Even at 100, Robert “Bob” Ryland, the first black man to break the racial barrier during the traditional professional tennis tour, has kept his thirst for the game. Quenching his thirst in recent weeks he has often seen Ryland at home with his hearing aid, listening carefully to the programming on the Tennis Channel.
“(His wife) would play the audio for him and listen to tennis or music,” said Leslie Allen, a former top 20 tennis player who has been trained by Ryland since childhood and often FaceTimed. “If he were tennis, he would always ask to wear his Adidas warm-up pants. He remained faithful to what he was. “
Leslie Allen (left) and Robert Ryand (right) in 1980 at the Midtown Tennis Club in New York City.
Leslie Allen
Ryland was also the first black person to compete in the NCAA national championships and the teacher of professional tennis players and celebrities, including Allen, the Williams sisters, Barbra Streisand, Eartha Kitt, Bill Cosby and Tony Bennett. Ryland – the Jackie Robinson of his sport – died at home Sunday after spending time recently in a rehab center.
Ryland had celebrated his 100th birthday in June and was the oldest tennis permit holder in New York City.
Born in Chicago in 1920, Ryland started playing tennis at the age of 10 and in 1939 he won both singles titles from the American Tennis Association (ATA) in the state of Illinois while attending Tilden Tech High School. he he received a scholarship to play tennis at Xavier University in New Orleans, but had to leave school after a year to serve in the army during World War II.
At the end of the war, in 1945, Ryland returned to civilian life in a country that did not completely embrace him as a black man. He received a scholarship to resume his tennis career at Wayne State University in Detroit, but was often forced to eat separately from his teammates because restaurants refused to serve him. He also occasionally slept on the team bus because of hotels’ refusal to allow him to enter their premises.
Despite the lightness, Ryland excelled in the state of Wayne. He reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA championships in 1945 and advanced to the third round of the championships the following year. He is credited as one of the first two black players to play in the NCAA tennis championships. Ryland was inducted into the Wayne State Hall of Fame in 1991.
After his successful college career, Ryland taught tennis by playing ATA tournaments, the main outlet for Black players at the time. He was a supporter of other talented black players. In his book, Robert Ryland, first black professional male tennis playerRyland wrote that while collaborating with Alice Marble during a 40’s double mixed show game featuring ATA and traditional players, he was asked what he thought of Althea Gibson.
“I said he had the skills, the head for the game and that he should play in the USTA,” wrote Ryland. “It could easily become number one in the world.”
A few years later, in 1950, Marble published an open letter in an issue of American lawn tennis magazine that challenges racism in sport. That critique of Marble, a white player who has won 18 Grand Slam championships during her career, opened the doors to Gibson to break the color barrier in women’s professional tennis.
Ryland broke the racial barrier in men’s professional tennis in 1959 with an invitation to participate in the World Pro Tour, becoming the first black person to play in what had been a white-only tour. He was 39 years old.
“Looking back over the years,” said Ryland The New York Times in 1994, “I will [always] I wonder if I could have grown up with the right support, like Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe. “
The first African American tennis player ever (yes, you read that right)
It paved the way for Althea, Arthur, Venus, Serena, Leslie and many others.
Robert Ryland is a name you need to know. ????#LoveAll | #BlackHistoryMonth pic.twitter.com/DklAXCgoiM– TENNIS (@Tennis) February 11, 2020
Ashe, who was the first black man to win the Australian Open, the US Open and Wimbledon, watched Ryland as he grew up, and once said that his dream was “to be good enough to beat Bob Ryland”.
During his playing career, Ryland traveled to the countryside teaching tennis. He has worked with the wealthy and famous at the exclusive St. Albans Tennis Club in Washington, as well as the Midtown Tennis Club in New York.
“At Midtown Tennis Club, whoever it was whoever would go to take lessons from him,” Allen said. “He has traveled with celebrities and, since I have known him since I was 11 years old, has had some of them to sponsor me when I started my career.”
Allen has remained close to Ryland and have had recent conversations about current events.
Leslie Allen (right) and Robert Ryand (left) at the 2019 US Open.
Leslie Allen
“We were discussing the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement,” Allen said, “and he said,” They are still trampling on us. “”
On the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York there are several pavers engraved with the names of individuals and companies. One of those pavers is dedicated to Ryland, with the words “Robert Ryland: Coach and Friend”.
For the people of the game whose life he touched, it will never be forgotten.
“It has been instrumental in my career, it has touched so many lives and is the reason behind the growth of so many black players in tennis today,” said Allen. “For many people it was Coach Ryland, but for me it was Cousin Bob. It was a family and what I always knew about him was that he loved tennis until the end. “
