South-Carolina
Palmetto Past & Present: South Carolina’s Forgotten Tennis Hero – FITSNews
There wasn’t much hope for sharecropping families in the run-up to the Great Depression. It was a hard life filled with backbreaking physical labor and seemingly interminable, generational poverty. So there wasn’t any reason to suspect the child who arrived to a sharecropping couple in Silver, South Carolina – an unincorporated area of Clarendon County – ninety-six years ago this month would break the cycle. Certainly, there was no hint she would make history, break barriers and leave a string of shattered records in her wake.
Daniel and Annie Bell Gibson named their daughter Althea. When she was a toddler, the Depression arrived in force, making a bad situation even worse for sharecroppers. In desperation, her parents took her and headed north in what came to be called the Great Migration. Like many relocated black families, they settled in Harlem and began putting down roots.
The apartment the Gibsons rented turned out to profoundly impact Althea Gibson’s future. It was located within a neighborhood selected as a Police Athletic League play area. Cops blocked off streets during the daytime so kids could participate in league sports.
Althea started off playing paddle tennis and quickly blossomed. By the age of twelve, she was the Big Apple’s city champion. She also made some bad choices. Dropping out of school at thirteen, she spent her days getting into street fights (local girls learned to be wary of her right hook) and hanging out in movie theaters. Fear of her father’s beatings drove her to a Catholic shelter for abused kids.
At that point, life could have gone a lot of different ways. But neighbors saw something in the Althea – a glimmer of promise lurking behind the rebellious teenage façade. So they chipped in (no small feat for people living dangerously close to poverty) and paid for a year’s tennis lessons at a private club.
***
***
The angry adolescent despised the game at first. She preferred to compete with her fists, wanting to beat her opponents whenever she lost a match. But she entered — and won — her first tournament. Slowly, her life and personality began changing as she dove deeper into the sport.
Under a mentor’s supervision, Althea moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, and resumed her education while also perfecting her game. She eventually won a full scholarship to Florida A&M and even joined a sorority.
Her education completed, Althea began playing tennis full-time – and the sport would never be the same. It was difficult on occasion, with racial segregation making its last stand. But as fellow tennis legend Billie Jean King said, “I never saw her back down.”
By the time her playing days were over, Althea was certified tennis royalty. The first black woman to win a Grand Slam title, she won the French Championships (later known as the French Open) in 1956 and then won Wimbledon and the U.S. Nationals (the forerunner of today’s U.S. Open) in 1957. She won both tournaments again the following year – and added multiple doubles and mixed doubles titles to her resume.
One of those doubles titles Gibson won with fellow American Darlene Hard – whom she defeated for the singles crown. Gibson and Hard got to meet the queen following their triumph!
The Associated Press named Gibson its female athlete of the year in 1957 and 1958. There was even a ticker-tape parade in New York City thrown in along the way. When all was said and done, she had racked up 11 Grand Slam titles. More than that, she was a transformational figure. Althea Gibson did to tennis what Jackie Robison had done to baseball; she changed the game forever.
(Click to view)
Gibson’s pioneering days weren’t over, though. In 1964 she traded her racket for golf clubs and became the first black woman to play on the WPGA Tour. She finished in the money – evening winning a new car in one tourney.
Success in sports didn’t automatically translate into financial wealth back then, especially for a black woman athlete.
“Being the Queen of Tennis is all well and good, but you can’t eat a crown,” she would write later. “Nor can you send the Internal Revenue Service a throne clipped to their tax form. The landlord and grocer and tax collector are funny that way: They like cold cash.”
Still driven by her fighting spirit, Althea turned her attention to different fields. A talented saxophonist and singer, she gave music a try. A record album flopped. Attempts at an acting career proved equally unsuccessful. She had a supporting role in John Wayne’s 1959 Civil War classic “The Horse Soldiers,” playing a slave named Lukey (and refusing to talk in the script’s cheesy dialect).
There were a few major TV show appearances — Ed Sullivan and “What’s My Line?” among them — but entertainment didn’t pan out. There were also two failed marriages, a failed run for public office, a string of minor (very minor) product endorsements, and TV sports commentary gigs.
The woman who had won Wimbledon wound up managing East Orange, New Jersey’s recreation department.
The end came slowly and painfully. Two cerebral hemorrhages led to a stroke and a veritable mountain of medical bills. Just as had happened in her youth, friends rallied and raised $1 million in donations from all over the world. A heart attack and more ailments followed until her body finally gave out in 2003.
While her legacy has been largely forgotten outside the sport she grew to love (and to dominate), the trails Gibson blazed have remained. And been trodden by other famous athletes. After all, there would have been no Serena and Venus Williams had Althea Gibson not arrived on that blistering hot Thursday on a Clarendon County cotton farm back in August 1927. And had those around her not seen greatness in her … and given of themselves to help her achieve it.
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at [email protected].
*****
WANNA SOUND OFF?
Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy here at FITSNews! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.
The 2024 South Carolina high school football season is in high gear and SBLive Sports is the place to follow of the live scoring updates and finals.
Follow the action get the most to date scores by tracking the SBLive South Carolina High School Football Scoreboard. We will have in-game score updates and all of the final scores from every corner of the state. You can also search for full schedules and complete scores from all of your very favorite teams.
Here’s a guide to following all of the South Carolina high school football this week.
STATEWIDE SOUTH CAROLINA FOOTBALL SCOREBOARD
CLASS 5A SCORES | CLASS 4A SCORES
CLASS 3A SCORES | CLASS 2A SCORES
CLASS 1A SCORES
SCISA CLASS AAAA | SCISA CLASS AAA
SCISA CLASS AA | SCISA A
2024 SOUTH CAROLINA FOOTBALL SCHEDULES: FIND YOUR TEAM
Can’t make it to your favorite team’s game but still want to watch them live? You can watch dozens of South Carolina high school football games live on the NFHS Network:
WATCH LIVE ON NFHS NETWORK
We also invite you to visit the brand new South Carolina homepage on High School on SI, powered by SBLive Sports, for the latest news, highlights, analysis, scores, photos and information on South Carolina high school sports. Follow our live game coverage and read our feature stories, breaking news, the latest recruiting news, rankings and much more.
Follow SBLive South Carolina throughout the 2024 high school football season for Live Updates, the most up to date Schedules & Scores and complete coverage from the preseason through the state championships!
Be sure to Bookmark High School on SI for all of the latest high school football news.
To get live updates on your phone – as well as follow your favorite teams and top games – you can download the SBLive Sports app: Download iPhone App | Download Android App
— Mitch Stephens | mitch@scorebooklive.com | @highschoolonsi
South-Carolina
ESPN's College Football Playoff Predictor has updated again. Here's where South Carolina stands
ESPN.com’s College Football Playoff predictor isn’t perfect because it applies analytics to a situation that ultimately will be decided by a committee of humans. But it does provide a nice guide and discussion piece about which teams have the best chance to make this year’s College Football Playoff.
Because of that human element, the predictor has been updating twice each week, once on Sunday to account for Saturday’s games and again after the latest CFP rankings are released.
[More for subscribers: What latest rankings mean for South Carolina’s College Football Playoff chances]
While the Gamecocks won their game on Saturday and got a lot of help from the teams around them last week, the logjam of SEC teams ahead of them in Tuesday’s rankings is still limiting their upside at this time.
With the committee putting South Carolina behind fellow three-loss SEC teams Alabama and Ole Miss, the predictor currently gives South Carolina a 20 percent chance of making the 12-team field, which is three percentage points lower than its chances in Sunday’s update.
The Gamecocks do, of course, have one more huge opportunity to pad their resume when they travel to Clemson this weekend to renew the annual rivalry in what may be the biggest game in the matchup’s history.
Beat the Tigers, who are currently No. 12 in the CFP Top 25, and South Carolina’s chances of making the playoff jump to 46 percent, according to the predictor.
While that’s just under a coin flip, it’s also 12 percentage points lower than it was in Sunday’s update.
South Carolina is still very much in the hunt but is going to need to win and play very well against Clemson and get more help around it.
[GamecockCentral: $1 for 7 days]
As a reminder, the CFP committee’s top 12 teams won’t correlate exactly with the 12-team field.
The CFP will consist of the top five highest-ranked conference champions and the next seven highest-ranked at-large schools. The top four conference champions will receive the top four seeds and a first-round bye. The fifth conference champion will be seeded by its CFP ranking. If that ranking is outside of the top 12 it will be seeded 12th as the final team in the field.
The teams seeded 5 through 12 will fight it out in the first round with the winners advancing to the quarterfinal round to face the top four seeds.
The Gamecocks and Tigers are set for a noon showdown Saturday in Clemson.
ESPN Analytics uses FPI to simulate the entire college football season 200,000 times. A committee model is applied to mimic College Football Playoff selections and seeding in order to generate a 12-team bracket for each simulation. The most likely CFP teams are provided for user selections. After user inputs, a likely bracket is generated and randomly simulated using FPI.
South Carolina football superfan Chris Paschal writes a weekly column during the season for GamecockCentral called “The Verdict.” Chris is a lawyer at Goings Law Firm in Columbia.
It will have been 44,592 days since Clemson students marched onto our campus with guns drawn when the Gamecocks take the field this Saturday in Death Valley. Back in 1902, Clemson students were mad because of a cartoon that depicted a Gamecock whipping a Tiger.
They marched on our campus, ready to cause bodily harm, over a cartoon. For 44,592 days, Clemson students, fans, coaches, players, and administrators have done everything but declare war on South Carolina to ensure they remain the superior football program in the state.
In 1902 there was more than just the cartoon. In 1902, Carolina beat Clemson.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution put it best following the game: the Clemson Tiger “was so successfully tamed this morning by Carolina. Its tail was twisted and twisted by the sturdy ‘pig skin pushers’ of Carolina, and after two hours and more of hard battle it gave up further fight, for time was called and it became as tame as the proverbial lamb.”
Carolina upset Clemson who at the time was led by John Heisman and was considered one of the great southern football powers. I think that too probably had a little something to do with the hostilities and hurt feelings coming from the Clemson students.
[GamecockCentral: Subscribe for $1 for 7 days]
For the 121st time this Saturday, it will be Carolina and Clemson playing a football game against each other. And while we are past the days of armed invasions, you can’t help but think this Saturday’s showdown may be the most consequential in the series’ history.
There have certainly been big matchups in years past. I am not discounting 1987. I am not overlooking 1979. I understand 2011-2013 featured some great teams. But this coming Saturday, both Clemson and Carolina will still be alive and in contention to bring home a national title.
The chances for both are not significant, but they are legitimate. For the first time in the entirety of the rivalry’s history, both Carolina and Clemson fans can hope that with a win over their hated rival they are one step closer to a playoff berth, which means one more step closer in the quest for a national championship.
Hopefully, the players donning the garnet and black won’t think similar thoughts as they run out onto the field for what should be a cold but sunny day. This game to the players needs to be about one thing: beating a team they are better than.
In continuing the list of firsts, for the first time in roughly a decade, South Carolina will have what I consider to be the better football team when they kick the ball off against Clemson. I think we have a better defense, I think we have a better offensive line, I think we have skill position players that are just as good as Clemson’s (if not better), and I think we have the better quarterback.
But that is what I think. I am an attorney. I am a fan. Clemson players won’t just roll over because I declared we have the better team. In fact, I expect this Dabo Swinney-led Clemson football team to fight like hell in an effort to keep their thumb still firmly on top of us.
Like Clemson fans, I think Clemson football players and coaches also think it is their birthright to beat the Gamecocks. And why shouldn’t they?
Clemson has won eight out of the last nine against Carolina. They have danced on our sidelines in the fourth quarter to Sandstorm, they have talked about how they think they will dominate us; they have talked about how we aren’t the real USC nor are we the real Carolina.
Underneath this façade of respect and admiration for this year’s Carolina team, Clemson fans (and I assume players) quietly assume 2024 will be just like most other recent years. They assume the moment will be too big, they assume the ghosts of years past will be too much, and they assume that by about 3:30 in the afternoon, Carolina will have once again not been physically or mentally strong enough to defeat Clemson.
[Get our free newsletter! Don’t rely on search engines and social media for your Gamecock info.]
But I also think these assumptions, which often manifest themself in a holier-than-thou arrogance, stem from a small shred of doubt and fear that has crept into their minds. Carolina fans had no idea Clemson was passing the Gamecocks as a football program until it was too late. From 2009-2013, Carolina won five straight over Clemson. They assumed Clemson and their bumpkin coach were finally second fiddle to the Gamecocks. They ignored Clemson’s recruiting successes, they explained away Clemson’s double-digit win seasons as illegitimate due to being in the ACC, and they watched Clemson build a juggernaut that had passed Carolina in a very real and lasting way by 2014.
All it took was one whipping in 2014 for Carolina fans to realize that Clemson was now on a path that would destroy Gamecock hopes and dreams for many years to come. That feeling of “oh, crap” that Carolina fans felt in the few weeks leading up to the 2014 Clemson games, I wonder if Clemson fans are feeling that very same thing leading up to this Saturday’s game.
Maybe the thought of Carolina passing Clemson as a program hasn’t even crossed their minds. Maybe it is absurd that I would mention that in this column. Maybe by the final snap on Saturday, Clemson will have soundly defeated Carolina and made me and so many hopeful Gamecock fans look foolish.
Or maybe Harbor, Kennard, Stewart, Hemingway, Sanders, Knight, Emmanwori, Sellers, and so many other Gamecock stalwarts are capable of handling business and showing we do have the better team.
A win this weekend could be program defining. It at the very least could be season defining.
Is Shane Beamer and this Gamecock program always a bridesmaid but never the bride? Or is this team going to let this state and this nation understand that this is a new type of Gamecock football program?
We won’t know until Saturday, but I will be in Clemson cheering Carolina on, with the hope – the belief – that we will see that latter. Let’s tame the tiger once again into the proverbial lamb.
Forever to thee.
Game 7: Michigan vs. Xavier Recap | UM Hoops.com
Rain impacting Thanksgiving football games, road races in Massachusetts
Minnesota hosts Los Angeles following Harden’s 43-point game
Thanksgiving on Mississippi Public Broadcasting Think Radio, set to air on Thursday, November 28th
Missouri star Caleb Grill taken to hospital, is responsive after scary head and neck injury in win over Lindenwood
Colorado Rockies game no. 116 thread: Zac Gallen vs José Ureña
See it: Tesla crashes into Columbus convention center at 70 mph
Fox News Politics: Georgia the whole day through
Why Marjorie Taylor Greene was ‘kicked out’ of the Freedom Caucus according to Rep. Buck
Death of missing Oregon girl found in stream ruled homicide
Appeals court rules Texas has right to build razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration: 'Huge win'
Vote on new Commission signals EU Parliament instability and ambiguity
Zuckerberg dines with Trump in Mar-a-Lago
Homan taking death threats against him ‘more seriously’ after Trump officials targeted with violent threats
Biden OKs $680m Israel arms sale despite new Gaza ceasefire push: Reports
-
Science1 week agoTrump nominates Dr. Oz to head Medicare and Medicaid and help take on 'illness industrial complex'
-
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25739950/247386_Elon_Musk_Open_AI_CVirginia.jpg "Inside Elon Musk’s messy breakup with OpenAI")
Technology1 week agoInside Elon Musk’s messy breakup with OpenAI
-
Health5 days agoHoliday gatherings can lead to stress eating: Try these 5 tips to control it
-
News1 week agoThey disagree about a lot, but these singers figure out how to stay in harmony
-
Health2 days agoCheekyMD Offers Needle-Free GLP-1s | Woman's World
-
Science2 days agoDespite warnings from bird flu experts, it's business as usual in California dairy country
-
Politics1 week agoSize of slim Republican House majority hangs on 5 uncalled races
-
World1 week agoBangladesh ex-ministers face ‘massacre’ charges, Hasina probe deadline set