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General First nameJimmie Pierce
LastnameMcDaniel
GenderMale
CountryUnited States of America
Date of birth1916-09-04
Place of birthGreenville, Alabama, United States of America
Date of death1990-03-08
Place of deathLos Angeles, California, United States of America


About

From Wikipedia (adapted and expanded): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmie_McDaniel

Jimmie McDaniel was born in Greenville, Alabama and raised in Los Angeles, where he attended Manual Arts High School. His father, Willis McDaniel, was a former baseball player in the Negro leagues who worked as a railroad porter in Los Angeles; his mother, Ruby McDaniel (née Harrison), was a domestic worker. Jimmie was the youngest of their six children.

Although the only black player on his high school’s tennis squad, McDaniel was the highest ranked player at the school. In 1935, McDaniel played Bobby Riggs in a practice match while both were still in high school. At the time of the match Riggs was ranked as the number one junior player in the country and McDaniel had only been playing for two years. McDaniel would lose to Riggs in an 11-13 second set.

McDaniel continued his tennis career by winning the 1938 Southern California Men’s Singles Open title and shared the doubles title with his brother Al McDaniel. This tournament formed part of the tour in which only black players took part because they were prohibited at that time from taking part in tournaments held on the “regular” tennis circuit. Jimmie McDaniel was eventually recruited by Olympian Ralph Metcalfe for a track scholarship to Xavier University in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he soon switched his full efforts to tennis.

During his time at Xavier University, McDaniel won numerous championships among the then-segregated ranks of black tennis players. Prohibited from taking part in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships, the lefthander dominated a black college circuit that included schools like Tuskegee, Hampton, and Prairie View.

In the spring of 1939, still as a college freshman, McDaniel became the national champion, when he won the men’s singles title at the American Tennis Association (ATA) Championships. That year he shared the men’s doubles title at the ATA Championships with his fellow student, Richard Cohen. Between 1939 and 1941, McDaniel would win the men’s singles title at the Prairie View Intercollegiate, the Southwestern Open, the North Carolina Open, the Eastern Sectional Open, the Southern Intercollegiate Sectionals, the New York Open, and the ATA tournament. Paired with Richard Cohen, he won the men’s doubles title at the North Carolina Open, the South Carolina Open, the Eastern Sectional Open, and the New York Open. In 1941, McDaniel won the men’s singles title at the ATA Championships for the second time. He finished his collegiate career at Xavier University in 1942.

On 29 July 1940, McDaniel unofficially broke tennis’s colour barrier by participating in an exhibition match against Don Budge that received widespread attention. At the time, The Cosmopolitan Club in Harlem served as the headquarters of the American Tennis Association (ATA) – home to the nation’s black players – and the Budge-McDaniel exhibition was held there in conjunction with an ATA tournament.

For the first time since tennis arrived in the United States six decades earlier, a white player and a black player met in a top-level match. Two thousand people crammed the club’s stands to capacity while others leaned out windows and crowded onto the fire escapes that overlooked the court. Those who didn’t have a view could hear the score called on a public address system. Prominent tennis writer Al Laney was on hand for the occasion, and he praised Budge for “performing an important service for the good of the game.” Budge won the match 6-1, 6-2.

Although hailed as a step forward for black tennis players, the event would all but be forgotten with the onset of World War II. It would be another ten years before Althea Gibson took the next step in 1950 by integrating tennis at the United States National Championships (now the U.S. Open) at Forest Hills.

After the U.S. entered World War II in 1941, Jimmie McDaniel put aside his tennis racket and moved to Los Angeles to work at a Lockheed Martin aircraft factory. McDaniel would return to the tennis courts in the late 1950s. By then he was allowed to walk into white clubs and enter USTA events, and he eventually earned a Top 20 national ranking in the 60-and-overs category.

Jimmie McDaniel married Audrey Williams circa 1941 in Los Angeles. They had five children together – three sons and two daughters – but later divorced. On 23 November 1977 in Los Angeles, Jimmie McDaniel married again, his second wife being Eastlynne Pearl Morgan (1926-2007), who was originally from Panama. Jimmie McDaniel worked as a postman in Los Angeles. He died in that city in March 1990 at the age of 73.

Media


Archive statistics Career1939 - 1954
Tournament wins4
Matches13
Match wins10


Tournament wins 1954 - West Hollywood (Open)
1941 - American Tennis Association Championships (Open)
1940 - American Tennis Association Championships (Open)
1939 - American Tennis Association Championships (Open)


Tournaments West Hollywood - 1954 Los Angeles Public Parks - 1953 American Tennis Association Championships - 1946 American Tennis Association Championships - 1945 American Tennis Association Championships - 1941 American Tennis Association Championships - 1940 American Tennis Association Championships - 1939