, where Arthur
was able to win the final two sets to make
it to the finals of the US Open, facing off
against Tom Aker, who was a Dutch player who in
nineteen seventy four. He would go on to be the
ranked number three overall in the world, despite never winning
(06:49):
a singles Grand Slam title, in this being his only
US Open final, so just like Arthur, he was determined
to win, and the first set was incredibly tight, as
Ash took it fourteen to twelve as both players held
their serve and Atch broke through after extending the tiebreaker,
but Oarker bounced back, winning the second set seven to
(07:10):
five as Arthur started to struggle, showing some unforced errors,
allowing Archer to capitalize, but being poised to determine, Arthur
came back and regained control, winning six to three in
the third set, playing more aggressive and showing his dominance,
and in the fourth set, Oker wasn't going to let
this die down as he won six to three, forcing
a decisive fifth set to decide at all. In the
(07:33):
fifth set, was able to keep his calm, using a
tactical approach, mixing in powerful serves as well as well
timed volleys to win six to three, becoming the first
African American man to win a Grand Slam title in
the first amateur to win as well. But like we said,
he wanted to maintainage amateurism, so he did not accept
(07:53):
the fourteen thousand dollars prize money and it went to occer,
which is a nice constellation for losing to get the
prize money, which just shows the person he was now
he wouldn't just compete, and he would go on to
win the nineteen seventy Australian Open and Wimbledon in nineteen
seventy five, as well as winning the Australian and French
Open in doubles. But despite all his success, he was
(08:16):
never actually ranked number one in the world as he
has other accomplishments in other duties, as he became a
civil rights activist, working with doctor Martin Luther King on
many different avenues, as well as becoming an HIV and
age activist after in nineteen eighty three, he had a
heart bypass surgery and had a blood transfusion and contracted HIV.
Not at the time, HIV was relatively new and many
(08:40):
didn't know. Many thought you could only get it if
you were homosexual, and that raised questions in his life,
but he knew that wasn't the issue and he fought
for the rest of his life to help raise awareness
and funds for the research of HIV that's still going
on to this day. Because of this diagnosis, it cut
his legacy short as he was not able to continue playing,
but in nineteen eighty five he was inducted into the
(09:02):
Tennis Hall of Fame and his legacy should never be forgotten.
And ESPN and their SB Awards hands out the Arthur
Ash Award for Courage every year to a person in
sports that faces courage through diversity, just like Arthur Ash
shit not only dealing with the racism he had to
deal with growing up and through all his tennis career,
(09:23):
handling it with sportsmanship and etiquette. That award exemplifies everything
Arthur ashe stood for. But sadly, Arthur Ash passed away
in nineteen ninety three due to complications with HIV, but
he should always be remembered for not only the great
tennis player and the great barriers that he broke down,
but who he was exemplifying what sports is about. The
(09:43):
love of the game is not about the money. It's
about being the best person you can be. And I
hope you enjoyed this episode. If you liked it, please
leave us a review wherever you're listening. It really warns
my heart every time I see a rating or review
and bring us out of my face. It only takes
a little bit of time to do. And come back
tomorrow for more daily sports history and did you catch
(10:05):
the answer today's trivia question, what is the only Grand
Slam that Arthur Ashe did not win? The answer is
the French Open. The farthest he made it in the
French Open was to the quarterfinals, which he made in
nineteen seventy and nineteen seventy one.
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