CeeJay's | Black History Month Celebration In Sports

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CeeJay's | Black History Month Celebration In Sports.

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Jesse Owens​

Jesse Owens (born September 12, 1913, Oakville, Alabama, U.S.—died March 31, 1980, Phoenix, Arizona) American track and field athlete who set a world record in the running broad jump (also called long jump) that stood for 25 years and who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. His four Olympic victories were a blow to Adolf Hitler’s intention to use the Games to demonstrate Aryan superiority. As a student in a Cleveland High School, Owens won three events at the 1933 National Interscholastic Championships in Chicago. In one day, May 25, 1935, while competing for Ohio State University (Columbus) in a Western (later Big Ten) Conference track-and-field meet at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), Owens equaled the world record for the 100-yard dash (9.4 sec) and broke the world records for the 220-yard dash (20.3 sec), the 220-yard low hurdles (22.6 sec), and the long jump (8.13 metres [26.67 feet]).

Owens’s performance at the 1936 Berlin Olympics has become legend, both for his brilliant gold-medal efforts in the 100-metre run (10.3 sec, an Olympic record), the 200-metre run (20.7 sec, a world record), the long jump (8.06 metres [26.4 feet]), and the 4 × 100-metre relay (39.8 sec) and for events away from the track. One popular tale that arose from Owens’s victories was that of the “snub,” the notion that Hitler refused to shake hands with Owens because he was an African American. Hitler had decided to no longer publicly congratulate any of the athletes. The previous day the International Olympic Committee president, angry that Hitler had publicly congratulated only a few German and Finnish winners before leaving the stadium after the German competitors were eliminated from the day’s final event, insisted that the German chancellor congratulate all or none of the victors. Unaware of the situation, American papers reported the “snub,” and the myth grew over the years.

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Althea Gibson | American tennis player​

Althea Gibson, (born August 25, 1927, Silver, South Carolina, U.S.—died September 28, 2003, East Orange, New Jersey), American tennis player who dominated women’s competition in the late 1950s. She was the first Black player to win the French (1956), Wimbledon (1957–58), and U.S. Open (1957–58) singles championship. In 1942 she won her first tournament, which was sponsored by the American Tennis Association (ATA), an organization founded by African American players. In 1947 she captured the ATA’s women’s singles championship, which she would hold for 10 consecutive years. In 1950 became the first Black tennis player to enter the national grass-court championship tournament at Forest Hills in Queens, New York. The next year she entered the Wimbledon tournament, again as the first Black player ever invited. The tall and lean Gibson soon became noted for her dominating serves and powerful play. Gibson was voted Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press, becoming the first African American to receive the honour; she also won the award the following year.

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DOUG WILLIAMS​

Football executive, coach, and player Doug Williams was born on August 9, 1955 in Zachary, Louisiana. Upon graduating in 1973, he was recruited by Grambling State University in Grambling, Louisiana, where he was mentored by legendary college football coach Eddie Robinson. Williams received his B.S. degree in health and physical education from Grambling State University in 1977. In 1978, Williams was selected 17th overall in the NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, becoming the first African American quarterback to be picked in the first round. During his five years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he led the team to the playoffs three times. Williams replaced Schroeder as the starting quarterback. He then led the team to Super Bowl XXII, in which the Washington Redskins defeated the Denver Broncos 42-10. Williams, the first African American starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl, was named MVP with 340 passing yards and 18 of 29 passes completed. In recognition of his accomplishments as a football player, Williams was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2001 and into the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Ring of Honor and the Washington Redskins Ring of Fame in 2015.

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Serena Williams​

Serena Williams (born September 26, 1981, Saginaw, Michigan, U.S.) American Tennis player who revolutionized women’s tennis with her powerful style of play and who won more Grand Slam singles titles (23) than any other woman or man during the open era. Williams grew up in Compton, California. Williams turned professional in 1995, one year after her older sister. Possessing powerful serves and ground strokes and superb athleticism, they soon attracted much attention. Many predicted that Venus would be the first Williams sister to win a Grand Slam singles title, but it was Serena who accomplished the feat, winning the 1999 U.S. Open. At that tournament the sisters won the doubles event, and, over the course of their careers, the two teamed up for 14 Grand Slam doubles titles. After several years of inconsistent play, Serena Williams asserted herself in 2002 and won the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open, defeating Venus Williams in the finals of each tournament. Williams again won Wimbledon in 2016, giving her 22 career Grand Slam singles titles, which tied her with Graf for the most Slams in the open era for both women and men. Williams broke Graf’s record at the 2017 Australian Open, where she defeated her sister in the final.

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Muhammad Ali

Muhammed Ali (Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr) was an American professional boxer and social activist. Ali was the first fighter to win the world heavyweight championship on three separate occasions; he successfully defended this title 19 times. On March 6, 1964, he took the name Muhammad Ali, which was given to him by his spiritual mentor, Elijah Muhammad.

Ali was stripped of his championship and precluded from fighting by every state athletic commission in the United States for three and a half years. In addition, he was criminally indicted and, on June 20, 1967, convicted of refusing induction into the U.S. armed forces and sentenced to five years in prison. Although he remained free on bail, four years passed before his conviction was unanimously overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court on a narrow procedural ground.

 

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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor)

Abdul-Jabbar is an American collegiate and professional basketball player who, as a 7-foot 2-inch- (2.18-metre-) tall centre, dominated the game throughout the 1970s and early ’80s. Alcindor took the Arabic name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1971. In 1975 he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, who won the NBA championship in 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, and 1988. In 1984 he surpassed Wilt Chamberlain’s career scoring total of 31,419 points.

His offensive skill was so developed coming out of high school that the collegiate basketball rules committee, fearing he would be able to score at will, made dunking illegal prior to his enrollment at the Univirsity of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in 1965. Despite the new rule, he set a UCLA scoring record with 56 points in his first game.

 

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Michael Jordan | American basketball player​

Jordan grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina, and entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1981. As a freshman, he made the winning basket against Georgetown in the 1982 national championship game. Jordan was named College Player of the Year in both his sophomore and junior years, leaving North Carolina after his junior year. He led the U.S. basketball team to Olympic gold medals in 194 in Los Angeles and in 1992 in Barcelona, Spain. He led the Chicago Bulls to six National Basketball Association (NBA) championships (1991–93, 1996–98).

In 1984 Jordan was drafted by the Chicago Bulls. In his first season (1984–85) as a professional, he led the league in scoring and was named Rookie of the Year; after missing most of the following season with a broken foot, he returned to lead the NBA in scoring for seven consecutive seasons, averaging about 33 points per game.

In 2006 Jordan became minority owner and general manager of the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats (now known as the Charlotte Hornets). He bought a controlling interest in the team in 2010 and became the first former NBA player to become a majority owner of one of the league’s franchises. In 1996 the NBA named him one of the 50 greatest players of all time, and in 2009 he was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He was awarded the Presidenial Medal of Freedom in 2016.

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Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson (born January 31, 1919, Cairo, Georgia, U.S.—died October 24, 1972, Stamford, Connecticut) was the first BLACK baaseball player to play in the American major leagues during the 20th century. On April 15, 1947, Robinson broke the decades-old “color line” of Major League Baseball (MLB) when he appeared on the field for the National League Brooklyn Dodgers. He played as an infielder and outfielder for the Dodgers from 1947 through 1956.


Related Links
Jackie Robinson statue cleats heading to Negro leagues Baseball Museum
By: CeeJay - February 24, 2024

 

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EDDIE ROBINSON

Eddie Robinson coached Grambling State University 55 years. He won 408 games, lost 165, and tied 15. The 408 games won set a record for a college football coach. Among other achievements were these: 17 championships in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, 9 Black College National Championships, a streak of 27 consecutive winning seasons 1960-86. He had more than 80 players who joined teams in the National & American Football Leagues. Among the most famous were Willie Davis, Charlie Joiner, Buck Buchanan, Willie Brown, Tank Younger, Doug Williams, and Ernie Ladd.

A significant date in his career was Sept. 28, 1985. The Grambling Tigers beat Oregon State 23-6 for his 323d victory, tying Bear Bryant for the all-time coaching record. Then came Oct. 5, 1985. The Tigers beat Praire View 27-7. This was No. 324, putting him on top. Robinson received more awards than any other coach in history. The National Football Foundation gave him its award for Contribution to Amateur Football in 1992 and named him to College Football Hall of Fame in 1997. A Robinson Award for player of the year in black college football started in 1994.

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Arthur Ashe | American tennis player​

Ashe began to play tennis at the age of seven in a neighbourhood park. He was coached by Walter Johnson of Lynchburgh, Virginia, who had coached tennis champion Althea Gibson. Ashe moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he was coached by Richard Hudlin, before he entered the University of California at Los Angeles on a tennis scholarship. In 1963 Ashe won the U.S. hard-court singles championship; in 1965 he took the intercollegiate singles and doubles titles; and in 1967 he won the U.S. clay-court singles championship. In 1968 he captured the U.S. (amateur) singles and open singles championships. He played on the U.S. Davis Cup team (1963–70, 1975, 1977–78) and helped the U.S. team to win the Davis Cup challenge (final) round in 1968, 1969, and 1970. In the latter year he became a professional.

His criticism of South African apartheid racial policy led to denial of permission to play in that country’s open tournament, and, as a consequence, on March 23, 1970, South Africa was excluded from Davis Cup competition. In 1975, when he won the Wimbledon singles and the World Championship singles, he was ranked first in world tennis. After retiring from play in 1980, he became captain of the U.S. Davis Cup team, a position he held from 1981 to 1985.

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Bill Russell | American basketball player​

Bill Russell (born February 12, 1934, Monroe, Louisiana, U.S.—died July 31, 2022) American basketball player who was the first outstanding defensive centre in the history of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and one of the sport’s greatest icons. He won 11 NBA titles in the 13 seasons that he played with the Boston Celtics, and he became the first African American coach of a modern major professional sports team in the United States when he was named the player-coach of the Celtics in 1966.

In college, the 6-foot 9-inch (2.06-metre) Russell blossomed, providing a defensive presence that helped lead USF to National Collegiate Athlectic Association (NCAA) championships in 1955 and 1956. In addition, he was a high-level sprinter and high jumper on USF’s track and field team (Wilt Chamberlain, his future archrival, also excelled at track and field up until his pro basketball career). In 1956 Red Auerbach —the Celtics’ head coach and general manager—targeted Russell in the NBA draft, seeing the solution to his team’s shortcomings.

Russell, outspoken and relentlessly intelligent when it came to matters of race, was not just the NBA’s first Black superstar; as the Celtics quickly came to dominate the NBA, he also became an activist on par with Muhammed Ali. Russell would not stand for racism in sports, which was ironic, given Bosron's historical notoriety in that department. During his career, Russell supported the American civil rights movement, spoke out against the Vietnam War, and did much that, had it come from any lesser athlete, would have been cause for immediate controversy

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Related Link​

NBA Legend and Boston Celtics Great Bill Russell Dead at 88
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By:

CeeJay | July 31, 2022​