University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
UCLA Athletics Celebrates Black History Month
February 01, 2011 | Bruin Athletics
Feb. 1, 2011
In honor of Black History Month, the UCLA Athletic Department would like to highlight several former prominent African-American student-athletes who were instrumental in building UCLA's storied athletic tradition. In addition to achieving tremendous professional success following their time at UCLA, many of these individuals helped change how African-Americans were perceived in their respective sports. Two of these former Bruins, Jackie Robinson and Kenny Washington, were pioneers in their leagues, becoming the first African-Americans to compete in Major League Baseball and the National Football League, respectively. In addition, Arthur Ashe was the first African-American male to win a Grand Slam singles title and to be chosen for the U.S. Davis Cup Squad.
The list below is not all-inclusive and is merely a sample of some of the more prominent African-American UCLA student-athletes.
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Lew Alcindor Lew Alcindor dominated intercollegiate basketball like no other player before him. Following his days at UCLA, he went on to become one of the greatest players in NBA history. A three-time college player of the year who led UCLA to three consecutive NCAA titles from 1967-1969, Alcindor was the top draft pick of the Milwaukee Bucks following his Bruin career. He was the NBA's rookie of the year in 1970 and the league's leading scorer and most valuable player after leading the Bucks to their first title in 1971. He was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers four years later and played there for 14 seasons. By the end of his 20-year career in 1989, he had established all-time records for most seasons, games, minutes, field goals, points and blocked shots. He was a six-time playoff MVP. Alcindor, who changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar after his rookie season in the NBA, was a charter member of the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in 1984. |
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Arthur Ashe A pioneer in the drive for racial equality, Arthur Ashe is one of the best-known and most inspirational former UCLA athletes. The 1965 NCAA singles and doubles champion, Ashe helped carry UCLA to the team title that year. While still an amateur in 1968, he became the first African-American man to win the U.S. Open. Ashe would go on to win 52 tournaments in his career, including the Australian Open in 1970 and Wimbledon in 1975. Ashe suffered a heart attack in 1979 and retired from competitive tennis in 1980. An 11-time veteran of Davis Cup competition, Ashe was named captain of the U.S. team in 1980. His 1981 and 1982 squads won the Davis Cup. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985. Ashe also fought apartheid in South Africa, drawing critical praise from Nelson Mandela. Ashe, who graduated from UCLA in 1966 with a degree in business administration, died at 49 in 1993. He was a charter member of the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in 1984. |
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Donald Barksdale Although a three-year stint in the U.S. Army limited this outstanding all-around athlete to a little more than one basketball season and one track season at UCLA, Don Barksdale helped pioneer the Bruins' tradition of sports success. During his Army service, Barksdale won the 1944 National AAU triple jump championship. He also topped all previous single-season scoring records for the basketball team. After his UCLA career, he joined the United States Olympic Basketball team, coached by Kentucky's Adolph Rupp, winning a gold medal at the 1948 Games. In doing so, he became the first African-American on the Olympic basketball team. Barksdale's professional basketball career started late because of the "color line." He was just the third African-American signed by an NBA team when he agreed to a contract with the Bullets as a 28-year-old rookie in 1951. He played two seasons with the Baltimore Bullets and two with the Boston Celtics, and holds the distinction of being the first African-American NBA all-star (1953). After his NBA career was cut short by a foot problem, Barksdale became the chairman of a group which raises money to pay for sports programs in poor school districts. Barksdale, who died at 69 in 1993, was inducted posthumously into the African-American Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in 1987. |
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Tom Bradley In his eulogy for Tom Bradley, who died on September 29th, 1998, former Vice President Al Gore quoted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: "The arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice." And so, said Gore, "it did for Tom Bradley, whose whole life was a testament to justice, hope and an audacious faith in the future." Audacious faith was, indeed, pure Bradley. In high school, he ignored his guidance counselor's advice to stick to vocational classes. Instead, he pursued his dream of going to college and in 1936 won a scholarship to UCLA. As a Bruin he excelled not only scholastically but as a track star. Beginning his career as a police officer, then as a lawyer, Bradley was elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 1963. Six years later, he challenged Mayor Sam Yorty in a contentious election heavy with racist rhetoric. Bradley lost. In 1973 he ran again and this time broke through the color line, the first African-American mayor of a major U.S. city. Bradley went on to serve five terms. In 1982, Bradley lost a bid for governor by less than 1 percentage point. He lost a second time in 1986. Bradley considered his personal triumph - "the highlight of my entire political career" - the acquisition of the 1984 Olympic Games for Los Angeles. He was 80 when he died in September 1998. |
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Ralph J. Bunche Former Bruin basketball player Ralph J. Bunche was the first African American and the first person of color to win the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor he received in 1950 in recognition of his successful mediation of the Armistice Agreements between Arab nations and Israel. It was the first and only time in the long history of the Middle East conflict that peace agreements were signed by all of the nations involved. For almost two decades, as Undersecretary General of the United Nations, Bunche was celebrated worldwide for his contributions to humanity, particularly in the areas of peacekeeping, decolonization, human rights and civil rights. Bunche was valedictorian of UCLA's Class of 1927, received his master's degree in Political Science from Harvard in 1928, and for the next six years alternated between teaching at Howard University and working toward the doctorate at Harvard. He completed his dissertation in 1934 and did postdoctoral research in anthropology at Northwestern University, the London School of Economics, and Capetown University in South Africa. Throughout his career, Bunche maintained strong ties to education and scholarly research. He chaired the Department of Political Science at Howard University from 1928 until 1950, a period in which his analysis of racial politics in American South made major contributions to one of the most significant 20th century books on race, An American Dilemma. He taught at Harvard University from 1950 to 1952; served as a member of the New York City Board of Education (1958-1964), as a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University (1960-1964), as a member of the Board of the Institute of International Education, and as a trustee of Oberlin College, Lincoln University, and New Lincoln School. |
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Rafer Johnson Rafer Johnson was the epitome of the student-athlete. He was an excellent scholar, president of the student body, and a two-sport performer in track and field and basketball for the Bruins. Often called the world's greatest all-around athlete, he already held the world record in the decathlon and had a silver medal in the event from the 1956 Olympics while at UCLA. In 1960, he completed a remarkable athletic career by winning the decathlon at the 1960 Olympic Games, defeating Bruin teammate C.K. Yang in a memorable finish in Rome. Johnson earned the Sullivan Award as nation's top amateur athlete that year. After his athletic career, Johnson appeared in several motion pictures and was on television as a sportscaster. In the 1970s, he was a member of the President's Commission on Olympic Sports. Johnson, a member of the National Track and Field and U.S. Olympic Halls of Fame, was the final torchbearer for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Johnson's daughter, Jennifer Johnson-Jordan, was on the U.S. Olympic volleyball team for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Johnson was a charter member of the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in 1984. |
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Florence Griffith-Joyner "Flo-Jo" became a household name after her record-setting performances in the 1988 Olympics. Prior to her Olympic fame, she was a key contributor to UCLA's consecutive national championship track teams in 1982 and 1983. At the Olympics, Griffith-Joyner set a world record of 21.34 seconds in the 200 meters and set an Olympic record for the 100 meters. By the end of the Games, she had won three gold medals and one silver. A decade after her Olympic performance, she still held the world record in the 100 meters at 10.49. Griffith-Joyner committed much of her spare time to community work before her untimely death at age 38 in 1998. She was inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in 1998. |
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Kim Hamilton-Anthony Kim Hamilton-Anthony was a UCLA gymnast from 1987-1990. She earned All-America honors six times and was the first female gymnast to win three consecutive NCAA individual titles (floor). She then added a fourth individual NCAA crown in 1989 on the vault. On her way to both titles, she set NCAA records by scoring a 9.90 on floor and 9.75 on vault. She has won three consecutive NCAA West Regional titles in the all-around and in the floor and has won consecutive Pac-10 titles in both the floor and uneven bars in 1988 and 1989. After winning back-to-back NCAA titles in 1987 and 1988, Kim Hamilton decided to change her floor routine for the 1989 competition because she wanted a new challenge. She met the challenge, winning the floor in 1989 to become the first female gymnast to win three consecutive NCAA individual titles. She added a fourth individual crown in 1989 on the vault and earned six All-America honors overall. She is currently a television sports commentator. Hamilton-Anthony, who is married to former UCLA football player Corwin Anthony, was inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000. |
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Jackie Joyner-Kersee One of the world's greatest female athletes, Jackie Joyner-Kersee was a basketball and track star at UCLA and an international star since. Joyner-Kersee is the most decorated woman in U.S. Olympic track and field history, having earned six medals while participating in four Olympic Games between 1984 and 1996. At the Seoul Games in 1988, she set a world record en route to the gold medal in the heptathlon, and then won the long-jump competition. Four years later, she successfully defended her heptathlon title in Barcelona. As the world's dominant female athlete, Joyner-Kersee earned the Track and Field News Athlete of the Year award three times (1986, 1987, and 1994), and won the 1987 Sullivan Award. After the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, she briefly returned to basketball, playing for the Richmond Rage of the new American Basketball League. Joyner-Kersee, who is married to former UCLA women's coach Bob Kersee (he's still a volunteer assistant), was inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996. |
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Jackie Robinson Jackie Robinson is most widely known as the first African-American athlete to play major league baseball, but before that he was the first UCLA athlete to letter in four sports. In addition to baseball, Robinson was an NCAA long-jump champion, a scoring leader in basketball and an exciting halfback in football. In 1947, Robinson broke major league baseball's color barrier as an infielder for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He won rookie of the year honors that season; two years later, he was the National League's most valuable player after leading the league with a .342 average and 37 steals. Robinson, who batted .311 in his 10-year career and was inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame, died at 53 in 1972. He was a charter member of the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in 1984. |
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LaRee Sugg LaRee Sugg garnered numerous accolades during her prolific playing career. Sugg competed on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour for four years (1995, 1996, 2000, 2001) and the Women's Professional Golfers European Tour (1992-94) for three seasons. During that span, she qualified for the U.S. Women's Open five times (1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000) and for the women's British Open four times (1992, 1993, 1994, 2001). A constant on the leaderboard, Sugg's individual accomplishments include a title at the 1998 Aurora Health Futures Classic and two third-place finishes -- at the 1997 Indonesian Ladies Open and the 1993 Singapore Ladies Open. Her best finish on the LPGA Tour came at the 2000 Wegman's Rochester International where she placed eighth. Before turning to the professional ranks, Sugg enjoyed a stellar junior and collegiate career. A four-time member of Golf Magazine's Junior All-America Team, Sugg won more than 30 junior titles and qualified for the United Virginia Bank Golf Classic at the age of 16. The Matoaca High School product then pursued her college career at UCLA where she graduated with an English Literature degree in 1991. Sugg dominated the links during her senior season at UCLA, earning NCAA Coaches Association All-America and All Pac-10 Conference and Championship team honors. She led her team to the 1991 NCAA Women's Championship by sinking the winning putt in a sudden death playoff. Also in 1991, Sugg was the third medallist at the U.S. Women's Amateur Golf Championship and the U.S. Women's Public Links Golf Championship. |
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Kenny Washington In 1946, one year before Jackie Robinson broke major league baseball's color barrier, Kenny Washington helped do the same in the NFL, when he and former Bruin Woody Strode became the first African-American players in that league since its early days. Washington was UCLA's first All-America selection, an exciting halfback who led the nation in total offense in 1939. He played three seasons in the NFL as a halfback, defensive back and kick returner for the Los Angeles Rams. He led the league by averaging 7.4 yards per rush in 1947. Washington, who died at 52 in 1971, was inducted into the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame in 1956. He was a charter member of the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in 1984. |
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Natalie Williams Arguably, the greatest two-sport athlete in UCLA history, Williams was the first-ever woman to earn first-team All-American honors in both basketball and volleyball in the same year (1992-93). A four-year starter (1989-92) and three-time 1st team All-American in volleyball, Williams was twice the recipient of the prestigious Honda Award given to the Most Outstanding Collegiate Woman Athlete in the sport of volleyball. Williams was twice named NCAA Tournament MVP while leading the Bruins to consecutive NCAA Championships in 1990 and 1991. She set UCLA records by hitting .416 in 1992 and hammering 43 kills in a match in 1991. She also set the career kill mark (since broken) with 2115. Williams also starred for four years on the hardwood for the Bruins (1991-94) and was twice named first-team All-American. In basketball, Williams was a three-time All-Conference performer and was named the Conference Player of the Year in 1994. Williams was twice the Pac-10 scoring leader and led the Pac-10 in rebounding on three occasions. Williams averaged 20.4 ppg for the Bruins and her rebounding average of 12.8 ranks first all-time in Pac-10 history. She had career high games of 43 points and 25 rebounds. Williams earned Pac-10 Player of the Week sixteen times (eight in each sport) and in February 1996, she was selected the Pac-10 Female Athlete of the Decade (1987-96). She was selected by the Utah Starzz in the first round (third pick overall) of the 1999 WNBA Draft. |
The UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame will be running a Black History Month display during the month of February. Hours of operation are Monday thru Friday, 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Wednesday, June 17
Friday, June 12
Tuesday, June 09
Friday, June 05