Bob Ryland

Robert Hayes Ryland (June 16, 1920 – August 2, 2020) was an American tennis player and coach, known for having been the first African-American to play professional tennis. Ryland coached some of the world's top-ranked professionals, including Harold Solomon, Renee Blount, Leslie Allen, Arthur Ashe, Bruce Foxworth, Venus Williams, and Serena Williams. Ryland also taught and coached at clubs in Bermuda, Puerto Rico, St. Alban's Tennis Club in Washington, D.C., and the Mid-Town Tennis Club in Manhattan. Ryland was inducted into the Wayne State University Athletic Hall of Fame, Black Tennis Hall of Fame (2009), and the Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame in 2002, where he also received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.

Early life Ryland was born in Chicago in 1920. After his mother and twin brother died of pneumonia when he was a baby, his father Robert sent him to live with his grandmother in Mobile, Alabama where he helped his great-grandfather pick cotton. After leaving Xavier, Ryland served in the U.S. Army from 1941 to 1945

In 1947 Ryland moved to California, where he played tennis with Pancho Gonzalez. Ryland also broke another barrier at the Los Angeles Tennis Club, Ryland was paid $300 for his appearance.

During the early 1960s Ryland was in Washington, D.C., where he taught tennis to the Kennedys and Robert MacNamara at the St. Alban's Country Club. Bruce Foxworth, Venus Williams and Serena Williams. David Dinkins

Legacy Ryland was the first black tennis player to compete in the NCAA National Championships, the first black player/coach to lead a college team twice to the small college national championships, the first black tennis player to play at the Los Angeles Tennis Club and the first African-American to play tennis professionally. and the Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame in 2002, where he also received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. In 2019, Ryland was inducted into the USTA-Midwest Hall of Fame. Ryland also gave lectures at the Harlem Armory, the Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.