*On this date in 1990, the first Black Woman executive in major league baseball MLB was named.
Elaine Weddington Steward was named assistant general manager of the Boston Red Sox of the American League.
learn more*Angel Goodrich was born on this date in 1990. She is a Black, Native American former professional basketball player and firefighter. Angel Goodrich was born to Jonathan and Fayth (Goodrich) Lewis in Glendale, Arizona. Jonathan is Black, and Fayth is Native American (Cherokee). Goodrich herself is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation. Goodrich has two siblings, […]
learn moreOn this date in 1990, the first African American woman was named assistant coach in Division I NCAA basketball. Bernadette Locke was hired at the University of Kentucky.
Locke was born in Lockwood, TN. She was a former All-American at the University of Georgia. She holds a BA in Education and remained there as an assistant coach for four years.
Locke then moved to the head coaching position of University of Kentucky’s women’s basketball program from 1995 to 2003.
learn more*On this date in 1990, Ken Griffey Sr. and his son Ken Griffey Jr. both on the Seattle Mariners homered in consecutive at-bats against the Anaheim Angels.
In the first inning, Senior hit a two-run homer and Junior a solo shot. Both father and son playing together was a first for major league baseball.
learn more*The opening of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) occurred on this date in 1990. NLBM is a privately funded museum dedicated to preserving the history of Negro League Baseball in America. It was founded in Kansas City, Missouri, in the historic 18th & Vine District, the hub of the Black cultural activity in Kansas […]
learn more*Blake Bolden was born on this date in 1991. She is a (retired) Black women’s professional ice hockey player and current National Hockey League scout. Blake Alexis Bolden began following the Cleveland Lumberjacks of the International Hockey League (IHL) in Stow, Ohio. Her father worked for the team and helped her meet many players. She […]
learn more*”Bubba” Wallace was born on this date in 1993. He is a Black professional stock car racing driver. The son of Darrell Wallace Sr. and Desiree Wallace, he was born in Mobile, Alabama, and grew up in Concord, North Carolina. His father owns an industrial cleaning company, and his mother is a social worker […]
learn moreOn this date in 1997 the first African American professional golfer won the Master Golf Tournament.
21-year-old Eldrick “Tiger” Woods also became the youngest player to ever win the Masters. He shot an 18 under par 270 to receive the traditional Green Jacket and the $486,000 first-place prize.
learn more*Naomi Osaka was born on this date in 1997. She is a Black Japanese professional tennis player. She was born in Chūō-Ku, Osaka, in Japan, to Tamaki Osaka and Leonard François. Her mother is from Hokkaido, Japan, and her father is from Jacmel, Haiti. She has an older sister named Mari, a professional tennis player. The […]
learn moreOn this date in 1999, Serena Williams became the first African American woman to win the USA Open since Althea Gibson won it in 1958.
In 2013, she won her fifth USA Open title!
learn moreOn this date in 2000, the first Black jockey in 79 years rode in the Kentucky Derby.
Marlon St. Julien was the first Black jockey since 1921 to ride in the world’s most famous horse race. St. Julien rode Curule, a 50-to-1 long shot who earned a spot in the 19-horse field when another horse, Harlan Traveler, pulled out.
Curule is owned by Godolphin Racing, which represents two sheiks who are members of Dubai’s ruling family. St. Julien finished 7th in the 2000 Kentucky Derby.
learn more*On this date in 2000, the first African American man made the U.S. Olympic Swimming team.
Anthony Ervin of Valencia, Calif., qualified in the men’s 50-meter freestyle. The meet took place at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in Indianapolis; Indiana.
Ervin, (then) 19 years old also swam on the 400-meter freestyle relay team at the Sydney Games.
learn more*On this date in 2001, the first woman coach in men’s professional sports was chosen. Twenty-five year old Stephanie Ready is also African American.
In professional sports, both women and men have coached women’s teams and men have coached themselves; women have never coached men-until now. On this date Ready began her job as assistant coach of the Greenville (S. C.) Groove, a team in the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) development league (NBDL); their new minor league.
learn moreOn this date in 2001, two African American women decided the women’s U.S. Open tennis tournament championship for the first time. The opponents were sisters, Serena Williams and Venus Williams.
Additionally this was the first Grand Slam final between African Americans and the sisters had not played in a slam final since 1984 at Wimbledon. Venus Williams (21) and Serena Williams (19) from Compton, CA., played two sets at the Arthur Ashe stadium in New York City with Venus winning 6-2, 6-4.
learn moreOn this date in 2001, Shani Davis became the first African American to qualify for the United States Olympic speed skating team.
Davis, a former roller skater from Chicago, beat his close friend and world cup champion Apolo Ohno in the 1,000 meter short-track final held in Kearns, Utah, qualifying for the 2002 Salt Lake Games. Davis (then 19 years old) needed the 987 points that went with first place in order to finish sixth, knocking 1998 Olympian Tommy O’Hare off the team. O’Hare stormed out of the Olympic Oval without talking to reporters.
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