Biography

Arthur Ashe

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Born
July 10, 1943 · Richmond, Virginia, USA
Died
February 6, 1993 · Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA (AIDS-related pneumonia)
Birth name
Arthur Robert Ashe Jr.
Height
6′ 1″ (1.85 m)

Arthur Ashe grew up in segregated Richmond, Virgina where he decided to make a career out of tennis where he won his first U.S. Open in 1968, the first ever won by a black player. Ashe firmly established his stardom in 1975 after beating Jimmy Connors to take the Wimbledon title. As a tennis professional, he won three Grand Slam singles titles and led the U.S. to four Davis Cup victories. Over his career he won 33 singles tournaments on five continents. A sudden heart attack in 1979 ended his playing career where he underwent quadruple bypass surgery and then double bypass surgery in 1983 where he contracted AIDS from tainted blood during the surgery. Ashe kept his illness a secret until a newspaper leaked the story in early 1992 where he finally admited that he had AIDS and became an outspoken advocate for more research funding and created the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS. He died just two days after completing his memoirs "Days of Grace."
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous

Inducted into the Sport in Society Hall of Fame, 1998.
Pictured on a 37¢ USA commemorative postage stamp issued in his honor on 27 August 2005.
Is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc.
Inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985.
Inducted into the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame in 1994 (inaugural induction).

I don't care who you are, you're going to choke in certain matches. You get to a point where your legs don't move and you can't take a deep breath. You start to hit the ball about a yard wide, instead of inches.
When bright young minds can't afford college, America pays the price.
True heroism is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.
It's very tough to tell a young black kid that the Christian religion is for him. He just doesn't believe it when you start going to church and you look up at this picture of Christ with blond hair and blue eyes. You wonder if he's on your side.

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