Althea Neale Gibson was a well-known American tennis player as well as a professional golfer. She was born on August 25, 1927, but passed away on September 28, 2003. She is also one of the first African-American athletes to cross the color line in international tennis. Then, in 1956, she became the first African American to win a Grand Slam event, the French Championships. Until 1958, she won both Wimbledon and the US Nationals at random. The Associated Press named her Female Athlete of the Year in both years.
She also won 11 Grand Slam tournaments in total. Because the competition was so fierce in the early 1960s, she became the first Black player to compete on the women’s Professional Golf Tour. She was well-known as a sports leader. Find your favorite quotations by Althea Gibson in this list of the top 9 quotes by Althea Gibson.
- “Being champion is all well and good, but you can’t eat a crown.”― Althea Gibson
- “I always wanted to be somebody. If I made it, it’s half because I was game enough to take a lot of punishment along the way and half because there were a lot of people who cared enough to help me.”― Althea Gibson
- “Shaking hands with the Queen of England was a long way from being forced to sit in the colored section of the bus going into downtown Wilmington, North Carolina.”― Althea Gibson
- “In the field of sports you are more or less accepted for what you do rather than what you are.”― Althea Gibson
- “In sports, you simply aren’t considered a real champion until you have defended your title successfully. Winning it once can be a fluke; winning it twice proves you are the best.”― Althea Gibson
- “NO MATTER WHAT ACCOMPLISHMENTS YOU MAKE, SOMEBODY HELPED YOU.”― ALTHEA GIBSON
- “Most of us who aspire to be tops in our fields don’t really consider the amount of work required to stay tops.”― Althea Gibson
- “I don’t want to be put on a pedestal. I just want to be reasonably successful and live a normal life with all the conveniences to make it so.”― Althea Gibson
- “I think I have done enough for sports and made enough of a name for myself to deserve some sort of backing – most of the other girls have it.”― Althea Gibson
