11-TIME GRAND SLAM CHAMPION BROKE BARRIERS AS FIRST BLACK TO WIN A MAJOR TITLE
The Southern Tennis Foundation (STF), the charitable affiliate of USTA Southern, is proud to announce the establishment of a college scholarship in memory of one of the great female athletes in tennis and any sport, Althea Gibson.
Gibson, a native of Silver, S.C., won five Grand Slam singles titles and six doubles titles, and achieved the world No. 1 ranking in 1958, the first Black to earn that distinction. She was named by Sports Illustrated for Women to its list of the 100 Greatest Female Athletes and was the first Black woman to appear on the covers of Time Magazine and Sports Illustrated. She also became the first Black to play onthe Ladies Professional Golf Association tour.
- Winner of 11 Grand Slam titles, five in singles and six in doubles
- Captured singles crowns at the French Open in 1956, the U.S National Championships (presently the US Open) in 1957 and 1958 and Wimbledon in 1957 and 1958
- Won the following six Grand Slam doubles titles: women’s doubles at the 1956 French, the 1957 Australian, 1956, 1957 and 1958 Wimbledon, and the 1957 U.S National Championship mixed doubles
- In 1958 was ranked No. 1 in the world when she retired and turned professional
- First Black woman to compete in the U.S. National Championships 1950
- First Black woman to compete on the Ladies Professional Golf Association tour
- Inducted into eight Halls of Fame, including the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1971
- Was the only woman of color to win a Grand Slam championship for
15 years. It took 43 years (Serena Williams at the 1999 US Open) for another Black female to win a major. - The first Black woman to appear on the covers of Time Magazine
(Aug. 26, 1957) and Sports Illustrated (Sept. 2, 1957) - Named by Sports Illustrated for Women to its list of the 100 Greatest Female Athletes
- Gibson captured American Tennis Association (ATA) junior national championships at 17 and 18 years old and, in 1947, won the first of ten straight ATA national women’s titles
- According to the USTA, Gibson won her first international championships at the Caribbean Championships in Montego Bay, Jamaica, in 1951
- Member of the victorious 1957 Wightman Cup team
- Born in Silver, S.C. on Aug. 29, 1927, and passed on Sept. 28, 2003
(From the International Tennis Hall of Fame and other sources)