Althea Gibson, 1927 - 2003: Black tennis champion overcame odds

Althea Gibson, who rose from playing paddle tennis on Harlem sidewalks to become the first black woman to win Wimbledon, died yesterday. She was 76.

Ms. Gibson, who had suffered two cerebral aneurysms and a stroke in recent years, died of respiratory failure at a hospital in East Orange, N.J., said Fran Gray, a longtime friend who co-founded the Althea Gibson Foundation, which helps urban youths learn to play tennis and golf.

"Her contribution to the civil-rights movement was done with her tennis racket," Gray said.

Ms. Gibson developed a devastating serve and merciless forehand that propelled her to the top ranks of tennis in the 1950s. She was the first black woman to compete in what became the U.S. Open and the first black to play at Wimbledon.

Ms. Gibson, also the first black player on the Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour, helped pave the way for later stars such as Arthur Ashe, Venus and Serena Williams and Tiger Woods.

"I am grateful to Althea Gibson for having the strength and courage to break through the racial barriers in tennis," Venus Williams said yesterday. "Her accomplishments set the stage for my success, and through players like myself, Serena and many others to come, her legacy will live on."

Martina Navratilova, who won her 172nd career doubles title yesterday in Leipzig, Germany, called Ms. Gibson "a great champion and great person."

"Her life was very difficult, but she broke down a lot of barriers and doors and made it easier for a lot of us," Navratilova said.

The 5-foot-11 Ms. Gibson dominated women's tennis from 1956-58, winning 11 Grand Slam titles: five in singles, five in doubles, one in mixed doubles.

"Who could have imagined? Who could have thought?" Ms. Gibson said in 1988 as she presented her Wimbledon trophies to the Smithsonian Institution. "Here stands before you a Negro woman, raised in Harlem, who went on to become a tennis player ... in fact, the first black woman champion of this world."

After winning Wimbledon and the U.S. National Singles Championships in the 1950s, Ms. Gibson was honored with ticker-tape parades and elaborate entries into halls of fame. Then, as quickly as she had risen, she left professional tennis because it brought her little financial security. She blamed racism on her inability to reap endorsement dollars.

Ms. Gibson's athletic career descended gradually, making her one of the bittersweet figures of 20th-century sports.

She toured with the Harlem Globetrotters, playing exhibition matches. She recorded an album, "Althea Gibson Sings," and appeared as a maid in the John Ford western "The Horse Soldiers" (1959). She held state and local athletic jobs in New Jersey but was laid off from the governor's council on physical fitness in 1992 after budget cuts.

She was known as a proud woman who for years declined to take money from friends who tried to help when she was living on Medicare and Social Security payments. She isolated herself further as her health declined.

Ms. Gibson was born Aug. 25, 1927, in Silver, S.C., the eldest of five children. A self-described "born athlete," she picked up tennis while growing up in New York, slapping rubber balls off a brick wall. Ms. Gibson won her first tournament at 15, becoming the New York State black girls' champion, and boxer Sugar Ray Robinson helped pay traveling expenses.

She attended Florida A&M on a tennis and basketball scholarship and then began her ascent in the American Tennis Association, founded in 1916 for black players.

Disappointed by her early showings at major tournaments, Ms. Gibson thought about quitting tennis and entering the Army in 1955, but her coach talked her out of it.

A year later, she blossomed during a nine-month tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department, winning 14 of 17 tournaments and reaching the finals of the other three. That began her run of greatness.

In and out of competition, she was a role model for many.

Billie Jean King, a Grand Slam champion who helped found the Women's Tennis Association, was 13 when she first saw Ms. Gibson play.

"It was truly an inspiration for me to watch her overcome adversity," King said yesterday. "Her road to success was a challenging one, but I never saw her back down. Althea did a lot for people in tennis, but she did even more for people in general."

Her marriages to New Jersey businessman William Darben and her former coach, Sidney Llewellyn, ended in divorce. She had no children.