Oral Histories

Interview of Allen Fox

Interviewed because of connection to tennis player Arthur Ashe. Fox and Ashe both played on the UCLA men’s tennis team, though a year apart. In 1963, they both debuted at Wimbledon as doubles partners.
Series:
Purpose Served: An Oral History of the Exemplary Life of Arthur Ashe, 1943-1993
Topic:
African American History
Sports
Biographical Note:
Interviewed because of connection to tennis player Arthur Ashe. Fox and Ashe both played on the UCLA men’s tennis team, though a year apart. In 1963, they both debuted at Wimbledon as doubles partners.
Interviewer:
Nwonye, Chinyere
Interviewee:
Fox, Allen
Persons Present:
Fox, Nwonye, and Fox’s wife, Nancy, who was briefly present towards the end of the interview.
Place Conducted:
The interview was conducted using the Zoom video conferencing platform.
Supporting Documents:
Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library’s Center for Oral History Research.
Interviewer Background and Preparation:
The interview was conducted by Chinyere Nwonye, an interviewer for the Arthur Ashe Oral History project as part of the UCLA Arthur Ashe Legacy Center. Chinyere is a graduate of UCLA with a background in neuroscience and African American Studies.The interviewer prepared for the interview by reading Arthur Ashe’s Advantage Ashe (1967); Arthur Ashe and Neil Amdur’s Off the Court (1981); Arthur Ashe and Arnold Rampersad’s Days of Grace: A Memoir (1993); Raymond Arsenault’s Arthur Ashe: A Life (2018); various archival articles from the Los Angeles Times and Daily Bruin.
Processing of Interview:
The interviewer prepared a timed log of the audio recording of the interview. The interviewee was given the opportunity to review the log in order to supply missing or misspelled names and to verify the accuracy of the content.
Length:
2.75 hrs
Language:
English
Copyright:
Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.
Audio:
Series Statement:
Purpose Served: An Oral History of the Exemplary Life of Arthur Ashe, 1943-1993 is an initiative of the Arthur Ashe Legacy Fund (AALF) at UCLA and is funded by AALF and by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. By launching an oral history project to document and capture the firsthand recollections of Ashe’s colleagues, associates, family, and friends, UCLA was fulfilling its commitment to the Arthur Ashe Learning Center to document and disseminate the considerable impact of one of its most significant graduates.In his memoir Days of Grace Arthur Ashe stated, "I don't want to be remembered for my tennis accomplishments.” Although this series provides a comprehensive account of Ashe’s considerable accomplishments as a tennis player, it also offers a substantial number of first-person accounts of historical moments and stories beyond the scope of tennis. Ashe’s ascent in the tennis world coincided with many important developments in the sport: the onset of the Open Era, the shift from a mostly “country club” sport to the public arena, the commercialization of tennis, and the rise of the celebrity athlete. But his life also intersected with a number of significant milestone in the second half of the twentieth century, including the civil rights and women’s movements, the Vietnam War, the fall of apartheid in South Africa, and the AIDS/HIV crisis. In their reflections on Ashe’s work and activism, participants in this series share stories of his engagement with these crucial moments in U.S. history. Finally, the series also contains information about segregation; student life at UCLA in the 1960s; ROTC; West Point; Black life in Richmond, Virginia and St. Louis, Missouri; the work of TransAfrica and Artists and Athletes against Apartheid; and the relatively unknown histories of the American Tennis Association and Dr. Robert Walter Johnson’s Summer Tennis Camp.Interviewees were sought across the country and internationally, reflecting Ashe’s broad swath of associates and his status as a prominent athlete and a respected public intellectual. Although the series reflects his entire life, special attention was given to locating childhood friends, military associates, and fellow students in St. Louis and at UCLA. Participants who could speak of his devotion to support youth in the sport and his activism were also included in this series.The series commenced months before the COVID-19 pandemic, so many of the initial interviews align with traditional oral history methodology in being conducted in person. After stay-at-home orders were initiated across the country in March of 2020, interviews were conducted via the Zoom video conferencing platform. Many of these sessions were preserved on video recordings as well as audio recordings.
Allen Fox is born in Chicago, Illinois in 1939 – Family lives in Los Angeles, California then Tucson, Arizona where he begins playing tennis at age 14 – Becomes a top-ranked player at age 15 – Earns sponsorship from the Southern California Tennis Association and becomes a guest membership at the Los Angeles Tennis Club – Joins the Junior Davis Cup team in 1957 and earns a tennis scholarship to the University of California, Los Angeles — Plays on the UCLA tennis team and wins the National Collegiate Athletic Association team championship in 1960 and 1961, the doubles championship with Larry Nagler in 1960, and the singles in 1961 — Meets Ashe in 1961 and they play doubles together — Connects with Ashe over shared differences — Being Jewish and navigating tennis club culture — Meets with Ashe to discuss his professional contract offer from World Championship Tennis and a potential business deal with Wesley Pavalon — Reflects on his social and political upbringing and the movements that place during college and graduate school — Plays at Wimbledon with Ashe in 1963 — Sees Ashe for the last time in Saddlebrook, Florida in 1992 and reflects on his legacy.