-
Period: to
African Americans in Sport
-
Jesse Owens
Jesse Owens won the gold medal in the long jump, the 100-meter dash, and the 200-meter dash at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin Germany. He also took home a fourth gold medal by running the opening leg for the US team that won the 4x100-meter relay. -
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play major league baseball. He started as a player in the Negro Leagues and finally got his chance in the majors when he was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1945. ON April 15, 1947 he played his first game as the Dodger's first baseman. He batted .297, led the league in stolen bases and was named the National Leaugue Rooki of the Year. -
Althea Gibson
Althea Gibson was the first black woman to play at the US Nationals of 1950 where she advanced to the second round of the tournament. In 1957 she won the US Nationals and Wimbledon and was welcomed home with a ticker tape parade in new york. -
Willie O'Ree
Willie O'Ree made history when he stepped on the ice to play for the Boston Bruins on January 18, 1958. He was the first African American to play in the National Hockey League. He only played two seasons for the Bruins, due to an eye injurym but he opened doors for many other African Americans to skate in the NHL. -
Wilam Rudolph
At the Summer Olympics in Rome in 1960, Wilma Rudolph became the first American Woman to win three gold medals in track and field during a single Olympic Games. The medals earned her the title of "The Tornado," the fastest woman on earth. She was also one of the most famous Tenessee State Tigerbelles, the name of the TSU women's track and field program -
Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay)
Muhammad Ali was the first boxer to win the heavy weight title three times. The first as Cassius Clay in 1964 by defeating Sonny Liston; shortly after he changed his name. He lost the title after refusing to join the army in 1967. He ragained it in 1974 by defeating George Foreman in the Famous "Rumble in the Jungle". The third was in 1978 after defeating Leon Spinks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmaHGY7BEog&noredirect=1 -
1968 Olympics Black Power Salute
US athletes Tommie Smith, who won the gold medal in the 200 meter race in a world-record time of 19.83 seconds, and the third place winner John Carlos with a time of 20.10 seconds made history by making the raised fist gesture, a human rights salute, while receiving their medals. It was one of the most overtly political statements in the history of the modern Olympic Games. -
Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan is considered the best basketball player of all time. He holds the NBA records for highest career regular season scoring average (30.12 points per game) and the highest career playoff scoring average (33.45 points per game). In 1999 he was named the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century by ESPN, and was second to Babe Ruth on the associated Press's list of athletes of the century.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_m6rkT3Gi8 -
Vonetta Flowers
Vonetta Flowers was a former track star that turned into an Olympic bobsledder in the brakewoman position. At the 2002 Winter Olympics, she along with driver Jill Bakken, won the gold medal in the two-woman event, becoming the first black person to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics. -
Serena Williams
Serena Williams is considered by many to be the greatest female tennis player in the modern era. She has been ranked by the Women's Tennis Association as the number one tennis player in singles on 5 separate occasions. Her 27 Grand Slam titles places her ninth on the all time list. She is the most recent player, male or female, to have held all four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously and only the fifth woman in history to do so.
