December’s devastating violence in Connecticut took 26 innocent lives. Out of this darkness 26 points of light come to mind.
1. ARTHUR ASHE: Wise and elegant, he fought apartheid, AIDS, ignorance and injustice for Haitian refugees. Plus, while in the Cameroons, he spotted a kid playing with a homemade racket. He promptly took the 11-year old Yannick Noah under his wing and the rest is (Hall of Fame) history.
2. ANDRE AGASSI: How does such a self-absorbed dropout evolve into a tireless humanitarian who has transformed the lives of thousands of kids? Read the book.
3. ANDREA JAEGER: The world’s former No. 2 player, became an Episcopalian nun and created a Colorado haven to comfort kids with cancer.
4. THE DUCHESS OF KENT: Dismiss it as but a moment in time (by an entitled royal no less,) but when at the ’93 Wimbledon when the Duchess of Kent comforted the weeping Jana Novotna, her simple, caring action delivered a touching message seen around the world.
5. BRAD PARKS: Paralyzed by a devastating ski accident, Parks turned a disaster into a huge benefit for thousands when he pioneered the concept of wheelchair tennis. (Just wondering: can gun control somehow emerge from the tears of Newtown?.)
6. Billie Jean King: Ms. Billie has done so much including staging the annual fundraiser she has with Elton John to combat AIDS.
7. AISIAM-UL-HAQ QUERESHI: The Pakistani first drew (‘give peace a chance’) attention when he made a run at Wimbledon with an Israeli partner, Amir Hadad. Then he teamed with the Indian doubles specialist Rohan Bopanna to create the (“Stop War, Start Tennis”) Indo-Pak Express whose goal was to forge peace between India and Pakistan.
8. ALICE MARBLE AND ANGELA BUXTON: In a time of relentless racism, the great American champion, Alice Marble wrote a pivotal letter to the American Lawn Tennis Magazine urging authorities to allow the African-American Althea Gibson to compete in a then whites only sport. Then Brit Angela Buxton befriended Gibson and the duo won the ’56 Wimbledon doubles title.
9. PETER BURWASH: The tireless entrepreneur runs tennis programs at many of the snazziest resorts around this globe. Still each year he goes to India to build wells, schools and water plants. Heroic.
10. STEFFI GRAF: Proud and Teutonic, Mrs. Agassi may not project a fuzzy, accessible warmth, but her work for kids traumatized by war has healed many a wound.
11. ROGER FEDERER: From Ethiopia to South Africa, Fed’s Foundation works educational wonders. (And duh, the guy does play with an athletic grace that gets you kind of dreamy.)
12. GUSTAVO KUERTEN: It was said that the Brazilian “had this look in his eyes. There’s love there. It’s almost religious.” So maybe it’s not surprising that after avoiding a shock upset at the ’01 French Open, Guga drew a heart in the clay and then collapsed in it in relief and poignantly expressed the passion and joy of a game at its best.
13. DR. WALTER JOHNSON: Long before there were tennis academies. Long before there were “I Have a Dream” visionaries or a stadium named after Ashe, there was a Virginia Doctor – the Godfather of of black tennis – who took Jim Crow culture in his own hands and created his own player development program as black players (including a skinny kid named Ashe) came to live, all expenses paid, at his house and hone their skills.
14. BUD COLLINS: His pants are loud. His puns, upon occasion, may fizzle. But what other media guy has approached the game with more love?
15. ANDY RODDICK: Macho dudes have heart. Hello! For instance, Roddick was inspired by the work of Lance Armstrong and Agassi, and for years his foundation has done groundbreaking inner city work in Texas.
16. THE USTA: Snipe at our federation all you want, but remember the group named their U.S. Open center court after Ashe and their National Tennis Center for Billie Jean.
17: KIMIKO DATE-KRUMM: The seemingly timeless Japanese star has worked to create schools in Laos.
18. INNER CITY WARRIORS: From Oakland and East Palo Alto to L.A. and Harlem, dedicated groups or giving individuals bring tennis to hardscrabble neighborhoods.
19. MARTINA NAVRATILOVA: The cutting-edge champion has, so to speak, “climbed many mountains.” She didn’t summit Mt. Kilimanjaro, but her effort to reach the top of the African mountain drew international attention to the fight breast cancer.
20. PATRICK RAFTER: The generous down under mate went over the top, donating $600,000 of his earnings from winning the U.S. Open in ’97 and 98 to a foundation which cares for terminally ill kids in Brisbane.
21. MARIA SHARAPOVA: Yeah, there is a part of her that is an ample diva. But don’t grunt. Remember, her family fled from the Chernobyl disaster in ‘86 and now the beauty does beautiful work to help the survivors.
22. HELICOPTER MAMAS AND PAPAS: Up at the crack of dawn, tough love parents from Bulgaria (think of Maleeva sisters’ mother) to exhausted single mothers in Burbank, tote their dream-chasing kids to tourneys and training, near and far.
23. RAFAEL NADAL: What’s the connection between Spain and India? Not much you think, but the Spanish idol established a sports school, complete with fancy computers and high hopes, in an outback town in Andra Pradesh.
24. ANNA KOURNIKOVA: You say the curvy (but title-less) phenom is the poster child for narcissism. Okay, but the Russian did incredible charity work in Haiti.
25. ZHENG JIE: The No. 133 ranked Chinese wild-card gave all the winnings from her run to the semis at the ‘08 Wimbledon to earthquake relief in Szechuan.
26. YANNICK NOAH: Whether embracing his Dad in a memorable French Open hug or engaging the game with a singular humanistic eye, the Frenchman, at his best, brought a singular perspective and humanism. He once told IT, “Who’s saying let’s make all this a little bit quieter? Who’s there to lead us and say, ‘OK, let’s just have a peace. How about enjoying each other’s differences?’ All I hear is how different we are.”
