Arthur Ashe

by Raymond Arsenault

  30 Johnnie Ashe and Nicholson ints; Arthur and Johnnie.

  31 NYT, June 11–16, 19, 1968; Richey int.

  32 NYT, June 19, 23–24 (first q), 27, 29–30, July 1 (second q), 2–4, 1968; various clippings in 1968 Wimbledon Scrapbook, KRWL; Newcombe and Graebner ints; McPhee, Levels of the Game.

  33 OTC, 103–5 (first and last qs), 106, 146; DG, 103(second q), 104 (third, fourth, and fifth qs), 178–80; Dell and Pasarell ints; Drysdale int, SSAA.

  34 Dell int; NYT, July 7, 10 (qs), 11, 13–16, 1968. See especially Eugene L. Scott, “Open Tennis: The Pros Now Respect the Amateurs,” NYT, July 7, 1968.

  35 NYT, July 17–22, 1968; Graebner int.

  36 NYT, July 23–24, 27 (first and third qs), 28–29 (second q), 1968; Dell, Riessen, and Pasarell ints.

  37 NYT, August 16–20, 1968.

  38 Ibid., August 17–18, 21 (q), 22–26, 1968; OTC, 106.

  39 NYT, August 20–21, 26 (first q), September 1, 1968; Arthur Daley, “A Rugged Assignment,” NYT, August 28, 1968 (qs).

  40 OTC, 100–101,108–9; BCHT, 146–147; Evans, Open Tennis, 44; NYT, August 31, September 1–4, 6 (q), 1968; Drysdale int.

  41 McPhee and Graebner ints; McPhee, Levels of the Game, 3–23, 46–150; BCHT, 140; OTC, 106–7; Evans, Open Tennis, 44; NYT, September 5, 8–9, 1968; Dave Anderson, “Dell Offers ‘Schizophrenic’ Counsel,” NYT, September 9, 1968 (qs).

  42 NYT, September 9–11, 1968; OTC, 107–12; BCHT, 147.

  43 OTC, 112 (qs).

  44 “End of Tortuous Road: Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr.,” NYT, September 10, 1968 (qs); Dave Anderson, “Significant Tennis Step,” NYT, September 11, 1968, includes a comment by Donald Dell on the pro-amateur confrontation at the first U.S. Open: “The tournament seemed to be conducted of the pros, by the pros, and for the pros, and one of our Davis Cup players won it.” Anderson followed up with the observation: “Ashe was fortunate, however, in not having to play any of the top four seeded players—Laver, Roche, Rosewall, and Newcombe—but he defeated two pros, Roy Emerson and Cliff Drysdale.”

  45 Arthur Daley, “Direct Confrontation,” NYT, September 10, 1968 (qs).

  46 NYT, September 12, 14, 1968; OTC, 114 (q). See also “Lt. Ashe Breaks Through,” unidentified clipping, in folder 1, box 35, AAP; Kim Chapin, “Arthur All the Way,” SI (September 16, 1968): 26–29; Louie Robinson Jr., “A Crown for King Arthur,” Ebony 24 (November 1968): 64–68, 70–71; Louis Wolf, “Arthur, the New King of the Courts,” Life 65 (September 20, 1968): 30–35; and H. W. Winn, “Sporting Scene,” New Yorker 44 (September 28, 1968): 136+.

  CHAPTER 11: MR. COOL

  1 OTC, 113.

  2 Robinson, “A Crown for King Arthur,” 64–65; Martin, Arthur Ashe, 107; NYT, September 15, 1968; Face the Nation video clip, SSAA.

  3 Wolf, “Arthur, the New King of the Courts,” 35 (qs), copy in box 37 (Scrapbook 1968), AAP. The headline on the magazine cover read: “He topped the tennis world—THE ICY ELEGANCE OF ARTHUR ASHE.” The cover photograph showed an intense, bespectacled Ashe preparing to strike a ball near the net. Most of the article is devoted to photographs taken at the U.S. Open.

  4 Robinson, “A Crown for King Arthur,” 68 (first and second qs), 65 (third q).

  5 NYT, October 17, 1968; LAT, October 18, 1968; CD, October 19, 1968; Deford int, SSAA; Edwards int.; David Hartmann, Race, Culture, and the Revolt of the Black Athlete: The 1968 Olympic Protests and Their Aftermath (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004); Amy Bass, Not the Triumph but the Struggle: The 1968 Olympics and the Making of the Black Athlete (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004); Richard Hoffer, Something in the Air: American Passion and Defiance in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics (New York: Free Press, 2009); Tommie Smith and David Steele, Silent Gesture: The Autobiography of Tommie Smith (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2007); John Wesley Carlos and David Zirin, The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2011); Harry Edwards, The Revolt of the Black Athlete (New York: Free Press, 1969); and Harry Edwards, The Struggle That Must Be: An Autobiography (New York: Macmillan, 1980). See also the excellent documentary film on the Smith-Carlos controversy and its context: Fists of Freedom: The Story of the ’68 Summer Games (HBO Documentary Films, directed by George Roy, 1999). In 2008, Smith and Carlos received the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the ESPY Awards ceremony.

  6 Wolf, “Arthur, the New King of the Courts,” 34 (first q); Robinson, “A Crown for King Arthur,” 70 (second and third qs).

  7 For an overview of the tumult of 1968, see David Caute, The Year of the Barricades: A Journey Through 1968 (New York: HarperCollins, 1988); Mark Kurlansky, 1968: The Year That Rocked the World (New York: Random House, 2005); David Farber, Chicago ’68 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994); and Jeremi Suri, The Global Revolutions of 1968 (New York: W. W. Norton, 2007). AA, 103, 220; NYT, November 8, 15, December 13, 1968. See also Chapin, “Arthur All the Way,” 26–29; Darden, “Arthur, the New King of the Courts,” 36; Winn, “Sporting Scene,” 136+; “People Are Talking About,” Vogue 152 (November 15, 1968): 132–33; and Robinson, “A Crown for King Arthur,” 64–68, 70.

  8 John McPhee, A Sense of Where You Are: A Profile of Bill Bradley at Princeton (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1965); McPhee int.

  9 McPhee and Graebner ints; Clifford Geertz, “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight,” Daedalus 101 (Winter 1972): 1–37. See also Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973).

  10 McPhee and Graebner ints; McPhee, Levels of the Game, back cover (first and second qs), 3–4 (third q); John McPhee, “Profiles,” New Yorker 45 (June 7, 1969): 45–58+; and John McPhee, “Profiles,” New Yorker 45 (June 14, 1968): 44–48+. On Graebner, see Neil Amdur, “The Graebner Few People Know,” NYT, July 21, 1968.

  11 “Pros Want Arthur Ashe,” Sepia 17 (December 1968): 64–67; OTC, 113–14; NYT, July 1, 10, 29, August 28, September 11, October 20 (q), November 19, 28, 1968; BCHT, 144–45.

  12 NYT, March 30, May 6, July 7 (first q), September 5, November 6, 17, 19 (second q), December 4, 1968; Dell int; BCHT, 144, 147, 149.

  13 NYT, September 11, 12, 14–17, 19, 22–25, October 10, 1968; OTC, 114.

  14 NYT, November 8–9, 10 (first q), 11, 12 (second q), 1968; McPhee, Dell, and Pasarell ints. Pasarell was an alternate limited to playing in a preliminary exhibition match.

  15 Dell int; NYT, November 13, 15, 19, 21, 1968; OTC, 122–23 (q). See also “Diplomacy: The Liveliest Ambassador,” Time 92 (November 1, 1968). Until 1971, the defending Davis Cup champion was guaranteed a place in the final tie, which was known as the Challenge Round. After 1971, the defending champion had to compete with the other teams in the earlier rounds.

  16 Owen Williams, Ahead of the Game: Memoir of a Trailblazer Who Had Serious Fun While Turning Tennis into Big Business (Miami: Professional Press, 2013), 169–70 (qs), 171; Owen Williams and Dell ints; Arthur Ashe and Williams ints, SSAA.

  17 NYT, October 8, December 5, 10–11, 13–14, 15 (q), 16, 18, 1968; Richard Evans int, SSAA.

  18 NYT, December 15, 1968.

  19 Ibid., December 17–19, 21–29, 1968; OTC, 115 (q); Dell, Collins, and Stan Smith ints; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 105–6.

  20 NYT, January 6–9, 12–13, 1969; OTC, 120; Dell, Stan Smith, and Einwick ints; “Speech by Arthur Ashe, Ten Outstanding Young Men of America Congress, Syracuse, New York, January 1969,” transcript (q); and Nomination Form for Arthur Ashe, Ten Outstanding Young Men of America, copies in possession of Lou Einwick, Richmond, Virginia.

  21 Dell and Collins ints; NYT, January 13, 1969 (q).

  22 Collins and Johnnie Ashe ints; OTC, 116–17 (qs); Arthur and Johnnie. On the Tet Offensive, see Don Oberdorfer, Tet!: The Turning Point in the Vietnam War (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001).

  23 Collins int; OTC, 117–18 (qs); IRAA, 141–44.

  24 OTC, 118–19 (qs); Collins and Pasarell ints.

  25 Dell int.

  26 Collins int;
NYT, February 2–3, 5 (q), 1969.

  27 NYT, January 19, February 2, 6–8, 9 (qs), 1969; Dell int; BCHT, 149.

  28 OTC, 97–99, 122; Nicholson, Dell, and McPhee ints; NYT, February 25 (qs), 27, 1969.

  29 NYT, March 21 (qs), 22–24, 1969. On the growing awareness of the importance of money in the world of sports during the late 1960s, see Joseph Durso, “Big Money and Professional Sports: Vexing Problems Go with Affluence,” NYT, February 9, 1969.

  30 Wolf, “Arthur, the New King of the Courts,” 34 (first q); NYT, March 21, 1969 (second and third qs). The 1969 St. Petersburg Masters International tournament was Ashe’s last tournament as an amateur. Ashe played well in the early rounds but lost his semifinal match against Zeljko Franulovic of Yugoslavia 3–6, 6–1, 6–1. The tournament was held at the St. Petersburg Tennis Center, a city-owned public facility. The Tenth Annual Masters Invitational Tennis Championships, March 18–23, 1969 (St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg Tennis Foundation, 1969), program; William P. Wallace, Steve Reilly, Paul Reilly, and Mike Reilly ints.

  31 NYT, March 25–31, 1969.

  32 Ibid., April 1, 4–7, 1969; Pasarell int.

  33 NYT, April 9, 1969 (qs).

  34 Ibid., April 15–18, 22, 24, 26, 29–30 (q).

  35 Ibid., May 1, 10, 21, 27, 29, 31, June 1, 5, 1969; BCHT, 104–5, 152, 388–89, 400, 652.

  36 NYT, June 10–13, 1969.

  37 OTC, 225; BCHT, 150; Graebner and Dell ints; McPhee, “Profiles,” New Yorker (June 7, 14, 1969).

  38 NYT, June 17, 1969 (qs); Pasarell, Dell, and Riessen ints.

  39 NYT, June 24, 1969 (qs); Dell int.

  40 NYT, June 24 (qs), 29, 1969; Pasarell, Dell, and Collins ints; BCHT, 151.

  41 NYT, May 28 (first and second qs), June 24, 30 (third and fourth qs), 1969; London Times, July 1, 1969; Drysdale and Dell ints.

  42 NYT, July 2, 4, 1969; BCHT, 150, 152.

  43 NYT, July 4, 1969 (q); BCHT, 149.

  44 NYT, July 9, 1969 (qs); Dell int; Dell’s Tennis Channel commentary, 2016 Citi Open, July 23, 2016.

  45 NYT, July 10–14, 1969; Washington Star, July 10–14, 1969; “Don’t Forget Arthur’s Contribution to Washington,” Washington Times, March 7, 1993; Dell int.

  46 BCHT, 149; NYT, July 11–13, 1969; Dell int.

  47 NYT, July 14, 20, 29 (first q), 30 (second q), 1969; Drysdale int.

  48 NYT, July 30, 1969 (qs); Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 273–74; Drysdale, Dell, and Owen Williams ints. On Williams, see Robert Lipsyte, “The Promoter,” NYT, August 23, 1969; and Williams, Ahead of the Game.

  49 NYT, July 31, August 1–3, 16–17, 19–22, 1969.

  50 NYT, August 27, 29 (qs), 1969; Williams and Stockton ints.

  51 Arthur Daley, “A Patriarch Discourses,” NYT, August 29, 1969.

  52 NYT, August 29–31, September 1–2, 6–9, 1969. See especially Robert Lipsyte, “Looking for Heroes,” NYT, August 30, 1969; BCHT, 150 (q), 151. On Laver’s remarkable career, see Laver, with Bud Collins, The Education of a Tennis Player.

  53 NYT, September 19–20, 21 (first q), 22 (second and third qs), 1969; BCHT, 149, 151, 161–62, 165, 615–16, 711; Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 25–26; Danzig and Schwed, eds., Fireside Book of Tennis, 886–88; Dell and Stan Smith ints.

  CHAPTER 12: RACKET MAN

  1 NYT, July 4, 11–13, September 14, 22, November 4, December 17, 1969; BCHT, 149.

  2 NYT, February 25, 27, April 18, 22, 30, May 20, June 1–5, 10–13, 25–30, July 2–4, 8–14, 19, 22–28, 31, August 1–3, 10, 24, September 6–8, 28, October 6–12, 1969; Dell int.

  3 Dell (q), Stan Smith, William P. Wallace, and Sally Wallace ints. On Mark McCormack (1930–2003) and the IMG sports management and media conglomerate, see Mark H. McCormack, What They Didn’t Teach You at Harvard Business School: Notes from a Street-Smart Executive (New York: Bantam, 1984); and the websites IMG.com and IMGworld.com. Dell and his partner, Frank Craighill, formally incorporated ProServ in 1970. Craighill left ProServ in 1983 to form his own sports agency, Advantage, Inc. On the evolution of sports agencies such as ProServ and IMG, see Lisa P. Masteralexis, Carol A. Barr, and Mary Hums, Principles and Practice of Sport Management (New York: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2011).

  4 OTC, 125, 127–28 (q), 129; Martin, Arthur Ashe, 111–12; DG, 25, 184; Dell int. On Arnold Palmer as a sports and endorsement icon, see Thomas Hauser, with Arnold Palmer, Arnold Palmer: A Personal Journey (New York: NBC Books, 2012); and Howard Sounes, The Wicked Game: Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and the Story of Modern Golf (New York: William Morrow, 2004). In recent decades, Palmer’s endorsement record has been surpassed by a number of athletes, including Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan. On Jordan’s commercialization, see Walter LaFeber, Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism (New York: Norton, 2002); and Roland Lazenby, Michael Jordan: The Life (Boston: Back Bay Books, 2015).

  5 OTC, 128 (q); Dell int.

  6 OTC, 128–29; Dell int.

  7 OTC, 129–30; DG, 25, 184; BCHT, 185; Martin, Arthur Ashe, 112; Dell and M. C. Savage ints. On Howard Head, see NYT, March 4, 1991 (obituary).

  8 OTC, 130 (q). On the colorful history of post-1969 tennis apparel and related player endorsements, see Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 175–97.

  9 OTC, 131 (q)–132; DG, 185; Bollettieri int.

  10 See the voluminous correspondence and documentation in folders 3–14, box 31, and folders 1–2, box 32, AAP. The first meeting of PEI was in Berkeley, California, on October 4, 1969. The five players added to the PEI roster were Tom Gorman, Brian Gottfried, Marty Riessen, Dick Stockton, and Roscoe Tanner. See also DG, 180.

  11 DG, 179 (q); Dell int.

  12 DG, 179 (third q), 180 (first q); Dell int (second q).

  13 DG, 184; OTC 129; Dell int.

  14 OTC, 130; DG, 25, 168–69, 184; Mandeville and Schragis ints. Howie Evans, “Ashe’s Ace: Tennis Director at Doral,” New York Amsterdam News, c. October 1970 (q); Howie Evans to Howard Kaskel, October 26, 1970; Alvin Schragis, “The Brotherhood of Al and Arthur” (undated typescript); and Doral Newsletter (October–November 1974), all in Al Schragis Collection, in possession of Al Schragis, Scarsdale, New York.

  15 DG, 103. On Ali, see Remnick, King of the World; Michael Ezra, Muhammad Ali: The Making of an Icon (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2009); and Michael Marqusee, Redemption Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties (New York: Verso, 1999). On Brown, see Jim Brown and Steve Delsohn, Jim Brown Out of Bounds (New York: Zebra Books, 1989); and Freeman, Jim Brown. On Russell, see Goudsouzian, King of the Court; Russell and Branch, Second Wind; and John Taylor, The Rivalry: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and the Golden Age of Basketball (New York: Ballantine, 2006). On Flood, see Curt Flood, The Way It Is (New York: Trident Press, 1971); Brad Snyder, A Well-Paid Slave: Curt Flood’s Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports (New York: Plume, 2007); Stuart Weiss, The Curt Flood Story: The Man Behind the Myth (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2007); and Alex Belth and Tim McCarver, Stepping Up: The Story of All-Star Curt Flood and His Fight for Baseball Players’ Rights (New York: Persea, 2006). On White, see Bill White, Uppity: My Untold Story About the Games People Play (New York: Grand Central, 2011). See also James Blake, with Carol Taylor, Ways of Grace: Stories of Activism, Adversity, and How Sports Can Bring Us Together (New York: Amistad, 2017).

  16 Eric Allen Hall, “ ‘I Guess I’m Becoming More and More Militant’: Arthur Ashe and the Black Freedom Movement,” Journal of African American History 96 (Fall 2011): 476 (first q), 488 (second q); Barry Lorge, “Inside the Heart and Mind of Arthur Ashe,” Tennis (September 1988): 46; Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 260.

  17 Rogers int; Hall, “ ‘I Guess I’m Becoming More and More Militant,’ ” 488–49; OTC, 102–6; DG, 115 (q); Eric J. Morgan, “Black and White at Center Court: Arthur Ashe and the Confrontation of Apartheid in South Africa,” Diplomatic History 36 (November 2012): 815–41.

  18 NYT, December 4 (first q), 6 (third and fourth qs), 1969; Morgan, “Black and White at Center Court,�
�� 819, 829 (second q); Drysdale int.

  19 Morgan, “Black and White at Center Court,” 820–21 (first q), 822–23; December 12, 16 (second and third qs), 18, 21, 1969; Dell int. On the long history of “constructive engagement” policies and South Africa, see Christopher Coker, The United States and South Africa, 1968–1985: Constructive Engagement and Its Critics (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1985).

  20 NYT, November 2, 18, December 6, 20–22, 24, 1969, January 13, 1970; BCHT, 151, 156; OTC, 220; Stan Smith int, SSAA.

  21 NYT, January 9, 12, 15–18, 1970.

  22 Ibid., January 22, 1970; BCHT, 150.

  23 NYT, January 21–23, 25–28 (q), 1970; WP, January 27, 1970; BCHT, 155–57, 361–62.

  24 NYT, January 29, February 1, 1970 (qs).

  25 Ibid., February 1 (Newcombe qs), 2, 6 (Turville q), 1970.

  26 NYT, February 9 (q), 17, 1970.

  27 Ibid., February 17, 1970 (q); Morgan, “Black and White on Center Court,” 829–31.

  28 NYT, February 22, 1970 (qs); Graebner, Riessen, and Richey ints.

  29 NYT, February 10, 13, 15–16, 18, 27–28, March 1–2, 1970.

  30 Ibid., February 1, 6, 8, March 8, 1970.

  31 Ibid., March 6, 10–11, 1970; BCHT, 156–57, 169.

  32 NYT, March 24 (Dell q), 25 (Ashe q), 1970; Dell and Moore ints. On Moore’s opposition to apartheid and his friendship with Ashe, see “Visit by Ashe Was Biggest Tennis Boost Says Moore,” unidentified clipping, c. December 1, 1973, in folder 7, box 1, AAP.

  33 NYT, April 6, 13, 15 (q), 1970; Martin, Arthur Ashe, 115.

  34 NYT, April 18, 1970 (q).

  35 BCHT, 153–54; NYT, April 9, 1970 (q).

  36 BCHT, 154 (qs); NYT, July 29, August 30, September 4 (Ashe qs), 1970.

  37 NYT, August 26, September 1, 17 (qs), 1970; BCHT, 155–56.