Wilma Rudolph, far right, won the 4x100-meter relay at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. She also won the 100-meter and 200-meter dash events. Photo courtesy of GPA Photo Archive via Flickr.
By Genevieve Zahner ’26
Staff Writer
Content warning: This article mentions racism.
Black athletes were prohibited from participating in professional sports for much of history, but prominent figures such as Debi Thomas and Wilma Rudolph broke down walls and became some of the most decorated athletes. Many eyes now fall upon figures like Simone Biles and Serena Williams when thinking about prolific Black athletes, but there were many other trailblazers before them who paved the way for the future of sports.
1. Althea Gibson
Althea Gibson was the first Black tennis player to compete at the U.S. National Tennis Championship in 1950, but that was only the beginning of her success. She went on to win the French Open in 1956, followed by Wimbledon in 1957 and the U.S. Open in 1958, becoming the first Black champion of such events. Gibson was raised in Harlem, New York, and grew up loving sports, particularly ping-pong. She won a local tournament hosted by the American Tennis Association just a single year after playing tennis for the first time. She went on to win the same tournament twice more in 1944 and 1945, and following one loss, she won 10 straight championship titles from 1947-1956. Gibson died on Sept. 28, 2003, of respiratory failure.
2. Willie O’Ree
Willie O’Ree was the first Black player in the National Hockey League, playing for the Boston Bruins starting in 1958. He grew up in Canada in one of two Black families in his town of Fredericton, New Brunswick. He first played organized hockey at age five with his brother, who taught him how to body check. In 1956, O’Ree started playing for the Quebec Aces, a team with a strong connection to the NHL and a history of integration. He played with the Aces until 1958, when he was called up from the Aces to play for the Bruins, playing his first NHL game on Jan. 18 of that year and making history in the league. O’Ree experienced racial taunts from spectators and players alike, including an incident in which spectators threw cotton balls and a black cat onto the ice. Despite these obstacles, O’Ree became an ambassador for the NHL Diversity program, traveling to boost grassroots hockey programs, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018.
3. Wilma Rudolph
Wilma Rudolph was the first American woman to win three gold medals at a single Olympics at Rome’s 1960 Summer Olympics. Rudolph participated in track and field and won her medals in the 100- and 200-meter dash, as well as the 4x100-meter relay. Rudolph also won a bronze medal in the 1956 Olympics for the 4x100-meter relay. A survivor of childhood polio, Rudolph was told she would never walk again, let alone run. Rudolph defied these odds and started playing basketball in middle school, for which she was nominated as an All-American athlete in high school. After a meeting with a college coach, she switched to track and field. At the 1960 Olympic Games, her performance earned her the nickname “the fastest woman in the world” after becoming the first American woman to win three gold medals. When coming home, she refused to participate in the homecoming parade if it was not integrated, and she commonly used her fame as a means to bring attention to social issues. Rudolph died of a brain tumor on Nov. 12, 1994.
4. Ernie Davis
Ernie Davis was the first Black football player to earn the Heisman Trophy. Recruited by many institutions to play collegiate football, Davis decided to play for Syracuse University as a running back. While on the team, Davis led the Orangemen to an undefeated season and a national title in his sophomore year. Davis had two touchdowns in the 1960 Cotton Bowl versus the University of Texas, which led him to be the Cotton Bowl’s Most Valuable Player. He was an All-American athlete in his junior and senior years and was given the Heisman Trophy in 1961. Davis was the first overall draft pick in the 1962 National Football Draft and was selected by the Washington Commanders. However, after refusing to play for the racist owner of the team, Davis was traded to the Cleveland Browns. Davis was never able to play a game for the Browns, as he was diagnosed with leukemia just prior to the 1962 College All-Star game. Davis died at age 23 of leukemia.
5. Debi Thomas
Debi Thomas was the first and only Black figure skating Olympic champion and the first Black athlete to win a medal at the Winter Olympics in 1988. The first time Thomas was introduced to skating was when her mother took her to an ice show, and by the age of nine years old, she was skating competitively and conquering her competitions. Thomas won the national and world figure skating championships during her freshman year at Stanford University and was recognized as the 1986 Athlete of the Year by World Wide Sports. After the 1988 Olympics, in which she took the bronze medal in the short program and fifth in the long program, Thomas skated professionally. During this time, she claimed three professional world titles and performed with Stars on Ice. After four years, Thomas stopped skating to attend medical school at Northwestern University in 1997. Thomas is now a practicing orthopedic surgeon in Indiana.