Arthur Ashe

by Raymond Arsenault

  12 DG, 75–76 (qs), 77; NYT, October 3–5, 1981; McEnroe int. See folder 12, box 5, AAP, especially Donald Dell to Gordon Jorgensen, October 6, 1981; and Robert F. King to Sports Editor, NYT, October 16, 1981.

  13 DG, 76 (q), 77; McEnroe, with Kaplan, You Cannot Be Serious, 129–30; Neil Amdur, “Ashe Sticking with McEnroe,” NYT, October 5, 1981; Neil Amdur, “McEnroe Suspended, Still in Cup,” NYT, November 17, 1981; McEnroe int.

  14 DG, 77 (qs); Neil Amdur, “Connors Pulls Out of Cup,” NYT, November 26, 1981; McEnroe, with Kaplan, You Cannot Be Serious, 140–41; Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 269–70.

  15 DG, 78 (qs), 79 (last four qs); McEnroe with Kaplan, You Cannot Be Serious, 141–44; NYT, December 11–12, 1981; McEnroe int. See folder 13, box 5, AAP, especially Barry McDermott, “Troubled Doubles and a Singular Singles,” SI (December 21, 1981): 24–25.

  16 NYT, December 13, 1981 (first q); DG, 79 (second q), 80 (third, fourth, fifth, and seventh qs); McDermott, “Troubled Doubles and Singular Singles,” 24 (sixth q); McEnroe, with Kaplan, You Cannot Be Serious, 145 (final q).

  17 Neil Amdur, “McEnroe’s Victory Clinches Davis Cup,” NYT, December 14, 1981 (qs).

  18 Stuart M. Butler to Arthur Ashe, December 14, 1981 (first q); Donald B. Keller to Arthur Ashe, December 16, 1981 (second q); Myers, “Question: What Does It Take to Absolve Outrageous Conduct?” (third q); Luther L. Terry to Arthur Ashe, December 10, 1981 (fourth q), all in folder 13, box 29, AAP.

  19 Dell and McEnroe ints; R. V. Baugus, “Davis Cup Comes Back to America,” International Tennis Weekly (December 25, 1981), in folder 13, box 29, AAP; Donald Dell to Gordon Jorgensen (bcc. Captain Arthur Ashe), October 6, 1981 (first q), in folder 12, box 29, AAP; Donald Dell to Arthur Ashe, December 17, 1981 (second q), in folder 15, box 1, AAP.

  20 “Ashe Says McEnroe Still with U.S. Team,” Cincinnati Enquirer, December 14, 1981 (qs), in folder 13, box 29, AAP.

  21 DG, 82; see folder 1, box 30, AAP.

  22 NYT, June 11, 20, 23, 24 (q), 27, 29, 1982; 1982 Wimbledon scrapbook, KRWL; McEnroe, with Kaplan, You Cannot Be Serious, 162–63. On the 1982 Hooper situation, see Lawrence B. Hooper to William Simons, July 23, 1982; and William Simons to Arthur Ashe, August 20, 1982, both in folder 8, box 29, AAP. See also BATN, 82–83; and Ralph Wiley, “Serving Notice in a Big Way,” SI (May 3, 1982): 61–63.

  23 DG, 82–83; McEnroe, with Kaplan, You Cannot Be Serious, 163; McEnroe int; NYT, July 10–11, 12 (first and second qs), 13 (third through fifth qs), 1982. See the clippings and correspondence in folder 2, box 30, AAP. On Wilander, see BCHT, 209–13, 660.

  24 David Butcher to Arthur Ashe, July 17, 1982 (first q); Briggs M. Austin to Arthur Ashe, July 15, 1982 (second q); Marshall J. Lech to Arthur Ashe, July 12, 1982 (third q); and Elizabeth Leonard to Arthur Ashe, July 13, 1982 (fourth q), all in folder 2, box 30, AAP. On the decline of sportsmanship during the Open era, see Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 313–32.

  25 NYT, September 8, 10, 1982; George Vecsey, “At Home with Jimmy Connors,” NYT, September 12, 1982 (q); McEnroe and JMA ints.

  26 DG, 81 (q), 90; JMA and McEnroe ints; Neil Amdur, “McEnroe: Caught Up in a Difficult Year,” NYT, August 30, 1982; Connors, The Outsider, 1–76, 284, 286.

  27 DG, 83–84; NYT, October 1, 2 (qs), 4, 1982; McEnroe int. See folder 3, box 30, AAP; Bernard L. Schmidt to Arthur Ashe, September 8, 1982; and Elaine Rawlings to Arthur Ashe, November 14, 1982, both in folder 8, box 29, AAP.

  28 Joseph Durso, “New Ashe Role,” NYT, November 10, 1982 (first q); Mike Zitz, “Arthur Ashe: Career Has Come Full Circle,” Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, July 17, 1982, in folder 3, box 35, AAP; Donald Dell to James C. Bowling (Vice President, Philip Morris, Inc.), September 20, 1982, Raymond S. Benton to Arthur Ashe, February 4, 1982, both in folder 15, box 1, AAP; Arthur Ashe to Governor Charles Robb, August 10, 1982 (mailgram), David K. McLoud to Arthur Ashe, August 11, 1982, Claude Lenfant (NIH) to Arthur Ashe, August 6, 1982, all in folder 14, box 27, AAP; Jonathan A. Bell (U.S. Military Academy) to Arthur Ashe, January 25, 1982, Mayor Henry L. Marsh III to Arthur Ashe, March 19, 1982, Henry A. Talbert Jr. to Arthur Ashe, April 3, 1982, Senator Harry F. Byrd Jr. to Arthur Ashe, May 18, 1982, all in folder 4, box 2, AAP.

  29 Rogers, Ricks, JMA, and Schragis ints; DG, 168–69 (second q), 170–73; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 255–56; “Professor Arthur Ashe: Tennis’ Class Act Moves into the Classroom,” Ebony (July 1983): 79–80, 82. “Our History,” fmuniv.edu, provides a history of Florida Memorial College, which moved to Miami in 1968, after many years in St. Augustine. The school originated as the Florida Baptist Institute in Live Oak, Florida, in 1879, and changed its name to Florida Memorial University in 2004. On Howard Thurman (1900–1981), widely regarded as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s spiritual mentor, see Howard Thurman, With Head and Heart: The Autobiography of Howard Thurman (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1979); Howard Thurman, with Walter Earl Fluker et al., eds., A Strange Freedom: The Best of Howard Thurman on Religious Experience and Public Life (Boston: Beacon, 1999); and Luther E. Smith Jr., Howard Thurman: The Mystic as Prophet (Richmond, IN: Friends United Press, 2007).

  30 DG, 173–74 (first q), 175; David K. Wiggins, “Symbols of Possibility: Arthur Ashe, Black Athletes, and the Writing of A Hard Road to Glory,” Journal of African American History 99 (Fall 2014): 381–84; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 256–57; Murray int. See the various documents in folder 1, box 9, AAP. See especially Arthur Ashe, “First Draft Proposal,” December 8, 1982 (qs); IRAA, 111 (last q).

  31 BCHT, 46 (first q), 212, 499, 503; DG, 84 (second q); NYT, October 20, November 17 (third q), 25 (last two qs), 26, 1982; Dell int. See the clippings and correspondence in folder 4, box 30, AAP. See especially Neville Deed, “France Remains the Champion Nation,” American Lawn Tennis (August 20, 1932): 7–12; Ed Turville to Arthur Ashe, November 29, 1982; Julius Hoyt to Arthur Ashe, December 13, 1982; and Curry Kirkpatrick, “He Cleaned Up on the Dirt,” SI (December 6, 1982): 77–78.

  32 DG, 84 (first q), 85 (third q); IRAA, 132, 137–38; NYT, November 26 (second q), 27–28; Donald Dell to Arthur Ashe, November 24, 1982, in folder 15, box 1, AAP; Rodney Harmon to Arthur Ashe, November 29, 1982, in folder 4, box 2, AAP; McEnroe and Mayer ints.

  CHAPTER 23: BLOOD LINES

  1 DG, 52–53 (first and second qs), 54 (third q); JMA int; Jet (January 3, 1983): 18; Chicago Tribune, December 20, 1982.

  2 AADJ, January 1983.

  3 DG, 170 (first q), 171 (second and third qs), 172 (fourth through ninth qs), 173 (tenth q); Rogers and Ricks ints.

  4 AADJ, January 24–March 1, 1983; DG, 85–86; BCHT, 210, 218, 655; NYT, February 27, March 4, 1983. See the various clippings in folder 5 (“Davis Cup, Argentina, March 1983”), box 30, AAP.

  5 Steve Flink, “Ashe Goes Ivy,” WT (May 1983): 54–55 (qs), copy in folder 3, box 35, AAP; DG, 169–70; JMA, Dell, and Gates ints; Yale Daily News, February 9, 1983; Robin Winks to Arthur Ashe, February 14, 1983, in folder 5, box 2, AAP; AADJ, February 8–11, 1983; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 260–61; Arthur Ashe, “NCAA and Prop 48,” WP, February 13, 1983; Chris Charles Winkler, “NCAA Academic Eligibility Standards for Competition in Division II” (PhD thesis, University of Texas, 2008), 1–13.

  6 McEnroe int; folder 5, box 30, AAP; NYT, February 9, 27, March 4, 5 (qs), 1983; Edward Schumacher, “U.S. Task Slightly Uphill in Davis Cup,” NYT, March 4, 1983; Maymi-Perez int.

  7 DG, 86 (first and fifth qs), 87 (third and fourth qs); NYT, March 4, 7 (second q); McEnroe int. On the Falklands War, see Martin Middlebrook, Argentine Fight for the Falklands (Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword, 2009); and Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins, The Battle for the Falklands (New York: W. W. Norton, 1984).

  8 NYT, March 10, 1983; DG, 180, 253; Donald Dell to Arthur Ashe, April 13, 1983, in folder 15, box 1, AAP; Jane Leavy, “Dell’s Firm’s Breakup: Even Family Members Were Surprised,” WP, May 3, 1983 (first q); David Neil Prescott, “Advantage, Ashe,” Success (July 1983): 43, copy in folder 4, box 35, AAP, and in Arthur Ashe Vertical File, ITHF; Evans,
Open Tennis, 218 (second q); Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 260–61.

  9 AADJ, April 1983; DG, 87; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 248.

  10 AADJ, April 13, 1983; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 256; Wiggins, “Symbols of Possibility,” 383; “Arthur Ashe Signs Contract for Major Book with Howard University Press,” Howard University Press News (April 1983), in folder 1, box 9, AAP.

  11 Wiggins, “Symbols of Possibility,” 383 (qs); Howard University Press News (April 1983): 3 (last q), in folder 1, box 9, AAP; Joseph F. Cullman to Arthur Ashe, May 11, 1983, in folder 13, box 1, AAP.

  12 “Collaboration Agreement, June 1, 1983,” and “Outlines of the various deadlines and tasks . . . March–October 1983,” typescripts in folder 1, box 9, AAP (q); Wiggins, “Symbols of Possibility,” 384–85.

  13 AADJ, April 12–May 30, 1983; NYT, June 10, 26, 1983; Arthur Ashe to Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow Inductees, May 17, 1983; Tucker DiEdwardo (NCAA) to Arthur Ashe, June 27, 1983; and Vic Seixas to Arthur Ashe, June 27, 1983, all in folder 5, box 2, AAP; Arthur Ashe, “Peete: Green Jackets, Black Ironies at Masters,” WP (May 1, 1983). Ashe was among the first sixteen inducted into the new ITA Men’s Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame. J. D. Morgan, Dennis Ralston, Rafael Osuna, and Alex Olmedo were also inducted in 1983. See www.itatennis.com/AboutITA/HOF/Mens.htm; and brochure for the ITA Men’s Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame’s second annual Enshrinement Banquet, May 16, 1984, copy in folder 8, box 32, AAP.

  14 NYT, June 6, 18, 22 (qs), 23 (last q), 1983; Dick Hobson to Arthur Ashe, June 5, 1983 (mailgram), in folder 5, box 2, AAP.

  15 NYT, June 18 (first q), 21–22 (third q), 27–28 (fourth q), 1983; DG, 87 (second q); Murray int; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 248.

  16 DG, 87 (qs). On the origins and early years of the AIDS epidemic, see Randy Shilts, And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic (New York: St. Martin’s, 2007) (20th Anniversary Edition), 3–484; Jonathan Engel, The Epidemic: A Global History of AIDS (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Press, 2006), Prologue and Chapters 1–6; Victoria A. Harden, AIDS at 30: A History (Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2012); Edward Hooper, The River: A Journey to the Source of HIV and AIDS (Boston: Little, Brown, 1999); and Jacques Pepin, The Origins of AIDS (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011). See also www.factlv.org/timeline.htm for “A Brief Timeline of AIDS”; and “History of HIV and AIDS Overview,” at www.avert.org.

  17 NYT, June 21, 1983; DG, 87 (qs); JMA and Dell ints; AADJ, July 1983; Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 65–66, 79–80.

  18 National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, 46th annual conference program, July 12, 1983 (q), copy in folder 8, box 32, AAP; JMA int; DG, 167, 281–92. On the Jones Institute and the beginnings of in vitro fertilization in the United States, see Dr. Howard W. Jones Jr. and Dr. Roger G. Gosden, In Vitro Fertilization Comes to America: Memoir of a Medical Breakthrough (James City County, VA: Jamestowne Bookworks, 2014). Dr. Howard W. Jones Jr. died in 2015 at the age of 104. His wife, Georgeanna, died in 2005 at the age of ninety-three.

  19 Donald Dell to Arthur Ashe, June 27, 1983 (first q); and Donald Dell to Arthur Ashe, May 12, 1983 (second q), both in folder 15, box 1, AAP; David Falk to Arthur Ashe, June 2, 1983, in folder 5, box 2, AAP; Dell and Harmon ints.

  20 Hall, Arthur Ashe, 256 (first q); Bob Lipper, “The Grace and Grit of Arthur Ashe,” RTD, May 2, 989; Robert M. Thomas Jr., “Ashe Searches Past,” NYT, June 27, 1983 (qs), copy in folder 3, box 35, AAP; Wiggins, “Symbols of Possibility,” 385; miscellaneous documents in folders 1 and 2, box 9, AAP.

  21 Arthur Ashe, “Tennis Everyone?,” Hemispheres inflight magazine (July 1983): 101, 103; and Leslie Allen to Arthur Ashe, August 1, 1983 (qs), both in folder 5, box 2, AAP; Allen int.

  22 Wiggins, “Symbols of Possibility,” 384–85; “Outline of Deadlines and Tasks,” in folder 1, box 9, AAP. See Ocania Chalk, Pioneers of Black Sport: The Early Days of Black Professional Athletes in Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, and Football (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1975); and Chalk, Black College Sport (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1976).

  23 Barry Lorge, “The Sudden Rise of Noah’s Arc,” Sport (September 1983): 54–58 (first and second qs), 59–66; Ray Kennedy, “There’s Bitter with the Sweet,” SI (August 15, 1983): 54–65 (third q); Curry Kirkpatrick, “The French to a Frenchman,” SI (June 13, 1983): 25–29; Evans, Open Tennis, 208.

  24 Kennedy, “There’s Bitter with the Sweet,” 60 (first q); Lorge, “The Sudden Rise of Noah’s Arc,” 60 (second and third qs); NYT, August 29–September 10, 1983; BCHT, 214–17, 463, 619–20; Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 247.

  25 Bud Collins, “For All Players Great and Small,” WT (1983): 89 (first q), 91–92, and “Pressed Between the Pages,” WT (1983): 74–76, both in folder 3, box 35, AAP; NYT, September 6 (second q), 12, 1983; David A. Superdock to Arthur Ashe, November 7, 1983, in folder 5, box 2, AAP; BCHT, 213, 218, 463, 601–2; Prescott, “Advantage, Ashe,” 43; Ron Cobb, “When It Comes to Davis Cup, Jimbo No Patriot,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 7, 1983, in folder 5, box 30, AAP; McEnroe int; Connors, The Outsider, 140, 164, 176–79, 226, 241–43, 246–47, 259–60, 275–81.

  26 Peter Alfano, “What Direction Is Tennis Going?,” NYT, August 29, 1983 (q).

  27 NYT, September 10 (second q), 11–12, 15 (first and third qs), 1983; Lexie Verdon, “Boycotting South Africa,” WP, September 13, 1983; Clarke Taylor, “Entertainers, Athletes Join to End Apartheid,” LAT, September 15, 1983; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 227, 252–54 (fourth q), 255; Simon Anekwe, “Cultural Boycott of So. Africa Launched on Both Coasts,” New York Amsterdam News, October 8, 1983; “Tennis Keeps Ashe on the Run,” USA Today, November 7, 1983, copy in Arthur Ashe Vertical File, ITHF; Robinson int. See also the materials in folder 5, box 27, AAP. On the Sullivan Principles, see Leon Howard Sullivan, Moving Mountains: The Principles and Purposes of Leon Sullivan (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1998).

  28 Wiggins, “Symbols of Possibility,” 385–87 (qs); John Hope Franklin to Arthur Ashe, September 19, 1983; Henry Louis Gates to Arthur Ashe, October 19, 1983; V. P. Franklin to Arthur Ashe, September 7, 1983; Sandra Jamison to Charles Harris, April 26, 1984; Benjamin Quarles to Sandra Jamison, May 31, 1984 (qs), all in folder 1, box 9, AAP. On Quarles, see August Meier, “Benjamin Quarles and the Historiography of Black America,” Civil War History 26 (June 1980): 101–16.

  29 See the clippings in “Davis Cup, Ireland, October 1983,” in folder 6, box 30, AAP. See especially “Relax, John, You’re at Your Granny’s,” Sunday Press, October 2, 1983 (first q); “The Style of a Champion,” Sunday Independent, October 2, 1983; “Peter Bodo Reports from Ireland: McEnroe’s Bizarre Davis Cup Homecoming,” Tennis (December 1983): 116, 118, 121, 122; and Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 73. DG, 88–89 (second q); NYT, October 1–2, 1983; McEnroe int.

  30 Sandra Jamison to Clifford Johnson, January 9, 1984; Sandra Jamison to Emily Dyer, May 29, 1984, both in folder 1, box 9, AAP; Evans, Open Tennis, 241–45; “Tennis Keeps Ashe on the Run,” USA Today, November 7, 1983, copy in Arthur Ashe Vertical File, ITHF; Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 148–49; folders 1 and 2, Tennis ITF folders for 1985 and 1986–1988, folder on Tennis/ITF Executive Bureau 1985–1988, all in ITF Files, OSC; IOC Executive Board Minutes, May 28–30, 1984, May 31–June 3, June 6, 1985, in Executive Board Files, OSC.

  31 Bob Bednar to Arthur Ashe, September 29, 1983, in folder 5, box 2, AAP; Stan Smith and JMA ints; AADJ, October 6–8, 1983; Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 113–14.

  32 AADJ, October 13–20, November 1, 1983; Beck and Abram ints; “Tennis Keeps Ashe on the Run.”

  33 Schragis int; AADJ, November–December 1983; Prescott, “Advantage, Ashe,” 43 (qs). On the Hunger Project, see www.thp.org.

  CHAPTER 24: HARD ROAD TO GLORY

  1 DG, 194 (q).

  2 Ibid., 89 (qs), 90; Steve Flink, “Rumble Looms in Romania: It’s Now Connors and Mac in U.S. Davis Cup Attack,” Tennis USA (February 1984): 1, 4, copy in folder 7, box 30, AAP; McEnroe and Dell ints.

  3 On the ties in Bucharest (February 1984), Atlanta (July 1984), and Portland, Oregon
(September 1984), see folders 7–9, box 30, AAP. DG, 90 (q); McEnroe int; NYT, July 14, September 28–30, 1984; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 249; and Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 23–24.

  4 DG, 92 (qs), 93–94 (second q); BCHT, 222; see the clippings, letters, and programs related to the Goteborg tie in folder 10, box 30, AAP; McEnroe int; Connors, The Outsider, 283–87.

  5 DG, 92 (first q), 93 (second through fifth qs); BCHT, 222; McEnroe int; Richard Evans, “Young Swedes Pound U.S.,” Tennis Week (December 27, 1984): 4–5, 7; Neil Amdur, “A Swede Success,” WT (December 1983): 16, 18, copies in folder 10, box 30, AAP; NYT, December 17–19, 1984; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 249–50; Connors, The Outsider, 286–87.

  6 DG, 93 (first q), 94 (second and third qs), 95 (fourth through sixth qs), 96 (seventh q); Harry A. Merlo to Gordon Jorgensen, December 21, 1984, in folder 16, box 30, AAP; McEnroe int; NYT, January 11, 15, 1985; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 250; Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 264–67; Evans, The Davis Cup, 217–18; Evans, McEnroe: Taming the Talent, 141–62.

  7 Dave Anderson, “Arthur Ashe’s New Match,” NYT, May 9, 1985. See the correspondence and clippings in folder 16, box 30, AAP. See especially Harry A. Merlo to Arthur Ashe, February 7, 1985; Harry A. Merlo to John McEnroe, February 6, 1985; Harry A. Merlo to Jimmy Connors, February 6, 1985; the numerous pro–Conduct Code letters received by Merlo; the USTA January 15, 1985, press release regarding the Code; William E. Simon, “America’s Punks,” National Review (March 22, 1985): 20; Bud Collins, “It’s Time to Change, Baby,” Boston Globe, January 25, 1985; Ann Liquori, “Raging Genius,” Inside Sports (March 1985): 25–31; Curry Kirkpatrick, “What’s Love Got to Do . . .” SI (1985): 42–43; and Peter Bodo, “Why the U.S. Davis Cup Team Is in Crisis,” Tennis (August 1985): 70–76.

  8 See folder 11, box 30, AAP, especially Mark McEnroe, “Rookies Lead U.S. to Davis Cup Victory,” Tennis USA (April 1985): 1; and “New U.S. Team Performs for Captain Ashe,” International Tennis Weekly (March 22, 1985). BCHT, 208, 212–13, 217, 219, 225–26, 228, 231.