Arthur Ashe

by Raymond Arsenault

  42 PIM, 93 (q); Arthur Ashe, “Don’t Tell Me What to Think,” Black Sports (August 1975): 35–37. On James Meredith and the 1962 desegregation of the University of Mississippi, see Charles Eagles, The Price of Defiance: James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009).

  CHAPTER 15: SOUTH AFRICA

  1 OTC, 146–48; PIM, 15–16 (q), 17, 22–24, 48; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 158–59; Drysdale, Dell, and Williams ints; Williams, Ahead of the Game, 169–72. On Suzman, see Joanna Strangwayes-Booth, A Cricket in the Thorn Tree (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1976); and Robin Renwick, Helen Suzman: Bright Star in a Dark Chamber (London: Biteback Publishing, 2014).

  2 PIM, 18 (qs); Dell and Williams ints; Williams, Ahead of the Game, 170–71.

  3 PIM, 22 (first and second qs), 23 (fourth q), 24, 42–43; OTC, 148; Young int; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 160–63. See the letters in folder 6, box 1, AAP, especially Barbara Jordan to Arthur Ashe, July 23, 1973 (third q); Nikki Giovanni to Arthur Ashe, July 25, 1973; and J. D. Morgan to Arthur Ashe, July 12, 1973.

  4 PIM, 23 (first q), 42–43; Giovanni to Ashe, July 25, 1973 (second q); Morgan to Ashe, July 12, 1973 (third q).

  5 OTC, 148; PIM, 107; IRAA, 75. On Terre’Blanche and the Afrikaner Resistance Movement, see Amos van der Merwe, Eugene Terre’Blanche (Capetown: Giffel Media, 2010); and obituary, London Daily Mail, April 4, 2010. In 2010 Terre’Blanche was “hacked to death” in his bedroom after a row with two black farmworkers. On the Vorster regime and the politics of apartheid in the early 1970s, see Herbert Adam, Modernizing Racial Domination: The Dynamics of South African Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971); and Nancy Clark and William Worger, South Africa: The Rise and Fall of Apartheid (New York: Routledge, 2013).

  6 PIM, 97–98 (first q), 99–106 (second q); Williams, Ahead of the Game, 171 (third and fourth qs); Williams int; Dell and Deford ints, SSAA.

  7 PIM, 107 (qs).

  8 Ibid., 101 (seventh q), 107 (first q), 108 (qs), 112 (eighth q).

  9 Ibid., 112, 113 (q), 114; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 162, 164; Deford int, SSAA.

  10 PIM, 113–16 (q); Dell int.

  11 OTC, 149; PIM, 116–17 (qs); Drysdale and Dell ints.

  12 PIM, 117–18 (qs); OTC, 149–50; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 166.

  13 PIM, 118.

  14 Ibid.,119 (qs); OTC, 150.

  15 PIM, 120–21 (qs).

  16 Ibid., 121 (qs); OTC, 154–55; Williams, Ahead of the Game, 17. See Don Mattera’s poem, “Anguished Spirit-Ashe,” in folder 6, box 1, AAP. On Mattera, see Don Mattera, Sophiatown: Coming of Age in South Africa (Boston: Beacon, 1991); and Don Mattera, Memory Is the Weapon (Johannesburg: African Perspectives Publishing, 2010). On Foster and his 1973 visit to South Africa, see Eric Hall, “Foster v. Fourie: Race, Image, and Betrayal in Apartheid South Africa, 1973,” paper presented at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Atlanta, Georgia, April 11, 2014; and Hall, Arthur Ashe, 167–69, 199–200, 204–6.

  17 PIM, 120, 122 (q); Owen Williams int.

  18 Mark Mathabene, Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa (New York: Free Press, 1986), 3–5, 208, 210 (first q), 230–31 (second q), 338–50.

  19 Ibid., 215–32, 233–34 (qs); PIM, 122–23.

  20 PIM, 123; Owen Williams int.

  21 PIM, 123–24 (qs).

  22 Ibid., 124–25 (q); OTC, 154.

  23 PIM, 126–28 (qs); OTC, 155 (qs); Hall, Arthur Ashe, 170–72.

  24 PIM, 129 (first q), 130 (second q), 131 (third q); OTC, 151; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 172; BCHT, 588–89.

  25 PIM, 131 (first q), 132 (third q); OTC, 151 (second q); Hall, Arthur Ashe, 173; Arthur Ashe, “South Africa: Why I Felt That I Had to Go,” London Sunday Times, November 18, 1973, copy in folder 7, box 1, AAP.

  26 PIM, 132 (qs)–34. Alan Paton’s novel Cry, the Beloved Country (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948) is widely regarded as a classic of African literature. On Paton (1903–88), see Peter F. Alexander, Alan Paton: A Biography (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).

  27 Drysdale int; PIM, 133.

  28 PIM, 134, 137; Connors, The Outsider, 103, 107–8. For an excellent introduction to Connors’s personal style and outlier image, see Bodo, Ashe vs Connors, 28–55.

  29 OTC, 151 (first q); Connors, The Outsider, 107 (second q). In his memoir, Connors incorrectly identifies the year as 1974.

  30 OTC, 151–52 (qs); PIM, 134; Williams, Ahead of the Game, 171; Williams int.

  31 Mathabene, Kaffir Boy, 238–39 (first q); PIM, 135, 136 (third q); OTC, 155 (second q).

  32 Ibid., 136 (qs); Owen Williams int, SSAA; “Soweto Elite Gives Ashe Big Welcome,” unidentified clipping, November 1973; “Ashe Neither Shocked, Surprised at Conditions in South Africa,” unidentified clipping, November 1973; “Weather Upsets Ashe’s Schedule,” Cape Argus, November 28, 1973, all in folder 7, box 1, AAP. Hall, Arthur Ashe, 175, identifies the hosts as “Dr. and Mrs. Methlane.”

  33 PIM, 137–38 (qs); OTC, 151; Connors, The Outsider, 107–8.

  34 PIM, 139 (qs); “Weather Upsets Ashe’s Schedule.” On Buthelezi, see Ben Temkin, Buthelezi: A Biography (London: Routledge, 2002). Born in 1928, Buthelezi became South Africa’s premier Zulu leader during the late twentieth century. In January 1974, he was instrumental in the formulation of the Mahlabatini Declaration of Faith, a five-point plan for racial peace. In 1975 he founded the Inkata Freedom Party, which refused to sanction the ANC’s policy of “armed struggle.” From 1994 to 2004, he served as South Africa’s minister of home affairs.

  35 PIM, 139–41 (qs); OTC, 152 (second q); Hall, Arthur Ashe, 177–78; Cape Argus, November 28, 1973, Arthur Ashe, “Parting Gifts Epitomised the Two Faces of SA,” Cape Argus, December 3, 1973, clippings in folder 7, box 1, AAP.

  36 PIM, 142 (qs); Cape Times, November 29, 1973, Cape Argus, December 3, 1973, clippings in folder 7, box I, AAP. On Barnard (1922–2001), see Christiaan Barnard, Christiaan Barnard: One Life (New York: Macmillan, 1970); and Chris Logan, Christiaan Barnard, A Life (Cape Town: Jonathan Ball, 2003).

  37 PIM, 142–43; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 181–82; Sunday Express, December 2, 1973 (qs), and Cape Argus, November 29, 1973, clippings in folder 7, box 1, AAP.

  38 PIM, 142–43; OTC, 158–59 (q); DG, 106 (q); Morgan, “Black and White at Center Court,” 837; Mattera, “Anguished Spirit—Ashe”; “Knock-out for Prejudice,” Cape Town Argus, December 3, 1973, clipping in folder 7, box 1, AAP.

  39 PIM, 143–45 (qs); Williams int; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 203, 206. The foundation, known officially as the Black Tennis Foundation (BTF), became a reality in 1974, and during the following decade it oversaw the construction of four hundred tennis courts in predominantly black or Coloured communities. The BTF ceased operation in 1991. Williams, Ahead of the Game, 174–75.

  40 OTC, 159.

  41 PIM, 147; Cape Times, November 29, 1973, clipping in folder 7, box 1, AAP; Dell and Collins ints; Dell int, SSAA.

  42 PIM, 147; NYT, December 1, 1973; Stan Smith and Dell ints; Dan White, “Margie Gengler,” Princeton Alumni Weekly 73 (June 20, 1973). Gengler and Smith had known each other since she was fifteen, and in 1973 and 1974 they teamed up to play mixed doubles at the U.S. Open. They married in November 1974. Iver Petersen, “As Prince-ton Changes, a Black Community Fears for Future,” NYT, September 3, 2001; Jean Stratton, “Former Township Mayor Jim Floyd Is Committed to Change,” Princeton Town Topics, May 19, 2004; Deborah Yaffe, “Across Nassau Street,” Princeton Alumni Weekly 117 (April 26, 2017): 24–29; Floyd int.

  43 PIM, 148–50 (qs), 151.

  44 Ibid., 152 (q), 153.

  45 Ibid., 153–54 (q).

  46 Ibid., 155 (q)–57; BATN, 70–71.

  47 Cape Argus, November 29, 1973, clipping in folder 7, box 1, AAP.

  CHAPTER 16: PROS AND CONS

  1 BCHT, 172–75; Connors, The Outsider, 106–34; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 193; OTC, 131–32, 173.

  2 Connors, The O
utsider, 113–14; BCHT, 339–40, 554–55, 600–601; NYT, January 18–20, 25, 27, February 15, 1974; Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 132.

  3 NYT, February 15, 16 (q), 1974. On Chatrier, see BCHT, 558.

  4 BCHT, 172–73, 389, 400, 702; PIM, 65, 248–52 (qs); NYT, May 31, June 13, 1974; Connors, The Outsider, 114–15.

  5 PIM, 250–51; BCHT, 173, 175.

  6 PIM, 52–54, 61, 77–79, 248–49.

  7 Ibid., 78, 251 (q); Tanner int. On Tanner, see BCHT, 710; and Roscoe Tanner, with Mike Yorkey, Double Fault: My Rise and Fall, and My Road Back (Chicago: Triumph Books, 2005).

  8 PIM, 252–53 (qs).

  9 Ibid., 253–54 (qs). Hesse (1877–1962) was a German novelist, poet, and painter who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946. During the 1960s and 1970s, his best-known novels, Steppenwolf and Siddhartha, became extremely popular among readers attracted to Eastern mysticism and the counterculture. See Joseph Mileck, Hermann Hesse: Life and Art (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981).

  10 OTC, 86 (qs). On Diana Ross, see Diana Ross, Secrets of a Sparrow (New York: Villard, 1993); and J. Randy Taraborelli, Diana Ross: A Biography (New York: Citadel, 2007). On Motown, see Nelson George, Where Did Our Love Go? The Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007).

  11 NYT, June 21–July 2, 1974; PIM, 255–70; Tanner int.

  12 NYT, July 2, 1974; PIM, 256–57, 268.

  13 PIM, 256 (q); Connors, The Outsider, 115–17.

  14 PIM, 257 (qs); Connors, The Outsider, 117.

  15 PIM, 270 (qs); NYT, July 2–4, 1974; Tanner int.

  16 OTC, 176–77; PIM, 272 (qs); Tanner int.

  17 PIM, 27 (first q), viii (second q); Schragis int.

  18 IRAA, 60, 166–67 (first q); DG, 176 (second q), 180–81; PIM, 27.

  19 NYT, July 10–September 10, 1974; Connors, The Outsider, 117–18, 129, 131–34; BCHT, 172–73. For examples of the British press’s fixation on the Connors-Evert relationship, see the 1974 Wimbledon Scrapbook, KRWL. On Evert, see Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 198–221.

  20 Connors, The Outsider, 114–16,129; DG, 235; BCHT, 174; Dell int; IRAA, 75; Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 378–94.

  21 NYT, October 5, 10, 20, 25, November 2, 8, 1974; BCHT, 174; Morgan, “Black and White at Center Court,” 833–34; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 197–98. On Gandhi’s career (1893–1914) in South Africa, see Paul F. Powell, “Gandhi in South Africa,” Journal of Modern African History 7 (1969): 441–55; and Ashwin Desai and Goolem Vahed, The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer of Empire (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press. 2015).

  22 NYT, October 5 (qs), 10, 20, November 2, 8, December 17, 1974; CD, December 17, 1974; BAA, December 28, 1974; BCHT, 174–75; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 198.

  23 NYT, October 25, 1974; BCHT, 178.

  24 NYT, October 17, 25 (q), 1974; Owen Williams int. On Ralston’s tenure as U.S. Davis Cup Captain, see Janoff, Game! Set! Match!, 58, 70–83.

  25 NYT, November 2, 10–11, 13, 1974.

  26 Rand Daily Mail, November 18, 1974, clipping in scrapbook 1, box 39, AAP; “Sports Policy Is a Lesson,” Rand Daily Mail, October 26, 1974, “Ashe: Why I’m Coming,” Rand Daily Mail, c. October 1974 (second q), clippings in folder 7, box 1, AAP; NYT, October 25, 27 (first q), 1974.

  27 Owen Williams int; “Ashe: Why I’m Coming” (first, third, and fourth qs); Sy Lerman, “Ashe’s Plan to Help,” Rand Daily Mail, c. October 1974 (second q), clipping in folder 7, box 1, AAP.

  28 OTC, 159–61 (first q), 162 (second and third qs); Young int; Donald Dell int, SSAA; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 199–201. On Green, see Nat Serache, “Pledge of US Study Help,” The World, November 27, 1974, clipping in scrapbook 2, box 39, AAP. See also Eric Mani, “Don’t Lose Hope—Message from Black Americans,” The World, c. November 27, 1974, and “Why Ashe Came to South Africa,” Durban Post, December 1, 1974, clippings in scrapbook 2, box 39, AAP.

  29 OTC, 154.

  30 Ibid., 159–60 (qs); Patrick Laurence, “Sobukwe a True Leader, say Black Americans,” Rand Daily Mail, November 30, 1974, clipping in scrapbook 2, box 39, AAP; Young int. On Sobukwe (1924–78), see Benjamin Pogrund, Sobukwe and Apartheid (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1991); and Benjamin Pogrund, Robert Sobukwe: How Can Man Die Better (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 2012).

  31 See clippings in scrapbooks 1 and 2, box 39, AAP; Owen Williams and Young ints.

  32 “Ashe Beaten by Connors in SA Open,” “King Connors,” “Grudge Final,” Rand Daily Mail, November 25, 1974, “Ashe on the Run,” Rand Daily Mail, November 26, 1974 (first q), clippings in scrapbook 1, box 39, AAP; Sam Mirwis, “Connors and Ashe Feud Comes to Boil,” Sunday Express, December 1, 1974 (second and third qs), clipping in scrapbook 2, box 39, AAP; NYT, November 26, 1974.

  33 “Grudge final”; “Arthur Ashe Comes Under Fire,” Post, December 1, 1974 (q), clipping in folder 7, box 1, AAP; “Visit Soweto: Our Tennis Players Need 10 Years: Ashe,” Rand Daily Mail, November 27, 1974, clipping in scrapbook 1, box 39, AAP.

  34 NYT, November 20, 1974; OwenWilliams int; “Ashe nets R10645,” The World, December 1, 1974, clipping in scrapbook 2, box 39, AAP.

  35 Laurence, “Sobukwe a True Leader, Say Black Americans,” (qs); Young and Owen Williams ints.

  36 NYT, December 17, 1974 (qs).

  37 Ibid., December 24, 1974; OTC, 222; PIM, viii; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 193; Following Ashe’s death, Seth Abraham, his close friend and former employer at HBO, remarked: “I think he lived every day as though it could be his last.” IRAA, 111.

  38 OTC, 168 (q); Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking (New York: Ballantine, 1996).

  39 OTC, 168 (q).

  40 See John Hoberman, Darwin’s Athletes: How Sport Has Damaged Black America and Preserved the Myth of Race (New York: Mariner Books, 1997); William C. Rhoden, Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete (New York: Broadway, 2007); Shaun Powell, Souled Out? How Blacks Are Winning and Losing in Sports (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2007); Patrick Cooper, Black Superman: A Cultural and Biological History of the People That Became the World’s Greatest Athletes (Austin: First Sahara, 2001); and Jon Entine, Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We Are Afraid to Talk About It (New York: PublicAffairs, 2003). On Russell’s coaching stint with the Boston Celtics, see Goudsouzian, King of the Court, 189–239. On Robinson’s managerial debut, see Frank Robinson and Dave Anderson, Frank: The First Year (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1976).

  41 “He Teaches the Pros,” Ebony (October 1977): 134–35 (second q), 136, 138; Bob Ruf, “Pro Track Star Has a New Teaching Approach,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, September 9, 1975 (first q); Henry Hines, Quick Tennis (New York: NAL/Dutton, 1977); OTC, 168–69; Pasarell int; NYT, January 14–19, 1975.

  42 NYT, January 24–25, 29–31, February 2–3, 1975.

  43 BCHT, 176 (first q); OTC, 221–22; NYT, March 3, 5, 8–10 (second and third qs), 15–18, 26, April 28, 1975.

  44 BCHT, 176 (q); OTC, 169; NYT, April 3, 1975.

  45 NYT, April 16, 1975 (qs). A college tennis star at Yale, Scott (1937–2006) founded Tennis Week magazine in 1974. BCHT, 641–42. See also Scott, Tennis: Game of Motion.

  46 NYT, April 16, 1975 (qs); OTC, 156–57; Williams int.

  47 OTC, 152; NYT, April 30 (qs), May 2, 5, 1975; BCHT, 588–89, 612.

  48 NYT, April 30, May 5, 6, 8, 1975; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 209.

  49 NYT, May 2, 4, 9–10, 12, 1975; Bud Collins, “Tennis Star of Many Faces: Arthur Ashe: Portrait in Motion,” NYT, May 25, 1975 (q); Collins int.

  50 BCHT, 176; NYT, May 8–12 (qs), 1975.

  51 NYT, May 12, 1975 (first q); OTC, 169 (second and third qs); Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 225–46.

  CHAPTER 17: WIMBLEDON 1975

  1 OTC, 133.

  2 NYT, June 10–15, 1975.

  3 Ibid., June 17–20 (q), 21–22, 1975; OTC, 133.

  4 OTC, 136–38; Marty Bell, “Arthur Ashe vs. Jimmy Connors Is No Love Match,” Sport (September 1975): 34�
�38; Connors, The Outsider, 113, 155–56, 174–76.

  5 NYT, June 22, 1975 (q); Bell, “Arthur Ashe vs. Jimmy Connors Is No Love Match,” 35 (q); Curry Kirkpatrick, “By Hook or by Crook,” SI 43 (August 25, 1975): 52; Joe Jares, “A Centre Court Case,” SI 43 (July 14, 1975), 12; Evans, Open Tennis, 130; Bodo, Ashe vs Connors, 193, 199. Connors, The Outsider, 155, claims he knew nothing of the suit against Ashe prior to reading about it in the newspapers on June 22.

  6 Bell, “Arthur Ashe vs. Jimmy Connors Is No Love Match,” 38; NYT, June 22, 1975 (q); Evans, Open Tennis, 130–31.

  7 NYT, June 19–20, 1975; Jares, “Centre Court Case,” 13.

  8 OTC, 133–34; Jares, “Centre Court Case,” 14; NYT, June 24–29, 1975; Bodo, Ashe vs Connors, 206–7.

  9 NYT, June 30, 1975; OTC, 134.

  10 Jares, “Centre Court Case,” 13 (q); Bell, “Arthur Ashe vs. Jimmy Connors Is No Love Match,” 38; London Times, June 27–30, 1975; Connors, The Outsider, 159–61.

  11 Jares, “Centre Court Case,” 13–14; Bell, “Arthur Ashe vs. Jimmy Connors Is No Love Match,” 35; NYT, July 2, 1975; Evans, Open Tennis, 150–51; Connors, The Outsider, 156, claims the injury suffered during the Lloyd match was much more serious than he revealed at the time: “Chasing a drop shot early in my first-round match on the damp grass of Centre Court, I slipped and hyperextended my knee. I didn’t think much about it at the time. . . . But once the adrenaline rush of my first Wimbledon title defense was over, all that changed. I felt a degree of pain that I had never experienced before. I thought I would be OK after some rest, but when I woke up the next morning, the pain had intensified; my knee was completely swollen and unable to support my weight. . . . After they examined me, it turned out I had a couple of hairline fractures in my shin—painful but treatable. . . . The physiotherapist’s advice was simple: rest. The timing could not have been worse. . . . The physiotherapist wrapped up my leg and off I went to practice. I knew that once I was on the court, I would forget about the medical warnings. After every match I won in those two weeks, I would immediately go for an intensive treatment of ultrasound, ice, and massage—and I wasn’t above taking a fistful of painkillers, either. I kept the injury as secret as I could, refusing to wear even an Ace bandage; I wasn’t going to give anyone an edge.”