Black Champions; Interview with Althea Gibson

fb champions milestones gibson summer also and carol h sound that you have well my style of play a billy was aggressive dynamic and mean the players that played against there were there were the same actually you know because i came on the same as as an upstart in those years and of course in those years i was struggling to become well known as the first black player

to compete against world class champions such as prof levy a vacation to win the area forest hills dylan in the us nationals that they're all very tough players particularly on the grass at this that they had in those years at forest hills for seven years well is the l tennis that's the other or at that time my a paris was living at a hundred points third street between alexa seventh avenue and that was happened to be one of the play's streets and they had old types of games up and down the street basketball marble lonely and paddle tennis and that the court was right and fellow my parents do but that building i think the and that this was one of thirty five was filled with their history and

one summer morning i came down and then a friend of mine we'd hung out together played together roam the streets together we solved too bad for the global health and so i said to i said what's that supporters say with two that's impossible as economists say weapons so we start hitting back and forth then from that moment on we were the block out of tennis court occupiers we would get up and was still a record out we were the first years on we stayed on every challenge in about a lot to play us nobody would so we will behave as hard as violent and tens of thousands for her i believe i was in those years i was so very competitive

in any of the sports that they have in that block the wind down to shoot marbles on the mammals as well well what the flaw they and then i went on a scholarship after graduating from i will listen and those are high school in wilmington north carolina where i live with a doctor and as a lead in this family they were my boss took me into their homes and provided me the opportunity to finish my high school education i graduated forty nine and immediately got a scholarship money and then upon arriving at florida of course they wanted me on the border in intensity and the tennis courts happen to be behind these signs whole well what the classes

to take science lab work and then i started playing santa tracker sin and as a matter fact i think more than a one off conference check to shift every year that i was on the team all too well playing tennis in the play straight i think to show on this but that we have been those in those years a tennis club called the cosmopolitan tennis club that was the black they were the black elite tennis club in those years and i was introduced to that club i placed a director

of the place to gain by lee walker who happens to be a bandleader plays tenor sax and he added this week to the club and upon introducing me a tennis pro they are fred johnson who happened to be one on the last one almond going to war and he took me on to teach me how to play tennis and he taught me the basics of the footwork of the service motion bad from nineteen forty six to fifty eight now and i'm psyched up to forty six i won the at a girl singers championship at the co op tins through the village of fred johnson of time and then i went on from there i said macbeth

be the champion of that club of the cosmopolitans club was named nina their win and she was caucasian and i think the year with the new york state captured they help that i won the very first time that i've played any trauma of of our long tennis and i defeated the champion that they apply became the champion and so one the girl singles for two years and i've had some were compared those who were defeated leading and welles playing girls that this year but that did that i was accosted well i think that sixty minutes because

that i don't i think that my first loss and the girl singers those years was to add that was that now natalie davis yes nana davis i think she beat me maybe even next year with sheila meet me once well orlando that speaks yes there were two there were

a kid their work to matter that that it is a very vivid in my mind today the first one was sat on court number one far east hills i'd be the first time i played at forest hills was against big one defending champion at the time louise rough i was beating her i think it was said a piece and the third set out was leading by two games so that's it for four games i'm not sue signaled that anyway i was leaving and all of a sudden the clouds opened up the sky that dog as if ms adan i want me to win this match and the rains came home and now know

it and came immediately and straw the evil on that corner of the stadium and tumble down and they had to postpone the match and i had to sleep on that that overnight and next day i came out i don't have nothing i lost all staying and he beat me it's been solitaire online sound seventeen another vivid match that that aisle that yellow forget without defending champion in nineteen fifty eight with a final match against darlene hart who was three or four time doubles champion she won the first set to my

surprise because what she was doing i had not realized was she was doing i was serving as she was covering my so walt coming in and getting it right on the ride they're all beating me to the net and i was considered a netflix so she wonders for a set doing just that the second set i scrambled but that i had that when the second said it was going to fence successfully so after the break we took a break episode a piece and they came back out as she's done doing the same thing over again beat me to the neck so much coach at times singing well i was sitting in the marquis then there i was totally a confused as a nanny and a defending champion about to lose and said no i don't want this to happen so i looked over at the coaches glance and he you know i guess as a damaging coach in the player they gave me one single and i proceeded to obey their signal

as thought it fitting a shot on barley and that surprised her and that shot was the law when she came into the net every time she came in a larger way i threw a love bug was so perfect that hit the chalk on the baseline so tammie she had they want internet that's a debate i retrieve that next time she came to nat out through open on the one the job again but that it came in i hit and not a perfect law and it hit the child lie and that was the end of the alley a whole lot within the facility oh yes yes yes indeed i think it was a mass

before dolly could be just that could've been the semi final match the idea there was against a player who was at the duchess other words she hit two forehands only had no backing of a word she would hit for hand and take the racket switch in the manageable it others had no backing so that confuse me but the only way i've beat beverly was my soul was the key to that match because in those days and still it was perceived to have the best serve in women's tennis the serve up on her was called american twist which set the ball over to her side took her off the court because the ball was set so severe that it would bells and hop high as she had just don't get it back and i attacked the net and invariably she would get back

down that line the right fella cornell ago and barley away from the best omb that was the only time i'll be the same beat me as though the player tom and what they should be me four times with that these national level that was the first thing that's very strange different ugly people's mobility i'm intrigued me as a matter fact i considered it a great education to be able to travel around the world as i did being the first black female tennis champion of the world to

have this privilege and i enjoyed it tremendously i learned a lot i saw a lot and i played a heck of a lot of tennis all the world i think it's always great for someone to be able to travel specially representing their country in a sporting event to tell a difference on countries to see how other people the world over i enjoyed it very much as well and my early years of course i was impressed with the visiting germany england france india southeast asia pakistan calcutta as an artifact in fifty six i was wrong base goodwill state department or for worse and ridges and was a captain bob perry was another male player cal federals was

a female player and myself and we played in every city just about in southeast asia now won every tournament in southeast asia everyone i played in calcutta to rangoon burma and and that was quite a thrill i guess cycle while stores to good food you know what i guess a being american farmers you gonna get sick now and then tablet was quite an experience quite an experience the game of tennis that was most important to me oh definitely m as well as mayor

competing because i was always a better deal but been a comparable hours want to win so that was mine the main thing it's to play to win the best way i knew how amusing my god given skills and of course the year of the things i learned through my coach sydney was that right now if my husband he's got a mind to tennessee you would not believe that fellow can teach everybody how to become a champion if they stay with an aunt hessel idea that they articulate advocate us they with the mainland and practice what i learned use what i learned that he taught me as a matter fact i think he told me my interests and no idea what that was about it i don't i don't remember the year but

they're one of the a friend named billy davis this was the early years when i was so winning at a tall woman said he tried to impose upon me say that champion to get a coach go they always call my chair when i became a chant that was that was my main chance to tap into it it you need a coach and i know someone who can help you gain tremendously and as it was that you say love cindy lustig who was certainly the fifth but that eventually i did get to meet with a day and there was thought it working out and believe you me he worked my butt off the tennis courts that on seventh avenue where he teaches now we would have tried to sessions every day five days a week eight hours a

day practicing serve vallejos and the train practice billy davis the same one introduced me the city would come out and play we would play as if we were playing a match while i was man threw him and said my game became so powerful that i guess to them and to mate as that are going to meet this person was that we would have such a great sessions rights and all day long and that's how i became white good to those practice sessions and do believe they was coming and working out with me every day that by the minute alice a one two hours a day eight hours on a telescope and he's taken a break to have a snack and to relax and continue i would get on i would have the city would have maybe a

box of old to three hundred miles on a service line and i was so old to three hundred of those balls in one spot until i was so accurate that i could close my eyes a football way i wanted to and that's how that's how he taught me how to play tennis ernie banks because be champions productions thyroid general terms about it second it modern and a lot of a lot in game when i'm a whole list of the caliphate the nineties but

well i'm well i'm quite impressed in that from my time a plane was it i'm quite impressed with what i see today in the modern tennis players in that they're young are becoming are young and they look at one thing and i'm not impressed with however is that they don't seem to be they're hitting with dr gleick i would be in my day and of the players to my tiny seem to be anymore top spin as if they want to make the ball hop a little more it'll seem to have

the that all went dry them all of them telling across the net ok and i'm also pressed of course with them politically is coming out and they're making money and my date was set for peanuts in four cups of silverware and that was the day both benefit that's low interest rate that add to that wish i was that was so if they included then they become money that they make in to be a champion you have to have the intensity to be a champion you have to have the willingness and a desire to get out there and swept

train and diligence what we want to win some about black young ladies i've noticed that they don't seem to have the intensity the drive to want to weigh and are looking at a map that the us opened up this recently and out of those one a lot like la his plane to me she had been natural on but then i noticed something there there was no driving like this could all of a sudden without intending on to force that drive an untested that it's a quiet particularly for her to win that to connect and this is what i am and i'm not too impressed with that with alibaba players don't seem to have the willingness to want to win i

don't want anything i'm sure that there was prejudice but there i suppose i'd know that because i was so intense unlike tennis or playing the game of tennis about it we think about it and so it didn't bother me and then maybe one thing that the men that might have mice that have saved me was that in those years i was antisocial i think here give a hoot about going to parties and cocktail of players and a hanging out with that there be other terrorist groups and other tennis players act of that is my mat i went home relax at most up and discussing the coach what had to be done the next day and that was it so it didn't bother me

so i just so i just ignored it