Arthur Ashe Chronology

Aug. 1, 1963--Becomes the first black to be named to a U.S. Davis Cup team.

June 21, 1965--Leads UCLA to the NCAA tennis championship.

Nov. 7, 1965--Becomes the first American to win Queensland Lawn championship.

Aug. 25, 1968--Becomes the first black to win U.S. men’s singles championships by beating Bob Lutz.

Sept. 9, 1968--Wins the first U.S. Open title by beating Tom Okker.

Dec. 12, 1968--Is ranked No. 1 by the men’s ranking committee of the U.S. Lawn Tennis Assn.

June 16, 1969--Seven top tennis stars, including Ashe as the treasurer, announce the formation of an international association that wants a say in whether South Africa competes in the Davis Cup.

June 30, 1969--Is banned from South African championships.

Jan. 28, 1970--Is refused a visa to compete in the South African Open.

March 23, 1970--South African team is barred from the 1970 Davis Cup.

April 14, 1970--Tells United Nations Committee on Apartheid he will ask for South Africa’s expulsion from the International Lawn Tennis Federation and asks for a world wide boycott by major powers.

Oct. 31, 1973--Granted an entry visa to compete in the South African Open in Johannesburg.

Nov. 24, 1973--Becomes the first black to reach finals of the South African Open.

1974-1979--President of the Assn. of Tennis Professionals.

June 21, 1975--Bill Riordan, manager of Jimmy Connors, announces Connors has filed two lawsuits for $5 million against Ashe for libel. The first suit concerns a letter written by Ashe at president of the ATP to 16 players about the captaincy of the Davis Cup team. The second suit filed is against Ashe; Donald Dell, the ATP’s legal adviser; Bob Briner, the ATP’s secretary; and Jack Kramer, the executive director. It alleges libel in an article written by Briner.

July 5, 1975--Becomes the first black to win the men’s singles title at Wimbledon.

July 14, 1975--Asked to help expel South Africa from international lawn tennis by Dennis Brutus, president of the London-based South African Non-Racial Committee for Olympic Sports.

July 23, 1977--Wants Carter administration to establish a federal agency that would protect amateur athletes by tightly controlling amateur sports.

Dec. 21, 1979--Eight days after undergoing quadruple bypass heart surgery he announces a comeback.

April 16, 1980--After suffering a setback in hopes of comeback after the heart surgery, he announces his retirement from competitive tennis.

Sept. 7, 1980--Named new captain of the Davis Cup team replacing Tony Trabert.

June 21, 1983--Undergoes double bypass heart surgery.

Sept. 6, 1983--Receives the 1983 Omega Award for determination of spirit and ability to overcome significant obstacles.

Nov. 8, 1984--Complains that boxing promoter Don King has embarrassed an anti-apartheid group to which Ashe belongs by helping to send a heavyweight championship fight to Bophuthatswana.

Jan. 11, 1985--He and 46 others are arrested in anti-apartheid protests at the South African Embassy in Washington.

March 21, 1985--Named to the International Tennis Hall of Fame and is inducted on July 13.

Oct. 22, 1985--Resigns as the U.S. Davis Cup captain because he is unhappy with the “required conduct code.” He was captain of the U.S. squad for five years, leading it to the team championship in 1981 and 1982.

April 4, 1987--Files a lawsuit, along with Michael Jordan and James Worthy, against a law firm seeking $1.1 million in a land-development dispute.

Aug. 28, 1987--Named spokesperson of the Volvo Tennis-Collegiate Series, the umbrella program for the nation’s 30,000 intercollegiate tennis players.

Sept. 5, 1987--A United States Tennis Assn. committee headed by Ashe and J. Howard Frazer, a USTA regional vice president, announces a plan designed to restore American tennis to the stature it once enjoyed through a new system of developing young players.

Sept. 16, 1988--Ashe is released after a one-week stay in a New York City hospital after taking antibiotics to relieve pressure from a “severe bacterial infection” in his head. The infection put pressure on nerves, causing numbness in his arm.

Jan. 16, 1989--One week after the NCAA approved Proposition 42, Ashe says athletes who can’t meet new NCAA academic requirements don’t belong in college. Proposition 42 prohibits athletic scholarships for incoming freshmen who don’t have both a 2.0 grade-point average in high school and a minimum score of 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test or a similar score on another test.

Feb. 20, 1990--Ashe says the NCAA’s Proposition 42 requirements aren’t culturally biased and actually set acceptable academic standards for athletes too low. Ashe’s comment came during appearances at Wichita State as part of Black History Month. Ashe said blacks make up 6.5% of the student bodies at the 290 NCAA Division I schools, but total 58% of the basketball players and 38% of the football players there. However, only one in five of the 10,000 black athletes at Division I schools will graduate. He further stated, “You really don’t care about us as students. You care about us as athletes to fill your stadiums and arenas.”

Sept. 4, 1990--A Washington group, headed by developer and lawyer Mark Tracz, including Ashe, submits a bid for the National League’s two new expansion teams.

November, 1990--In an article in the November issue of Tennis magazine, Ashe says blacks are tolerated in tennis because their number is small. He further states “that the American tennis community, and white society in general, is afraid that if we get our foot in the door, we’ll do in tennis what we’ve done in basketball--take over.” Ashe, however, applauds the U.S. Tennis Assn.’s efforts to encourage blacks and Hispanic youngsters to get involved in the game.

Oct. 20, 1991--Ashe and musician Quincy Jones head a 31-member delegation of prominent black Americans start a three-day visit in Johannesburg, to assess political changes in South Africa.

April 8, 1992--Announces he contracted the AIDS virus from a blood transfusion during heart bypass surgery. He said he tested positive for HIV 3 1/2 years ago before he underwent brain surgery but decided to announce it because he heard that rumors were circulating about his condition.