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Jack Johnson
He was nicknamed the “Galveston Giant,” was an American boxer. At the height of the Jim Crow era, Johnson became the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion. He is considered a boxing legend and was the first person ever to knock down James J. Jeffries in a professional boxing bout. Their fight is to this day considered a seminal moment in boxing history. -
Louise Stokes
Louise Stokes and Tydia Pickett were the first African-American women to be included on a U.S. Olympic team. Both qualified for track and field events; however, they remained on the bench because the coach entered only white team members in the events. The main reason was because of the African Americans were not yet sought to be worth enouch to participate yet. -
Jesse Owens
Jesse Owens was an African American track-and-field star famous for his performance at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Before the eyes of the Nazi leadership, who had hoped to use the games as a source of propaganda for Aryan nationalism, Owens claimed 4 gold medals and set records that lasted for more than 20 years. He later recounted, "When I came back to my native country, after all the stories about Hitler, I couldn't ride in the front of the bus." -
Jackie Robinson
Biography Jackie Robinson was an American baseball player who became the first black Major League Baseball (MLB) player of the modern era. On April 15, 1947, Robinson made his major league debut at Ebbets Field before a crowd of 26,623 spectators, including more than 14,000 black patrons.Although he failed to get a base hit, the Dodgers won 5–3.Robinson became the first player since 1880 to openly break the major league baseball color line. -
Willie O'ree
Willie O'ree is considered the "Jackie Robinson" on the National Hockey League. He made his NHL debut with the Bruins on January 18, 1958, against the Montreal Canadiens, becoming the first black player in league history, appearing in two games that year. -
Ernie Davis
Ernest "Ernie" Davis was an American football running back and the first African-American athlete to win the Heisman Trophy. Davis was the number-one pick in the 1962 NFL Draft, becoming the first African American football player to be taken first overall. -
Univ. Texas El Paso Men's College Basketball Nat'l Champions
History was made on the night of March 19, 1966, at the University of Maryland's Cole Field House in College Park, Maryland when Haskins started, for the first time, an all-black lineup in the NCAA championship. In a game punctuated by David "Daddy D" Lattin's thunderous dunks and Bobby Joe Hill's lightning-quick steals, the Miners upset Kentucky 72-65 for the national title -
Satchel Paige
Biography Satchel Paige was an American baseball player whose pitching in the Negro leagues and in Major League Baseball made him a legend in his own lifetime. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971, the first player to be inducted from the Negro leagues. Paige was a right-handed pitcher and was the oldest rookie to play Major League Baseball at the age of 42. -
Athur Ashe
During his career, he won three Grand Slam titles, putting him among the best ever from the United States. Ashe, an African American, was the first black player ever selected to the United States Davis Cup team and the only black man to ever win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, or Australian Open. He was also the first African American to win Wimbledon and the U.S Open. -
Jasmine Plummer
Jasmine Plummer, 11, Harvey (Ill.) Colts football had become the first girl quarterback to play in the national Pop Warner tournament's 56-year history. She catapuled her pop warner team from a losing record, to championship heights. -
Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy
Black history and sports history were made on Feb. 4 when two African-American professional football head coaches, Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts and Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears, led their teams to the most popular one-day sports event in the U.S. and one of the most popular worldwide—the Super Bowl. -
Cullen Jones
Cullen Jones, only the second African-American to make the U.S. Olympic Swim Team, is the first African American to win an Olympic Gold Medal for his performance in the team’s 4 x 100 freestyle relay.
