Reginald Weir

Reginald Storum Weir (September 30, 1911 – August 22, 1987) was an American tennis player and physician.[1][2]

Tennis

Weir was captain of the City College of New York men's tennis team. After graduating from CCNY in 1931, he was American Tennis Association (ATA) national champion in 1931, 1932, 1933, 1937, and 1942.[1]

With the support of the NAACP, Weir and a partner originally attempted to play at a United States Lawn Tennis Association's (USLTA)-sponsored indoor tournament in 1929, but they were turned away when organizers realized he was African-American.[3] Later, in 1948, he successfully gained entrance to the USLTA's National Indoor Tournament in New York, becoming the first African-American man to play at a USLTA event.[4][5] He won his first-round game on March 11, 1948,[6] but did not advance further. His entrance to the tournament was the result of several years of lobbying by the ATA, and paved the way for Althea Gibson to be accepted and advance to the quarterfinals the following year.[7]

Outside of tennis

Weir was born on September 30, 1911 in Washington, D.C. A resident of Fair Lawn, New Jersey, he died there on August 22, 1987.[3] Weir was a graduate of the medical school of New York University and practiced family medicine from 1935 to 1985.[3]

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References
  1. Kirsch, George B.; Harris, Othello; Nolte, Claire Elaine (April 30, 2000). Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-313-29911-7. Retrieved December 20, 2012.
  2. Andrews, David L.; Jackson, Steven J. (2001). Sport Stars: The Cultural Politics of Sporting Celebrity. Taylor & Francis Group. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-415-22119-1. Retrieved December 20, 2012.
  3. Wiggins, David K. (March 26, 2015). African Americans in Sports. Routledge. ISBN 9781317477433.
  4. Edelson, Paula (January 1, 2002). A to Z of American Women in Sports. Infobase Publishing. p. 90. ISBN 978-1-4381-0789-9. Retrieved December 20, 2012.
  5. Jr., Robert L. Harris; Terborg-Penn, Professor Rosalyn (October 6, 2008). The Columbia Guide to African American History Since 1939. Columbia University Press. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-231-13811-6. Retrieved December 20, 2012.
  6. Grasso, John (September 16, 2011). Historical Dictionary of Tennis. Scarecrow Press. p. 19. ISBN 9780810872370.
  7. Lansbury, Jennifer H. (April 1, 2014). A Spectacular Leap: Black Women Athletes in Twentieth-Century America. University of Arkansas Press. p. 105. ISBN 9781610755429.
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