RICHMOND, Va. — Greg Rogers hadn’t even been born yet when one of the nation’s most prolific athletes — Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. — died.
But Rogers, who grew up in Richmond — the city where Ashe began practicing his craft at the age of 7 — has aspirations of following in his hero’s footsteps.
“I’ve read everything written about him and watched old footage of him playing on the courts,” says Rogers, 17, who lives in the same neighborhood that Ashe once lived in with his parents and younger brother. “He was not only an amazing tennis player, but he was a leader in the fight against racism.”
Indeed, this year marks the 25th anniversary of Ashe’s death.
The professional tennis player, who won three Grand Slam titles and was the first Black man to ever win the singles title at Wimbledon, died from AIDS-related pneumonia. He was just 49 years old.
Ashe had contracted the virus from a blood transfusion that he received during heart bypass surgery and became a stalwart in the fight against the disease, creating the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health.
Sitting near the bronze statue on Monument Avenue in Richmond that bears Ashe’s likeness, Rogers represents a younger generation that admires the activism that Ashe exuded.
