On this day in 1975, tennis legend Arthur Ashe achieved the pinnacle of his athletic career, winning the men’s singles championship at Wimbledon. He was the first African American man to do so.

“When I took the match point, all the years, all the effort, all the support I had received came together,” he said. The win came just five days before his 31st birthday.

“Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome,” Ashe believed. His words were as steady as his swing.

Yet, life dealt him heavy blows. At 35, Ashe suffered a heart attack while leading a tennis clinic in New York. More heart complications followed. In 1983, a routine blood transfusion during bypass surgery left him infected with HIV.

Ashe met the bad with as much grace as the good. Just two months before his death in 1993, he addressed the United Nations General Assembly, urging greater funding for AIDS research. He also established the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the defeat of AIDS.

Journalist and friend Bryant Gumbel said it best: “He was an ambassador of what was right. He was an ambassador of dignity. He was an ambassador of class.”

Arthur Ashe didn’t just play tennis—he lived with quiet strength. He showed the world how to win with humility, lose with dignity, and live with unshakable heart.