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Picture credit score: El Grafico/Wikimedia Commons
The Southern Tennis Basis (STF), the charitable affiliate of United States Tennis Affiliation (USTA) Southern Part, broadcasts three tennis luminaries have been chosen for induction into the Southern Tennis Corridor of Fame Class of 2026: Joe Cabri, Althea Gibson and Bonnie Vandegrift.
JOE CABRI, Greenwood, S.C. Joe Cabri coached Lander College males’s tennis workforce to a record-breaking eight straight NCAA Division II championships. He was named NCAA Division II Coach of the Decade in 2000. He additionally holds 10 nationwide Coach of the 12 months Awards from NAIA and NCAA Division II. He’s the recipient of the Order of the Palmetto, the very best honor a citizen of South Carolina can obtain.
ALTHEA GIBSON, Silver, S.C. (posthumous) Heralded as the primary Black athlete to interrupt limitations in tennis, Althea Gibson received 11 Grand Slam titles, 5 in singles, 5 in doubles and one in combined doubles. She was the primary Black athlete to compete on the U.S. Nationwide Championships (now often known as the US Open) in 1950 and at Wimbledon in 1951. She was ranked No. 1 on this planet in 1957 and was the primary Black girl to seem on the covers of Time and Sports activities Illustrated. She was inducted into the Worldwide Tennis Corridor of Fame in 1971.
BONNIE VANDEGRIFT, Asheville, N.C. A former USTA Southern President & CEO and former Southern Tennis Basis Chair, Bonnie Vandegrift has been a tennis chief on the native, state, sectional and nationwide ranges of the USTA. She is the recipient of the next honors: the USTA Barbara Williams Service Award, the USTA Southern Gerrie Rothwell Award and the USTA League Award.
They are going to be inducted in the course of the Lucy Garvin Southern Tennis Corridor of Fame Banquet, scheduled for Jan. 24, 2026, in Atlanta.
Althea Gibson – Silver, S.C.
South Carolina native broke limitations in tennis, received 11 Grand Slam titles
Highlights
First Black athlete to compete within the U.S. Nationwide Championships (1950) and at Wimbledon, 1951
First Black athlete to win a Grand Slam title, French Open in 1956
Received Wimbledon and U.S. Nationals (US Open) singles titles, 1957, 1958
Inducted into the Worldwide Tennis Corridor of Fame, 1971
Winner of 11 Grand Slam titles in whole (5 singles, 5 doubles, one combined doubles)
Ranked World No. 1 by the Worldwide Tennis Federation, 1957
First Black girl to seem on the covers of Time and Sports activities Illustrated, 1957
Althea Gibson was a trailblazing athlete who reworked the world of tennis and past. Broadly celebrated as the primary Black to cross the game’s most entrenched racial limitations, Gibson’s profession exemplified braveness, excellence and resilience. Her life journey, from humble beginnings within the segregated South to the heights of worldwide tennis stardom, solidified her standing as a pioneer whose impression prolonged far past the courtroom.
Born in Silver, S.C., in 1927, Gibson moved along with her household to Harlem in New York Metropolis at a younger age. As an adolescent, she gravitated towards sports activities, excelling in paddle tennis earlier than being launched to organized tennis by the American Tennis Affiliation (ATA). With mentorship from Dr. Hubert Eaton of Wilmington, N.C., and Dr. Robert Johnson of Lynchburg, Va., Gibson developed her expertise and self-discipline. Throughout her time in North Carolina, she received 10 straight ATA Girls’s Singles Championships, a basis for her later dominance on the world stage. She attended the racially segregated Williston Industrial Excessive College in Wilmington and graduated in 1949. She attended Florida A&M College on an athletic scholarship.
Gibson made historical past in 1950 when she turned the primary Black participant to compete within the U.S. Nationwide Championships (now the US Open). A yr later, she broke one other barrier by competing at Wimbledon. Her perseverance and expertise paid off in 1956 when she captured the French Open singles title, turning into the primary Black participant—male or feminine—to win a Grand Slam match. She went on to dominate the late Fifties, successful Wimbledon in 1957 and 1958, in addition to back-to-back titles on the U.S. Nationals. She was named the 1957 Feminine Athlete of the 12 months by the Related Press. In whole, she secured 11 Grand Slam championships: 5 in singles, 5 in doubles and one in combined doubles.
Her accomplishments weren’t restricted to titles. In 1957, the Worldwide Tennis Federation ranked her World No. 1, making her the highest feminine tennis participant globally. She was additionally inducted into the Worldwide Girls’s Sports activities Corridor of Fame, the Black Tennis Corridor of Fame, the Girls’s Corridor of Fame, the New Jersey Corridor of Fame, and the Higher Wilmington Sports activities Corridor of Fame.
That very same yr, she broke yet one more barrier as the primary Black girl to seem on the covers of Time and Sports activities Illustrated. Her grace beneath strain and her outstanding sportsmanship earned her widespread respect, regardless of the racial discrimination she confronted all through her profession. She was typically excluded from locker rooms, resorts, and golf equipment on account of segregation.
Following her retirement from aggressive tennis within the early Sixties, Gibson continued to have an enduring affect on the game. She served as a instructing professional on the Forest Hills Nation Membership in Queens, N.Y., and labored to develop entry to tennis. Later, she was named New Jersey State Commissioner of Athletics, turning into one of many first Black girls to carry a state-level sports activities management place. In that position, she promoted youth sports activities, bodily training and equal alternatives in athletics.
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