Bob Ryland was a professional tennis player who was the first Black player to compete professionally.A U.S.
Army veteran of World War II, Ryland went on to play tennis at Detroit’s Wayne University after the war on a tennis scholarship, becoming one of the first Black players to compete in NCAA championships.
After some breaks in his education, Ryland graduated from Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State College with a degree in physical education in 1955, just a year before Althea Gibson (1927 – 2003) became the first Black tennis player to win a Grand Slam title in the famed circuit of amateur competitions.
Ryland was teaching tennis in New York in 1959 when promoter Jack Marsh asked him to play in the World Pro Championships in.
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