Everytime you looked up during the Championships Wimbledon you saw Arthur Ashe holding up his Wimbledon Trophy. This was a good thing. What you didn't see was any tribute to Althea Gibson on the 50th Anniversary of her Wimbledon win.
Ms Gibson was as big a sports pioneer as Jackie Robinson or any of the other "first ever of their race" in sports yet you hear very little about her.
Craig, in his Tuesday Tirade, addresses this by printing an article by Jemelle Hill from ESPN Insider, a subscription only service of ESPN.
Althea Gibson
Born: 25-Aug-1927
Birthplace: Silver, SC
Died: 28-Sep-2003
Location of death: East Orange General Hospital, East Orange, NJ
Cause of death: Respiratory failure
Remains: Buried, Rosedale Cemetery, Orange, NJ
Althea Gibson-A Tribute
Read, and ponder.
4 comments:
Hi Savannah
I just posted this over at Craig's blog, but thought I would share it with your readers as well. Just goes to show how oblivious some players are to the history that they have inherited. For the record, I have been posting questions to SI.com for the past 7 years, this is the first time my question has been posted. Man am I happy because it was posted at the most opportune of times.
Jon, I am sure that you have been bombarded with a lot of questions about this, and if not, then it must be an oversight on every tennis analyst's part, but what do you think of the fact that the AELTC neglected to even mention or honour Althea Gibson on the 50th Anniversary of her historic win at Wimbledon?
-- Karen Williams, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
• It wasn't just the stuffed shirts at the club and the boors in the media. Note this give-and-take from after the women's final:
Q. As the tournament progressed and you advanced through the draw, did you give much thought to the 50th anniversary of Althea Gibson?
Venus Williams: No, I actually did not realize that. So, no, I didn't.
Shame, I suppose, on all of us.
Karen I saw this response by Venus and just shook my head. I know we can't expect players to always know the right thing to say but you'd think that Althea Gibson-Wimbledon-My win would have set off something in Venus mind to at least act like she knew instead of coming off as unconcerned.
Obviously my girl has never heard of the word "pretend". say something in recognition of someone who broke the colour barrier in your sport. If there is one thing that I really do not like about Serena and/or Venus is their oblivousness to the things around them. Hurricane Katrina the response from Venus, whilst understandable under the circumstances, but to appear totally oblivious to what is happening around you come on now. And then this. You would have thought someone would have said something to her. Grr
Agreed.
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