that's it. >> new ball. >> shots are 2-2. >> got by him. >> comes back with it! >> you try to put your entire being mentally and physically on automatic pilot while you're playing tennis. everything is concentrated on the razor's edge and you forget the score. you forget where you are. you forget what your name is. i feel like my body's floating within myself. >> the game of tennis is a symphony in white. players in white suits hitting a white ball back and fort. in all white country clubs but a new, young player has come along and he is one of the greatest we have ever produced and he is not white. >> i sense confusion in what an athlete should be, especially an african american context. >> does still persist in the world about black athletes because we tend to do disproportionately well in athletes. i like to fight the myth. there are lots of us who can think as well as run, jump, hit tennis balls, dunk basketballs. and the challenge now is to convince young black athletes that they have the power and the ability and the opportunity to translate into real clout. >> are you not going to say anything today or just going to use these posters? >> winners are merely people who on any given day best their competition. >> the stay i stop fighting for equality will be the day i'm in my grave. >> but champions are people who want to leave their sport better than they found it. ♪ >> wimbledon. it's the most popular tournament in the world and most wildly broadcast tournament in the world. it is our showpiece event. i have been ranked number one in the world. i have played for a decade but i hadn't won wimbledon ever. i was over 30. getting toward the end of my career. >> arthur always had more things going on in his life than just tennis. did you recall the early '70s a lot of people felt that he was getting distrablgted. his tennis was suffering. no one needed to tell arthur that this was his last chance. >> we came up with a radical change of strategy from the on grass. but then the next question is could you do it? >> a black man had never won wimbledon. this was his moment. >> arthur ashe looks to be the coolest man on the court. this is certainly arthur ashe at his best. >> some people say that my notion or feelings of self sufficiency go too far. i think i can almost withstand just about anything. as an african american athlete, i have experienced racism as a tennis player going way back. i have played extraordinary matches under unbelievable circumstances. but wimbledon tied my whole life together. >> as we join the action in the first set ashe is upsetting the form book. superstar sir arthur ashe. ♪ ♪ carry me back ♪ ♪ but to old virginia ♪ ♪ that's where the cotton ♪ >> coming up black in the south in the city which was the old capital of the confederacy, see big statues of stone wall jefferson, robert e. lee. >> i had to sit behind the white line on the bus. i had to ride in black taxis. went to black schools. i went to black churches. we lived on a black playground. my father was a caretaker of the larmgest playground for riches in richmond, virginia. the house came with the job on the playground and four tennis courts just ten yards away. literally. >> we live on the playground. why do you want to play tennis? he said to me i want to be the jackie robinson of tennis. >> it suited me mentally. that was almost serendipity in a way. i would begin right there in the playground. ♪ i am fascinated by what people are. that one moment when their life changed completely. mine happened when i was 10 years old. on the courts next to my house in richmond, virginia, during an idle moment when the courts weren't being used and dr. johnson saw me during that moment. >> dr. johnson had been a physician. he built a tennis court in his backyard and started a junior development program for young black kids in the early '50s helping gibson to be terrific. >> if you were black and wanted to be good in tennis you had to go to dr. johnson. you get there and see the clay court in the yard. lights. this is our lich practice, practice, practice. hone the skills. that is called the junior development program. >> dr. johnson also made us read just about every tennis book there was and internalized the history of the sport. >> you playing a game that white guys dominated. it was so intimidating. >> when i would go out to competition i was often the only black kid. >> when we would arrive at white tournaments everybody was gawking at us. like we were some strange fish that they had never seen before. it was not a picnic, folks. we not only had to beat good players, but we had to go up against all of the words that we heard. they were not good words. >> you had the feeling that i'm not welcomed among those people. it was just brutal. >> dr. johnson literally picked his prospects on the ability to be cool, calm and collected in the face of difficulties on a tennis court. dr. johnson assumed that the black kids would be skrut niced more intensely and had to give the white tournament directors no excuse at all for ejecting you from the tournament so our behavior was to be above reproach always. >> that's what arthur ashe came up with. a nonconfrontational philosophy. >> in virginia, it is very easy for a young black child to think why even bother trying to excel? if racism is so bad no matter what i do it ain't going to make a difference. if we had more than a mattering of intelligence you had to leaf. that's what generations after generations of us did was leave try to make our mark some place. when i was a senior in high school i had to leave richmond because richmond had no indoor facilities and if they had some they would be in white hands and i would not be able to use them so i went to st. louis to finish high school. when i got on the plane to go to st. louis i could get off the plane and be anything i wanted. no one knew me. so not only did my permit start to change because here people with no preconceived notions about me and my tennis changed. i changed from being a puber to someone who was a fast court player. i started to take more chances on the tennis court. my forehand changed a little bit. my serve took a quantum lead up in speed and so forth. and that year i won the national junior indoor title. when i was about to graduate high school i got a phone call from ucla. and the tennis coach called up and out of the clear blue sky just said how would you like to go to ucla? i received a scholarship sight unseen. it took me all of three seconds to say yes. ♪ >> when arthur and i arrived at ucla california was the hot bed of tennis. if you wanted to expand the tennis career and become a top tennis player in the world california was the place to come. ucla was the perfect place for us. it was great. it was a coed dorm. a lot of the girls that lived in the dorm we all became friend. it was a very healthy social life. >> you mentioned the excitement about the first date with a white girl at ucla. >> yes. being a black southerner it was taboo especially when you have been taught and the ancestors during and after slavery were taught that the white woman is untouchable and just not to be defiled and not to have anything to do with lesser beings so you have a natural curiosity about white women. every southern black man does. but in california nobody bats an eye about interracial dating. a period of exploration for me. it was liberating. >> his thought patterns for his life were not relegated to what he learned in richmond. at ucla he started to become a citizen of the world that he became. >> you will be referred to as the first negro this and that. are there still country club in this country where you would n't be welcomed? >> oh sure. yes. >> really? >> yes. there are some tournaments i can't play in alabama or georgia why if they don't want me it's okay with me. i majored in business at ucla. that was a very busy time in my classes and also practicing with the team. but when blacks from black colleges in the south were getting the heads kicked in at the sit-ins i didn't like myself for not speaking out more. i was more single focused about tennis and i -- i felt very guilty about doing that. >> arthur was named to the davis cup team. it was the first time a person of color made the davis cup team. he was one of the guys and they didn't look at him as a black tennis player. they looked at him as a tennis player. >> the davis cup was in essence our olympics. for arthur that seemed like a no brainer. who wouldn't want to represent your country? what it entailed was that he had to play up to four weeks a year if you were going to win. like home and away series. if you get a davis cup that looks good on the resume. it was huge to play davis cup. >> arthur was quite an unusual type. he was very sort of skinny and gangly and he had a big serve. most people serve stationary but arthur kind of jumped into the court. he had a tremendous serve. whip like. but the backhand he could hit about seven different ways. he was a shot make jer he would always go for broke. he didn't really want to have ten hits in a rally and then try to win the point. >> here are four of the world's best internationally recognized players. practicing doubles. arthur ashe. bright young member of the united states davis cup team. star of the future. >> the fact my skin is brown. my hair is a certain way. people look at me. sure, he is a negro before anything else. but now it's -- well, it's almost like money in the bank. >> what do you mean? >> well, this world tennis now being the only one i'm a drawing card whether i like it or not. >> by the mid-1960s arthur ashe was a championship tennis player which in and of itself seemed strange. at that time we were still climbing the ladder of inclusion and access in terms of even basketball and football and here was in guy out at the country clubs. i said let me reach out to him, bring him into the movement. perhaps there's something that he can contribute in this form that he has in this lily white institution of top tier tennis. >> people in this country are beginning to recognize that black people are human beings also and that they should be treated as such and one thing to do at this point is to bring this point across. by whatever means is necessary and i think one means that's necessary is the black athlete in this country. >> athletes were the heroic figures that black people looked to as role models. so we in the olympic project for human rights were advocating boycotts like kareem ab dull jab before did. >> we try to point out the futility of the olympics. >> some of the negro athletes said that you will have trouble mounting this boycott. >> i think it is a matter of educating people. to thinking politically. >> civil rights era was in full bloom. it was a new breed of black man coming. demonstrations such as thomas smith and john carlos did, shut down of racist institutions. >> nothing i would like better than to see it shut down completely. >> when i contacted arthur the first thing he told me is, harry, i understand what you're doing but that's not my way. i thought, i know he gets it. he's in the bowels of the beast. the only one that's out there on the tennis court. the only one that's at the country club. so i know he knows what the deal is and still he says that's not my way. i said to myself, you know what? 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yes. self loathing? yes. there really were times that i felt like maybe i was a coward for not doing condition things. joining this protest or whatever. >> hell, no, we won't go. >> without going to where i would help my people receive their freedoms. you would have to draf me. i'm go tomorrow. >> in the 60s it was mohammad ali and arthur ashe. there were really two extremes. one very vocal and one not very vocal. one that identified in the black way. and one that could enter these environments that were the finest clubs and facilities of white america. ♪ i stay locked up in my room ♪ ♪ i know to you it might sound strange ♪ sn ♪ but i wish it would rain ♪ >> i can remember kareem referring to arthur ashe as arthur ash. he was our tennis hero but that's like o.j. can play football. that conjured up a whole image. internationalism. nice guy. crosses over. >> in the '60s i was much more impressionable. i had some friends who used to try to get me about civil rights issues put them on a shelf or down play their role because the tradeoff would be not doing so well on the tennis court. and if you every in the middle in those days if you're a moderate it's the same thing as being an uncle tom. >> at the time i don't really think that he wanted to be an outspoken leader of the civil rights movement and i think partly because of his father. his father had tremendous respect for authority and was anything but a flag burner or a bomb thrower. >> daddy was a strict disciplinarian. first day no matter what school we went to he would tell the principals this is my boy. if he does anything wrong at any time you discipline him here, give me a call and i'm going to discipline him at home. that discipline was designed to protect us. >> there was always a rather strong bond between my father, my brother and me because my mother died when i was 6 years old. imfeeling sort of lost. i with drew people told me. i remember feeling that i couldn't trust anybody. >> arthur had very few memories of her and one of them was the day that she died. she was wearing a blue robe. there was a bird singing in the tree and he remembered her leaving the house. she was being taken to the hospital and that she didn't come back. ♪ >> daddy had the spoent of bringing us up. but paramount in his mind is bringing us up in a way that our mother would approve. arthur would do his homework and he would read the newspaper to daddy. because daddy couldn't read. all over the south there were still people being hung. >> there was a time when if you were black, especially in the south, you cowered in fear of offending the sensibilities of somebody who was white. >> i remember that made an impression on me in my life when ift a kid. initial my mother dying. i remember that emmitt till -- boy. >> emmitt till 14 was kidnapped and killed allegedly for wolf whirsling at the wife of accused roy bryant. he and his half brother were acquitted by this jury and even though they admitted taking the boy from the house they were freed of kidnap charge. >> emmett till was beaten, mutilated, murdered. if you are black and my age and borp in america you know who emmett till. is even if you're ill literal. in the south if you got angry too quickly your life would be in danger. >> it was a deferent realist to a black kid than to a northern kid. we went to play tennis at a public school and the football team was throughout that day. i never heard nigger so much in my life. when i went down south i didn't know you could never really be seen again why that's what happened with emmett till. >> the incident with emmett till caused arthur to realize that there was another side of segregation that we had n't sperngsed. the true ugliness of it. he couldn't understand the nature of a person to commit an atrocity like that. >> feelings about it. keep your own counsel. and the inclination to push back and protest. that is still even now that's tensions that i feel. obviously that became smack up against the black social revolution when the bigger the afro was the more status you had. i'm african american. make no bones about it. but i'm more than. to be a stereotypical african american to say this, do that, act this way. you got the wrong person. >> 1965 arthur was in college. i got a letter from him telling me that he was in the rotc. that surprised me. i just never saw him going that way. >> arthur, did you ever contemplate avoid yans of military service because of the prejudice directed against your people in this country? >> no. because something is freedom to protect. i would rather be an american and slightly discriminated against than anything else. >> professional tennis didn't exist when i was at ucla so i had always planned to graduate, go into the army and then i was going to bum around the world as an amateur player and then go back to garagraduate school. ♪ my brother went into marine corps at age 17. not having graduated from high school. i volunteered for rotc. i wanted to be an officer, not a private. >> arthur's experience in the army was entirely different from mine. boot camp in the marine corps, there's no such thing as a social grace. you prepare for war. ♪ had arthur had to deal with vietnam it would have taken him away from tennis right at the time when he was becoming a very good tennis player. capable of winning the majors. i didn't want anything to get in the way of the possibilities of arthur's life. while i was in vietnam i realized that if i went home as i was scheduled that arthur would be subject to going to vietnam. because of families in the second world war losing all surviving sons the military came out with a rule that there would never be brothers in combat at the same time. so did the paperwork and i got a second tour. soon after that arthur was coming over to vietnam on a uso tour with the davis cup team. they were at camp and they got live fire. they were getting shot at. >> we walked into the hospital and it was really, really horrific scene. wounded soldiers. missing arms and legs. and ar chur just was so taken back that he literally ran outside of the hospital. he said, i was scared to the point of defecation. that sort of brought it home. and it caused me to realize that i had done the right thing at the right time for the right reason. ♪ hey, it's me...your skin. some cleansers get us clean - but take my moisture. i'm craving a balanced clean with cerave. cerave cleansers, developed with dermatologists, help me maintain my moisture balance with hyaluronic acid, known to attract moisture, plus 3 essential ceramides to help restore my natural barrier. with cerave, cleansing can be about giving not just taking, so we can be a healthy-feeling clean - cerave clean. cerave cleansers. from the #1 dermatologist recommended skincare brand. right now, we're all feelin' the squeeze. we're having to get creative. find a new way. but birthdays still happen. fridays still call for s'mores. you have to make magic, and you're figuring out how to do that. what you don't have to figure out is where to shop. because while you're getting creative, walmart is doing what we always do. keeping prices low for you every day. so you can save money and live better. ♪ arthur graduated from ucla and by that time was already one of the outstanding tennis players in the world and so the army looked after him. >> the army gave arthur an opportunity to continue in the army. but also, continue with his tennis so he was stationed at west point. >> in january 1968, i was covering tennis at "the new york times." arthur ashe was at west point in their data processing department and i thought i'd go up and interview arthur. ♪ what would i give ♪ >> i got the distinct impression that arthur was beginning to realize what he was capable of being off the court. that he could be a spokesperson for social change. >> i felt that i was coming into my own as far as being able to say what i wanted to say and have it be taken seriously. >> he had been approached about making a talk in washington, d.c. which would be the first time to really putt himself on the line to reveal some of the ideas that he had. ♪ slip away ♪ ♪ i need you so ♪ ♪ love oh love ♪ >> i tried to make sure that some place in my speech addressed the black athlete in contemporary society and i talked about voting. and some points in the speech political kind of thing which was clearly improper since i was in the army. >> he was just now forming his own ideas. it wasn't any kind of overt demonstration by arthur but to the superiors at west point giving the talk has some provocative nature to it. >> he spoke out for the responsibilities for blacks by blacks and you were at west point. >> in the army, yes. >> this was a turning point for you. >> against the rules. >> and you paid for it? >> i certainly did. the superintendent said do not do that anymore or we're going to have problems up here. not that i felt that i was im immune from my punishment. it was a very difficult year for black america. >> april of that year 1968 i was driving down from west point to practice tennis. and i was on the george washington bridge when i heard that dr. king had been shot. >> at 7:10 this evening martin luther king was shot in tennessee. >> i pulled my car to the side just to think about it. >> martin luther king 20 minutes ago died. >> i was very angry. i also felt slightly helpless. things would be different now because he was sosht of seen as our knight in shining armor. >> crowds gathered within two hours of the death and they soon became mobs. >> washington, chicago, new york and pittsburgh. >> 100 cities rage with riot. >> uncontrolled carnival of looting began. >> 50,000 troops to stop them. >> i had not seen that much commotion in the streets possibly ever in my lifetime. >> martin luther king dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. he died in the cause of that effort. >> robert kennedy actually knew. i knew him. we were with him on his campaign train. >> when bobby decided to run i was in charm as what they call the lead advance. he had different teams in different states and my state was california. >> i run to seek new policies, policies to end the bloodshed in vietnam and in our cities. >> bobby was white. he was ivey league. he was roich but nonetheless you believed in bobby kennedy. if you're black growing up in the south you have a third eye and you can spot a phony most of the time and bobby kennedy was not phony. >> my thanks to all of you and now on to chicago and let's win this. >> suddenly everyone was running every direction and somebody said we think the senator's been shot. >> please, it is very important. we need a doctor immediately. >> make room! make room! make room! >> knowing that we had seen him a day before that it was really sobering. >> rfk's assassination almost seemed to step on the assassination of dr. king. 1968 all of these things sort of coa lessed. being a black american i felt a sense of you aurgency that i wa do something but i didn't know what it was. >> there was a total desperation in the black community. what do we do now? >> arthur was trying to figure out how he could help. that would be consistent with his life as a tennis player. >> 1968 was a seminal moment in tennis. prior to 1968 the pros and the amateurs were separated until open tennis arrived. >> before '68 it was almost impossible to make any real living off step nis. >> a revolution has taken place. the first open wimbledon. >> you had a higher level of competition. >> ashe seems nervous. the top spinning backhand is tearing arthur's game apart. ashe into the net. george labor will meet tony roach in the final. >> i think i sort of folded in the semifinals. that loss encouraged me to surmount that and go on further because i was damn close. >> after that wimbledon arthur decided that he didn't have to say a word but his racquet had to talk. >> beautiful serve. >> another ace. slides it over to win the game. >> oh my! look at this. >> mr. ashe, arthur ashe. >> what a shot. >> '68 was a sensational period because i went two months without losing a match anyplace. >> the only players as well as your confidence lets you. i can hit the ball backwards if i'm confident. and then it's time for our first u.s. open. this is my own country. my own backyard. forest hills. again i'm the only black in the tournament so i found it felt important. >> i'll have trouble sleeping tonight. and i'll wake up very early tomorrow morning about 5:00 and first thing in my mind is seeing winners coming back at me at twice the speed. >> the first-ever u.s. open final ended up being played on a monday because of rain. surprisingly it was arthur ashe against the flying dutch marn. the big server against the flying dutchman. >> good afternoon. the first u.s. open. $100,000 in prize money. >> there was so much happening. dr. king's assassination. bobby kennedy's assassination. riots in newark, la. you didn't get five minutes to breathe. >> only negro male to do anything in tennis' he is not white. >> look at the niggers play tennis. >> how's your confidence? >> at a zenith i guess five minutes ago. i'll try as hard as i can. >> here goes arthur ashe now for the championship. losing the first point to tom auker. some calling him tiny tom. he is only 5'7" 1/2. first game for ashe. >> there are terrific variations in emotional intensity in a match. it can be a weapon that workings without having to hit a ball. >> arthur ashe now serving again. >> the first set was long and tough. >> ball goes up very high on the service toss. he might lose it. >> split sets until the final set. >> see if he can get another one. >> mr. ashe. that's arthur's day. >> somebody's going to get tired and we were hoping it wasn't our guy. >> he doesn't believe it. oh boy. when you call him mr. cool -- >> advantage mr. ashe. 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there it is. >> all i could do was -- >> arthur ashe, richmond, virginia. the champion. >> i had to leave and go to my room. because i couldn't let them see me cry. >> when arthur won his father came out, and they embraced and it was very emotional. the only time arthur's father walked on the tennis court to congratulate arthur. >> that day for me was vindication for a couple people. my father, all the sacrifice, the money he spent which he couldn't afford, in order to give one of his children the chance to do what i did. i also thought about my brother. he spent two tours in vietnam. wounded once. >> he called me that night and said, i'm a champion now. people will listen to what i have to say. and being the first black male to win the u.s. open, he was going to be sought out. >> until very recently, you have publicly not had an attitude at all, i think that's fair to say, and very recently, you have begun, i think quite thoughtfully, to enunciate. what was the chain of your thinking? >> when i was playing, i was awed by everything. having come from a humble beginnings in richmond, virginia, but in these times it's really a mandate that you do something. there are other athletes and other black leaders period who are using their position of power and influence to wield practical progress. it's simply saying to myself, arthur, you must do something. you cannot sit by and let the world go by. >> he would call me up and say, harry, i was just thinking. i said man, what do you want? what's going on? what do we have to talk about? after a while, i came to respect his disposition. >> you grow up black in the american south, you have no control. your life is proscribed. in the '60s, you had black ideologues trying to tell me what to do. all the time i'm saying to myself, hey, when do i get to decide what i want to do? i have always been fiercely protective with anyone wanting to control my life. >> arthur was the first person to really push me to understand that black orthodoxy is not an acceptable substitute for institutionalized white racism. that it has to be about people having the freedom to make their own decisions in terms of how they approach the struggle. otherwise, what are we fighting for? >> i get this all the time, being the only black in tennis right now. they say, tennis has really been good to you. what most people fail to realize is athletics is no different than any other corporation where they may have some of the same racist attitudes about hiring blacks at this or that level. they're products of the american ideal. that ideal is sometimes twisted, most of the time it isarthur wo would make statements that when you brushed away the gentility, the niceness, the intelligence, the calmness, his statement would be more militant than mine. i could say good morning and be would take it like it was a death threat. >> in the last two years we had more movement in athletics away from the status quo than in any other time. >> this growing militancy among athletes is not going to stop. it's gaining momentum. >> all quite proud of the guys who are standing up today and being counted. i wonder what the feeling is here. how do you feel about the south africans? >> continuing apartheid, segregation in south africa really truly anguished me. >> before most people even knew about the plight of south africa, arthur ashe was on the case. >> i can remember the line very well. did you know that a man named nelson mandela went to jail in his own home country trying to get the vote? arthur revered nelson mandela and how he spoke up, knowing that he would go to prison. >> we absolutely need more people like nelson mandela. >> fill us in on your intention to play in south africa. >> my intention is you have to start somewhere, and it would at least be a crack in that apartheid wall down there if i did play. >> when i formally applied for a visa, i was personally turned down. >> he was one of the people that they despised most of all over there. they had no intention of bringing an outspoken black tennis player to south africa. >> i hate south africa with a vengeance. >> then for him to say he would like to drop an h-bomb on johannesburg, of course, the opposition is going to pick it up and say this is why we're keeping him out. >> last month, i finally got a no on the visa. they said no, you cannot come. my primary objective was to play tennis at ellis park in johannesburg. ellis park is the south african counterpart to the u.s.'s forest hills. blacks are not allowed to play at ellis park. they are not allowed to play with non-blacks at any public park. the best avenue is to call for a boycott of south african events. if south africa doesn't have any players, it can't have any tournaments. >> i was a part of an effort forcing south africa to really see that their system of apartheid was not going to work. it would not be acceptable. >> i had a conversation with the south african minister, and i just said, look, you have turned him down three times. would you reconsider? arthur would really like to come. to my complete shock, he said we would love to have arthur come to south africa, on one condition. he can never talk about politics. i called arthur and said do you want to come on that basis? you're going to get criticized. the blacks are going to say you're uncle tom. you're going to get blasted every way. >> arthur wrote ten people. all of the white people he wrote said he shouldn't go. both bob green, the black scholar and i, told him he ought to go. so he said, why don't you all come with me? we spent a solid week together in south africa. he was criticized left, right, and center by the black society here in the united states, and even by the black society in south africa. >> what do you think of playing to segregated audiences? >> if i find they are, i won't be playing. >> he insisted that the stadium be desegregated. he had evolved from someone who wasalytical to someone who became more and more about direct action. >> did you get to south africa feeling you could change things just by playing tennis? >> i am not prezsumptuous enoug to think i can change anything. per se. >> he wanted black south africans to see a free black man. and the possibilities that a free black man could live. >> he was letting the ordinary kid in the street know that it was possible for a black man to make it to the top in a sport where everything was white, including your tennis shoes and your shorts. >> arthur went out almost every day talking to the kids, to the liberation movement. he would look at his watch and say, oh, my gosh. it's 2:00. i think i'm supposed to play at 3:30. we would rush back to the stadium. he clearly was not focusing on tennis. but he made it to the finals with jimmy connors . >> but an ever aggressive connors was waiting. >> jimmy connors beat him. and we gave him hell. the whole point of coming down here was to show black folk that a black man can win in a white man's sport. and you lose to jimmy connors of all people. >> ashe, the black traditionalist, who upholds the ancient white values of the game. and connors, the white upstart, the emotional, sometimes crazy man whose tennis is almost a contact sport. >> i'm in the ring every time i go out there. you know, once i hit the first ball, the bell rings and it's a fight for me. i'm an animal. i go after everything and i fly off the ground and i'm jumping and everything so i can get to that tennis ball. any time there is the enormous amount of money involved, it's going to bring out everything in people. these times have changed. you know, from the way arthur was brought up and the game. his attitude is a lot different from mine. >> connors really burst on the scene in 1974, when he won three of the four grand slam events. >> this young man, connors, reveling in absolute power. >> i certainly love to watch him play. >> it was annihilation from the relentless jimmy connors. >> but i was never crazy about his personality. he was brash and brisk, ill-mannered. he had this arrogance about him. >> i do what i want when i want and how i want. >> fueled by the dominance of his mother. >> don't come up on the ball so much, honey. out more. >> jimmy connors is one of the great effort players who ever played tennis. however, he did some things that sort of made you scratch your head as particularly off the court, and that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. >> my disappointment early on was he wouldn't join our players union, the atp. he was dyed in the wool blue color of east st. louis. it made no sense to me that he wouldn't do that. >> jimmy was a contrarian. didn't join the atp. arthur is president of the at pp. jimmy didn't want to be part of the u.s. team in davis cup. that didn't sit well with arthur either. >> there simply never had been an american player who so consistently refused to play davis cup. i couldn't understand how any american player would not do that. >> at the beginning of the '75 season, i thought look, i'm going to be 32 years old. this will probably be my last really good year on the tour. to do well, i would have to get in the best shape that i possibly could at my age. so i worked more at physical conditioning than anything else. and started off very well in the wct tour that year. and wound up winning the wct finals in dallas. >> this week in dallas for arthur, wct crown, $50,000 in prize money. solid gold tennis ball. the 1975 cadillac, and the world championship of tennis diamond ring. >> right after that, wimbledon was beginning. this... is the planning effect. this is how it feels to have a dedicated fidelity advisor looking at your full financial picture. this is what it's like to have a comprehensive wealth plan with tax-smart investing strategies designed to help you keep more of what you earn. and set aside more for things like healthcare, or whatever comes down the road. this is "the planning effect" from fidelity. 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family. every single great player was competing. arthur had never won wimbledon. he wasn't going to get to many more grand slam finals. >> growing up playing the game, every kid knows about wimbledon. and he wants to win, he'll win. some people dream of just playing there. >> what great serving. great serving. arthur ashe reaches his first wimbledon final. >> but ashe is supposed to take cold comfort from the other semifinal. >> jimmy connors would be next. he had never beaten jimmy. lost to him every time. they did not get along. >> connors led 4-3 in the first set, then produces a devastating form. remarkable even for him. >> when he played somebody, he almost had to hate that player. >> he's not lost a set in these championships. >> sometimes he carried it even outside of the tennis court. in fact, jimmy had sued arthur. >> just before wimbledon, there was in progress a lawsuit against me by jimmy connors because i had said someplace that connors was, quote, seemingly unpatriotic, end of quote, for not playing davis cup. >> there was a lot of off-court bad feeling. i mean, you know, you're all in the locker room changing clothes and the locker rooms aren't that big. >> connors was not everybody's favorite. but the guys in the locker room felt no one could beat him. considering the way connors had been playing, he was easily the world's number one. >> he had only lost four matches the entire year. he was winning everything. >> the time to get nervous and -- >> it's the night before the finals. if you knew arthur, it's going to be hard to sleep that night. i said what do you want to do tonight? he said i want to goy to the playboy club. i said you want to what? you know, i want to play a little blackjack and sit in the back in a booth and have dinner and nobody will bother us. he liked tactics. he liked to have a game plan. we just plotted and talked about how to play connors on a grass court. >> a group of us sat down to figure out what my best chances would be of beating jimmy connors. and we came up with a game plan that we were sure would give connors difficulty on grass. >> the next morning, i got an envelope, and i just wrote on it, the three or four things we had all talked about. >> now, the great climax, the men's final. connors playing ashe. the man whom he is currently suing for over 2 million pounds. >> first service. >> on that little piece of paper, it said take the speed off the ball and hit to connors' forehand softly. >> jimmy needed to feed off his opponent's pace. >> connors, another unforced error there. >> the pace he generated was what came off his opponent's racket. he wasn't getting pace, he couldn't hit the ball. >> lovely stroke. lovely controlled stroke. purposeful to a degree. >> secondly, you want to serve him wide in the deuce court. pull him way out of court because then he would have the whole court to volley. >> and the third thing was, use the lob. connors closes fast. he hits that first volley and he goes right into the net for the second shot. so use the lob a lot. >> connors' coach, mrs. connors. >> ashe leads by two games to love in the second set. >> so tremendous hand for the challenger. arthur ashe. >> that wasn't arthur's game. to give him a lot of soft stuff like that, i mean, arthur was a hard hitter. he had to change his own game to be able to do that. >> set point for connors. >> and then jimmy came back. >> connors makes a return of service. >> connors did get his act together, and he won the third set. and that would have been the moment that so many people would have reverted to what was natural to them. in a moment of panic, they might have thought, oh, i can't keep this up. i can't keep this up. i'm going to go back to hitting the ball as hard as i can. >> late in the match, arthur is sitting there looking at something. i'm looking, i'm trying to figure out what the hell is he thinking about. then i saw that piece of paper. i said my god, he's sitting there reading that envelope. >> arthur went back to the fourth set and continued to dink and push. >> advantage, ashe. >> and give jimmy no pace. it was the most brilliant and fascinating tactical tennis match i have ever seen. >> ashe serving for the match. >> arthur ashe stands with two championship points. 40-15. >> one of the greatest upsets in the long history of wimbledon. arthur ashe, the first black player to win the men's wimbledon singles title. >> arthur beat jimmy strategically big time. i think that started to get people thinking. >> the way black americans reacted when i won wimbledon. it was like joe louis winning the heavyweight championship. that's the first time that black americans really became aware of wimbledon. and now they follow it. and now they're playing tennis like crazy. >> in '75, we both win in wimbledon. it's like, oh, my god, this is perfect. i remember dancing with him. i said arthur, we both have afros, but yours is real. mine is permed. >> so we had this conversation at a soul food restaurant in toronto. >> in toronto of all places. underground in toronto. >> yes, and it went full circle. first, it was cathy and this girl getting on the guy and myself, saying all men are male chauvinist pigs. >> when i was around arthur in the early days, he was not gender sensitive at all. >> finally, the guy and myself said, you girls, you want to be liberated, you want equality, but you want only the privileges and not the responsibilities. >> you could just tell he hadn't been exposed to it, hadn't thought about it. you know, growing up as a male, let's forget color, they're supreme. we're second class citizens. for instance, when tennis went pro, he didn't think women should even be included. we're slow, no one wants to watch us. but he really did change over time, being sensitive to gender because of genie. genie ashe changed his whole life. >> i first met arthur in 1976. and when i was shooting at a new york tennis tournament, there were more women standing around arthur ashe than there were around walt "clyde" frazier. au arthur called me at my office at nbc and invited me out to dinner. i met him downstairs and he had one single red rose. he told me it was his mother's favorite flower. obviously, i was completely charmed by that. >> i was emotionally ready. genie was very bright, independent. physically a ten. she was what i was looking for. >> he had an aching bone spur in his heel. he decided, okay, so i'll have my bone spur operated on, on february 10th. and on february 20th, we'll get married. i married him on crutches in a huge snow storm, in a day i'll never forget. >> the ceremony with ashe in a cast after a recent heel operation was performed by the american ambassador to the united nations, andrew young. >> marriage is essentially a struggle to learn to work together and to forgive each other, because nobody is perfect. >> what's the best advice you've gotten? >> advice we have gotten? not to do this again. >> i feel pretty good. ambassador young also told me my job is going to be a lot tougher than his. >> i think he met his match when he met genie. she wasn't going to follow him around like a dutiful little wife. they were both very strong willed, and she had her goals in life and he had his goals. they seemed to be able to pull them both together. >> i like the play of the blue and yellow there and the brown. >> is it annoying to you in any way to be, i suspect, considered very often as merely an appendage, another part of arthur ashe? >> it happens. i think it happens to all women when you get married. because that's the way society has put us, as an appendage. it's all up here. i have my level of what i do in my profession and he has his level, and they're two completely different things. i know i can take pictures the rest of my life. i'll always do that. he won't be able to play tennis the rest of his life. >> at the age of 35, i know what my strengths are fairly much. and i know what my weaknesses are. but i think more than anything else, which i couldn't do ten years ago, is admit that there's some things i can't do. whereas when i was 24, 25, there was nothing i didn't think i could do. >> he fought back and continues to fight. putting himself through agonies in order to not be overcome by younger, stronger, hungrier men. it is like some eastern ritual, but it works. a year ago, he had fallen from the top ten to a ranking of 257th in the world. today, he's back to number eight. >> arthur ashe wasn't supposed to have a chance in the finals of the grand prix masters tournament, not against the teenage star john mcenroe. >> but serving at triple set point in the first celt, the 19-year-old mcenroe double faulted three straight times. >> this event was like a huge deal for me. i was in college at the time, and to play arthur there, and actually save a couple match points was just so crazy. it meant a lot to me. arthur was tough. >> mcenroe got the $100,000 first prize. ashe got $65,000 for second. he got more, there gratitude of everyone who is over 30 and feels younger. >> i would be willing to stack myself up against any 28-year-old on the tour, anyone. because i work harder than just about anybody. i'm in excellent shape. i take care of myself. and i'll be around for a while. >> i think about denial a lot because i accuse arthur of being in constant denial. but there's good denial and there's bad denial. the bad denial is like when arthur first had chest pain in 1979. and he never thought for a minute that he was having a heart attack. >> oh, i had been in the right place at the right time. there just happened to be a doctor on the next court where i was playing, and saw i was having some difficulty. just said look, you go to the hospital right now. he wouldn't even let me go back to get my racket or my wallet. >> this is a take from cardiac care unit, new york hospital. brought here thursday night. >> my father having had two heart attacks, the fact that my mother died when i was 6 years old of cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure, but i didn't put too much credence in it because i didn't think i at 36 could have heart attack. >> no question about it, my heart attack makes today more important than tomorrow or the day after. but the boyishness in me, the boy in me, the little boy in me wonders if i will see my mother again if i die. that makes the specter of dying more palatable. maybe i will in some form see her again. >> if, i'm sorry, i should say when you meet your mother, what would you ask? what would you say? >> i don't think i would say anything. i would -- i would probably just let her hold me for a while, for a long time. that's -- because i can't recall that ever having happened. >> there was a picture of arthur ashe propped up in the hospital bed with a huge white bandage running right down his middle. will you tell us what happened? >> that obviously ended my tennis career. because i retired about 2 1/2 months right after that. and got on with the rest of my life. >> i had made my official announcement of retirement in march '80. the incoming president of the usta asked to see me at the u.s. open and told me that i was the one person they wanted to coach the american davis cup team. i knew that our team would be built around mcenroe. >> in his first news conference here, mcenroe was joined by other members of the u.s. davis cup team. his attire provoked this introduction from team captain arthur ashe. >> wearing the foster grants. ray-bans. bruce springsteen's sidekick, john patrick mcenroe jr. >> i remember wondering how arthur and the volatile younger generation of tennis would get along. >> what did i say? tell me. please tell me. please tell me. >> you could see sam smith, rod laver, and arthur, they were perfect gentlemen. and then these young shouting hoodlums acting wild kids come along. i think it was quite a challenge. >> i like to stick to protocol. i like to stick to the rules. there are a lot of little incidents with john. if a match was supposed to start at 1:00, john would always wait until three minutes past 1:00, always. things like that. >> i remember a match where arthur didn't say a word to me at all. he's looking at these stats, and i'm like, this is a bunch of baloney. but i would say the only time there was real friction, i believe it was the final match against argentina. >> basically, i guess that had been building up a little bit. >> john mcenroe, besides playing his usual brilliant tennis, got into his usual antics on the court. >> you shouldn't be in the chair, all right. you're junk. >> you were very strong in your point that the u.s. had never defaulted a match. you were not about to let john mcenroe do the same because of his behavior. how do you prevent this, arthur, and what do you tell a mcenroe? >> john had behaved so poorly, i called our davis cup committee chair person and i said, look, i thought what john did yesterday was ridiculous. it makes us look bad. and i want your support because i'm going to call john and tell him if he misbehaves today, we're going to forfeit the match. i was secretly hoping he would do something because i was going to lower the hammer. >> the times where i would go off the rails didn't go over too well for arthur. he would sort of be chasing me around. just play. you can go act like a jerk if you want when you're out there by yourself, but when you're playing for your country, you got to act a different way. into a bang! all season long. ♪ you know real chili never has beans. you know which pizza is eaten with a fork and a knife... and which one is definitely not. you know a cappuccino is for the morning and an espresso is for the afternoon. you know how to answer "sparking or still" in over 12 different languages. you'll try anything that's not currently alive... unless of course it's highly recommended. the delta skymiles® american express card. if you travel, you know. ooh, 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be right about 70% of the time. it's just the way he applies his grievance. >> he sort of took me under his wing, because i was this hot head and obviously, arthur was the total opposite. arthur really backed me up there. he said, like, give this kid a chance. he's got great talent. he's going to be fine. that was a huge turning point in my career, actually. as i grew up and started to understand more of what actually is happening in the real world, i started to understand why he was frustrated. because i think our personalities weren't as different as they appeared. >> mcenroe had the emotional freedom to be a bad boy. >> you can't be serious, man. you cannot be serious! that ball was on the line. >> i never had that emotional freedom. if i had been like that, i'm convinced the tennis world would have drug me out of it. my race wouldn't allow me to be like that. >> now he's walking over. everybody know it's in! >> when i see john going off half cocked, i'm very irritated at him and envious because i would like to do the same thing, but i don't feel i have that luxury. >> arthur had betaught never to behave like that, never to lose control, never to lose his temper. but deep, deep down, he wanted to on many occasions. >> there must have been times when your rage has exploded over prejudice, as it's called. what did it take to push you over the line? what kind of remark or what kind of -- >> funny enough, i never really exploded at prejudice. >> no? >> no. you know, i internalize things. so it's not my nach ture to getd at something like that. >> reading last year in "new york times" an article you wrote for the magazine section, i sensed there was a lot of repressed anger, anxiety. take a look at this quote. said my 39 to 45-year-old black professional buddies have paid a very heavy emotional toll. divorce is the norm rather than the exception. nearly everyone is hypertense. the stress is barely bearable, but it's hidden behind genius subterfuges. >> some of my most speculative colleagues tie bottled up emotions with cardiovascular disease. >> i firmly believe they're correct, yes. >> to survive -- >> you have to internalize things, yes. >> arthur took me for a drive along monument avenue in richmond. and told me the stories of him not being able to walk down that street as a kid. you know, i'm a northerner. these were fascinating stories to me, but his next stop was woodland cemetery, where his mother was buried. i think he became free of that loss when our daughter came along. he was able to bond with her the way that he had wished to have bonded with his own mother. and i saw a real transformation within him. >> now that i have a daughter, which changes things, no matter how disciplined my work life would be, when it comes to a father and daughter, some of that stuff goes right out the window. >> she was very protective of her dad. she understood throughout her life that daddy sometimes was ill. >> first time i was in the hospital, my daughter was quite afraid. she grabbed my left little finger and she squeezed tight, but she wouldn't come any closer. and i figured that if i can make her part of my medical regimen, she would adjust to it. i let her feed my medicines to me. she'll put my medicines in my mouth. because i want her to be a part of this. i don't want her to be afraid of it. >> labor day weekend, 1988. arthur had brain surgery. the doctor sat down with us in arthur's hospital room and told us that he tested for toxoplasmosis, a marker for aids. that he was not just hiv positive, that he had aids. >> i had blood transfusion after my second heart bypass operation. that's exactly what happened. contaminated blood. >> we just set ourselves forward to one step at a time to figure out how we were going to thrive as a family. >> i really wanted life to just go on as normally as possible. >> i had always planned to go public at some stage, but there was still a stigma attached to someone who was found out to be hiv positive or had aids. and certainly, if judged by the way some previous aids victims or patients were treated, i didn't want that. >> arthur had to make decisions whether he was going to be out front about things or not. but he wasn't given the privacy to do this on his own terms. with aids, he was outed. >> a very good friend of mine who is a writer for usa today said he wanted to see me about something. i see this, this look of angst on his face, and then he almost stops the conversation dead in the middle and says, take a deep breath and said my editor heard a rumor the other day that you have aids. and i need to check it out. and i knew right then that as they say, the game was up. >> the news today came as a shock. tennis hall of famer arthur ashe revealed that he has aids. it was something arthur ashe wanted to keep private, but he says he was finally forced to go public. >> some of you heard that i had tested positive for hiv. the virus that causes aids. that is indeed the case. cameron already knows. >> camera already knows that perfect strangers come up to daddy on the street and say hi. even thewe have begun preparing her for this news, beginning tonight, arthur and i must teach her how to react to new, different, and sometimes cruel comments that have very little to do with her reality. >> she was 5 at the time. but as he went off to the press conference, she opened her hand and there were three hershey's kisses. and she gave it to him. >> i am not sick. and i can function very well linthat i have been involved in for the past several years. as for my family, my wife and daughter are in excellent health, and both are hiv negative. >> when we came back from the press conference, we were exhausted. and camera tucked us in. for him, it wasn't a matter of how he was going to be treated. aids became another fight for arthur. and he picked it up like he did every other cause that he ever took up. >> that very difficult time in arthur's life, there was a wonderful moment. mandela gets out of prison and then becomes president of south africa. visits the united states for the first time ever. >> of course, there were hordes of people as nelson mandela was making his way through, he saw arthur. you could see his face just lit up. and he stopped what he was doing, and he walked over to arthur with the biggest smile on his face. and he opened up his arms, and he said, arthur. arthur, my brother. and he threw his arms around him. >> i have found mr. mandela to be very warm, engaging. i was certainly struck by his lack of bitterness after 27 years in prison. and i have considered it one of the great privileges in my life to know him personally. mr. mandela would talk about commitment and perseverance. i took that to heart. ♪ ♪ lowe's has summer savings that turn a spark, into a bang! all season long. lemons. lemons, lemons, lemons. look how nice they are. the moment you become an expedia member, you can instantly start saving on your travels. 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