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African American sports legends
True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.
- Arthur Ashe
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Sports would be where we as African Americans got our big introduction on the national stage and world stage.
Yes, music and entertainment were the first talents displayed, but in sports is where our real presence was recognized. Jackie Robinson was our first black Major League Baseball player in 1947 by the then Brooklyn Dodgers. Then along came Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Willie Mays, and Sammy Sosa.
In the NBA, it was Earl Lloyd, on October 31, 1950, Lloyd took the court for the Washington Capitals. He paved the way for Jordan, Jabbar, Russell, Kobe, Lebron, Magic, and all the greats we’ve seen since then, and the ones still to come like Curry, Durant, & Irving. In the NFL, Kenny Washington was the first black to play in the league, 11 years after the league started. He paved the way for such greats as Jim Brown, Walter Peyton, Jerry Rice, Warren Moon, Randall Cunningham, and Doug Williams. And they have opened the doors to the amazing African American players that we watch today. But it was Fritz Pollard and Bobby Marshall in 1921 who first broke the NFL color barrier.
The first black professional golfer was Charlie Sifford in 1946 also, he opened the door for who some consider the greatest golfer of all time Tiger Woods, who is still playing today. Sifford and Teddy Rhodes integrated golf in 1946 and 1948, but it was Tiger Woods who set the grass on fire.
Of these major American sports, we can’t leave out Tennis. Here we have two trailblazers, Robert Bob Ryland, and Althea Gibson, both in the 1940s. But the world will remember Arthur Ashe on the men’s side and Venus and Serena Williams on the ladies side. History is what we do.
Please read up on all these wonderful change agents who helped to tear down barriers to integrate American society. Track and Field is just too huge a sport to even start to cover with Hussein Bolt and Flo Jo. Boxing with Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, and George Foreman. I Hope you as a reader can now see the connection sports has had to our inclusion here and around the world?
By: Julius Hall
