Life and legacy of Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr.

Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. was an American tennis player and UCLA alumnus. At UCLA, he was a member of the UCLA Men’s Tennis team, with which he won National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tennis championships in both singles and doubles. 

In 1968, Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. became the first Black man to win the U.S. Open. He was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 1984. Click the link below for more information about Ashe from the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame.

Arthur Robert Ashe Jr is not only remembered for his athletic achievements, but also for his humanitarian efforts. His work in activism included fighting apartheid in South Africa and raising awareness about acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) after being diagnosed with it in 1988, according toUCLA Social Sciences. “We want to be able to look back and say to all concerned that we did what we had to do, when we had to do it, and with all the resources required,” Ashe said in an address to the United Nations in 1992. Click the link below to learn more.

The Arthur Ashe Legacy at UCLA offers scholarships and internships to current UCLA students and conducts an international oral history project about Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. To view information about the Arthur Ashe Legacy at UCLA and the Arthur Ashe Legacy scholarship, which is a merit-based award distributed to students who exemplify Ashe’s ideals, click the link below.

At UCLA, Arthur Robert Ashe Jr’s legacy is also honored through the eponymic Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center, which provides healthcare and education services to UCLA students. Click the link below to learn more about the Ashe Center.