Word: althea
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...afternoon in the summer of 1955, officials of the U.S.L.T.A. told Althea that the State Department had asked them to nominate some players to tour Southeast Asia; they wanted her to go. Althea hesitated ("I had to get on my knees to persuade her," says a friend), finally accepted. The troupe included Karol Fageros, a bouncing blonde as famous for her frilly panties as her fancy tennis, Rhodes Scholar Ham Richardson and California's Bob Perry. India, Pakistan, Thailand, Burma -everywhere the tennists made friends for the U.S., and everywhere Althea was the acknowledged champion. Once or twice when...
...Asia. So Althea went out to the West Side Tennis Club in the summer of 1950 and made history by almost upsetting Louise Brough. She went home a loser, and spent the next few summers as an unspectacular but familiar figure at assorted tournaments around the U.S. and Europe. In 1953 she graduated from Florida A. & M. and got a job teaching health and physical education at Lincoln University (then restricted to Negroes) in Jefferson City, Mo. She coached the men's tennis team but had little chance to play. She was bored and restless, and in one year...
While she got a polishing from her Southern foster parents, Althea continued to give a pasting to all her tournament opponents. After her first defeat in the A.T.A. women's singles, she came back and won the title, has won it every year since. On the strength of her formidable tennis, Althea won a scholarship to Florida A. & M. (for Negroes) in Tallahassee...
...Grass. There were few Negroes who were good enough to get into white tournaments, fewer still who had the inclination to enter. But Althea was good enough-and she had the inclination. Without consulting Althea, friends suggested her for Forest Hills. The answer from U.S.L.T.A.: "We can't very well invite the girl until she makes a name for herself on grass-at Orange and East Hampton and Essex. And those tournaments are all invitational. We can't tell them who should be invited...
Unmoved, New Jersey's Maplewood Country Club refused to let Althea on its courts during the New Jersey State championship. But the Orange Lawn Tennis Club in South Orange, NJ. unbent and invited Althea to the 1950 Eastern Grass Court championships. She went, and got whipped in the second round. But she had earned her bid to Forest Hills...