As the ’50s continued, Johnson found a new goal: mentoring a black player who could win the National Interscholastic Champion - ships, an annual all-white tournament held at the University of Virginia. It was one thing to integrate an international event in New York, another to do it in the South. John - son was adamant; he didn’t just want a black player to enter the Interscholastics, he want - ed one to win it. “What made me maddest,” Johnson told Time magazine two years before his death in 1971, “was this idea that colored athletes were only good as sprinters or strong boys, who couldn’t learn...finesse.” To break tennis’ color barrier, Johnson believed he needed not just a standout ath- lete, but one who also possessed manners that were beyond reproach. “Never ques - tion a line call, never confront anyone on a court,” is how one student of Johnson’s de - scribed his philosophy. “If one of us was to challenge a player, they [officials at white tournaments] might say, ‘See, this is why we don’t let them in.’” Ashe, it was soon apparent, was the per - fect vessel for Johnson’s ideas about deco - rum, as well as his regimented training pro - gram. “I always did exactly what Dr. Johnson told me to do,” Ashe said. “Usually, his strat - egy was right.” In 1961, eight years after joining John- son’s program, Ashe fulfilled the older man’s dream by winning the Interscholastics. Ashe would not only be the first black winner of the tournament, he would also be its last winner in the South. In 1960, after hosting the tournament for 14 years, the University of Virginia asked to have it moved elsewhere. The college cited the financial burden, but, as Ashe biographer Eric Allen Hall has point - ed pointed out, a Sports Illustrated editorial at the time asserted that people in the area were “unhappy at the university’s role as a tourna - ment host since Negroes began to appear regularly.” In 1962, the event left Charlot- tesville for Williamstown, Mass. Ashe would
1940
january 17, 1942 Cassius Clay is born in Louisville, KY
february 25, 1964 Beats Sonny Liston to win the heavyweight title, after joining the Nation of Islam and changing his name to Muhammad Ali. april 1967 Refuses induction into the U.S. Army. Martin, a local policeman, after his bicycle is stolen. “All of a sudden I had a new life,” he wrote in The Greatest: My Own Story . 1954 Clay begins training with Joe
1950
1960
october 30, 1974 Regains the heavyweight title after beating George Foreman in Zaire. october 1, 1975 Ali defeats Joe Frazier in the “Thrilla in Manila”.
1970
1980
1984 Diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease december 11, 1981 Loses his last fight, to Trevor Berbick, in the Bahamas.
1990
2000
2010
june 3, 2016 Muhammad Ali dies.
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