Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 24, 1994 TAG: 9411050022
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL E. HILL THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The bus was full, and little Arthur went up to a white man who was comfortably seated. Would he mind getting up, asked Arthur, so his mother could sit down?
Normally, allowed the man, he wouldn't get up for a black person. But he said he admired the young fellow's grit and gave his seat to Mrs. Ashe.
The vignette, played out in the capital of the Confederacy, served early notice of what sort of life Arthur Ashe would lead: His days would be filled with challenge and confrontation, and through it all, he would show the same calm nerve his aunt recalled from that day on the Richmond bus.
HBO has packed recollections and a chronicle of Ashe's life into ``Arthur Ashe: Citizen of the World,'' an hour-long tribute running on the pay TV service Tuesday night at 10. (Later playdates: Thursday, Saturday and Oct. 4, 9, 14 and 19.)
The special, written by Ashe's friend, sportswriter Frank Deford, traces Ashe's life from the Richmond days through his rise in competitive tennis, peaking with his 1975 championship at Wimbledon at the age of 31.
There is also a look at the domestic side. Two years after his Wimbledon victory, on crutches because he was recovering from heel surgery, he married photographer Jeanne Moutoussamy.
But on every hand, there were issues to be tackled and misunderstandings to overcome.
It wasn't enough that he rose to the top of a traditionally white and, where he grew up, segregated game. People who knew and admired Ashe often point out that tennis was the least important of his endeavors. Ashe himself remarks in the special that excelling as an athlete does nothing for humanity.
He took on huge issues - civil rights in this country, apartheid in South Africa, for instance - each in his own way. When he refused to go along with tactics employed by other black athletes protesting racism in the late '60s, black sociologist Harry Edwards wondered if Ashe was an Uncle Tom. There was controversy when he agreed to play tennis in South Africa.
His playing days were scarcely over when his health became the focal point of his public life, even as his wife and daughter Camera were becoming the focus of his personal life. Between 1979 and his death in February 1993, Ashe suffered three heart attacks, underwent brain surgery, contracted AIDS and died of its complications at age 49.
The HBO special, which begins and ends with scenes from his funeral in Richmond, is on the somber side, stressing Ashe's missions and commitments more than his wit and humor.
At a recent news conference Deford and tennis great Billie Jean King discussed their old friend. Ross Greenburg, executive producer of the HBO hour, also was there.
Deford acknowledged that the HBO piece was a bit on the serious side in its treatment of Ashe.
``I think we made him into almost a saint,'' said Deford. ``And he was as saintly a person as I've ever known. But, gee, he was a lot of fun, wasn't he?''
Yes, he was fun, King agreed. Later, asked whether she had ever played mixed doubles with Ashe, she said she never had.
``To be honest with you,'' she said, ``Arthur was pretty much a chauvinist pig until he married Jeanne. He was! He would have admitted it to you.
``Stan Smith or Arthur and those guys would never hit with the American women. Which was so ironic in that Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall and all the great Australians would every day. And that used to irritate me, quite frankly.''
But there was redemption of sorts.
``One day,'' King recalled, ``Arthur shows up at this press conference for the Women's Sports Foundation. I go, `Hello? What are you doing here?' He goes, `You know, I married Jeanne, and she says I'd better get up on this women's-sports issue and better start finding out more about women.' And I said, `Well, hallelujah. Welcome.' ''
The Wimbledon final Ashe won from Jimmy Connors is the only match treated in any detail in the special. Ashe recounts how he changed his playing style radically for the Connors encounter.
But especially interesting is the recounting of the pre-match strategy session. Everyone Ashe conferred with agreed: There was no way he could win.
by CNB