Summer Book Review: "Serving Herself"
This year's winner of the USGA's Herbert Warren Wind Book of the Year Award is "Serving Herself" by Ashley Brown, PhD (Oxford University Press, $29.95). It is a revealing and extensive biographical portrait of Althea Gibson, best known as one of tennis's most exceptional players, male or female, and the first Black American to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Unknown to many sports fans, including those who follow golf, Gibson was the first Black American to compete on the LPGA Tour and was an accomplished player.
The book has its derivation from Brown's doctoral dissertation from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and while it focuses on Gibson's success as a sports prodigy, it also provides an extensive study of American history as it relates to racism and gender issues in the 20th century. The background of Gibson's life is set against social history pertaining to the white country club world of tennis and golf and a Black person's attempt to gain entrance to it.
The author offers a great deal of insight to Gibson's life on the LPGA Tour and her fascination with golf. With her athletic physique and skills along with a dedicated practice regimen, Gibson's golf game was admired by many of her fellow competitors on the LPGA Tour. She regularly turned heads on the driving range as she hit drives averaging 250 yards and won a long drive contest with a drive measuring 270 yards.
Gibson played at first on the United Golfers Association tour which was open to women of any race but primarily where Black women golfers competed. In 1962 she was given a special membership at Englewood Golf Club in New Jersey and carried a four handicap at the time.
As in tennis, Gibson did not overly express her personal concerns or the issue of discrimination she experienced at lily-white golf clubs, and rarely used the media to express her inner feelings, although as Brown noted, Gibson became annoyed when as a LPGA member she was not always invited to play in a tournament due to a club's unwritten exclusionary practices.
Yet, Althea Gibson still should be remembered as a groundbreaker who broke many barriers for Black athletes and played a role in the civil rights movement for decades. No less is the part Ashley Brown has played in shining an articulate and comprehensive light on the history and contributions Black athletes have played in this country. Her book should be read and treasured by all and when the last page is turned , you'll feel as if you earned a PhD degree on the subject too.
Gibson was a Harlem-raised girl whose athletic achievements allowed her to travel the world on her own behalf as well as being a sports ambassador for the United States State Department.
Brown's work is engrossing and reason enough to turn each of the book's nearly 400 pages.
--Reviewed by Les Schupak