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1st African American to integrate professional basketball.
Harry Haskell Lew (January 4, 1884-1963) African American, was the first to integrate professional basketball in 1902. Lew played three years professionally, and then the league disbanded. Lew formed and traveled with his own team, playing and coaching, for another 20 years. When the National Basketball Association was formed in 1949, Bucky Lew had paved the way for the Boston Celtics to be the first team to draft a black player in 1950. -
1st African American to win a medal in the Olympic Games.
George Coleman Poage (November 6, 1880–April 11, 1962) was the first African American athlete to win a medal in the Olympic Games, winning two bronze medals at the 1904 games in St. Louis.In 1903 he became the African American Big Ten track champion. He achieved this by placing first in the 440 yard dash and the 220 yard hurdles.
In 1904 the third (3rd) Olympic Games were being held at the World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. However separate facilities had been built for African American s -
1st African-American heavyweight boxing champion
John Arthur ("Jack") Johnson (March 31, 1878 – June 10, 1946), 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 (1908–1915). In a documentary about his life, Ken Burns notes, "for more than thirteen years, Jack Johnson was the most famous and the most notorious African-American on Earth."[ -
1st Africcan American to wina National Title in any sport.
Lucy Diggs Slowe becomes the first African-American woman to win a national title in any sport when she wins the first women's title at the American Tennis Association (ATA) national tournament. Slowe was also a tennis champion, winning the national title of the American Tennis Association's first tournament in 1917 -
First African-American football player to play in a Rose Bowl game
Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard (January 27, 1894 – May 11, 1986) was the first African American head coach in the National Football League (NFL). Pollard along with Bobby Marshall were the first two African American players in the NFL in 1920. Sportswriter Walter Camp ranked Pollard as "one of the greatest runners these eyes have ever seen." -
1st African American sports broadcaster.
Sherman Leander Maxwell (December 18, 1907 – July 16, 2008) was an American sportscaster and chronicler of the Negro league baseball league. Many believe that Maxwell was the first African American sports broadcaster in history. He was known by the nickname of Jocko. Despite his many firsts, Maxwell was rarely paid for his by the radio stations he worked for during his career. -
1st African American to play in major league baseball.
Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American baseball player who became the first black Major League Baseball (MLB) player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. As the first black man to play in the major leagues since the 1880s, he was instrumental in bringing an end to racial segregation in professional baseball, which had relegated black players to the Negro leagues for six deca -
1st black tennis player to win Wimbledon (in 1957) and the U.S. Open (in 1958).
Althea Gibson was an American tennis player. Gibson turned pro at the age of 31 and was the first black tennis player to win Wimbledon (in 1957) and the U.S. Open (in 1958). Aside from her success, she is most remembered for breaking the color barrier in professional tennis. She won a total of five Grand Slam titles: U.S. Open: 1958 and 1957
Wimbledon: 1957 and 1958
Roland Garros: 1956
In 1957 and 1958 she was the top-ranked U.S. women's tennis player. -
1st Black player in the National Hockey League.
In 1958 a young man named Willie O'Ree made his debut in the National Hockey League. He was with the Boston Bruins for two games. In 1961, after two more years in the minors, O'Ree had a longer stay with the Bruins--41 games. O'Ree never played another game in the NHL. This may not seem particularly significant, but O'Ree was different from every other NHL player who had come before him during the league's first 50 years. He was black, and there wouldn't be another black in the NHL for 25 years -
1st African American to win the men's singles at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, or the Australian Open.
Born on July 10,1943, in Richmond, Virginia, Arthur Ashe became the first, and still only, black player to win the men's singles at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, or the Australian Open. Always an activist, when Ashe learned that he had contracted AIDS via a blood transfusion, he turned his efforts to raising awareness of the disease, before finally succumbing to it in 1993. -
1st professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time.
2012 Season, Arnold Palmer Invitational Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Formerly the World No. 1, he is the highest-paid professional athlete in the world, having earned an estimated US $90.5 million from winnings and endorsements in 2010. Woods turned professional in 1996. By April 1997 he had won his first major, the 1997 Masters.
