Tiger Woods’ 2009 leap over the $1 billion benchmark for career earnings qualifies him as the single greatest African-American athlete of all time.Or does it?
Is the barrier Forbes.com reports that Woods shattered any mightier than those conquered by Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, Jackie Armstrong, Arthur Ashe or Cassius Clay?
He’s a fascinating character, yes. But if we spend too much time fixating on Tiger’s mounting fortune and chase of a record number of Major golf titles, we’ll run the risk of forgetting the black sports pioneers who blazed the trails to greatness more than a century ago.
Oliver Lewis may qualify as the original black sports hero; in 1875, he rode a little brown pony named Aristides to victory in the very first Kentucky Derby. The son of slaves was 19 at the time, and his earnings amounted to little more than the cost care and feeding of a thoroughbred he regularly bunked with. Over the first two decades decade of the Derby, black boys as young as 15 would dominate in the event. But, somehow, starting in the 1920s, black jockeys were exiled from the sport. Not until the year 2000 when Marlon St. Julien rode, was there a black jockey entered. Will the same sort of conspicuous absence strike golf once Tiger’s had his run? Forbes projects him to become a multi-billionaire before his career’s through.
Wouldn’t it be a shame if decades passed by before any other black golfer makes competitors on the PGA tour fear the sound of his gallop up the leader board?
Photos: Smithsonian.com,
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