Today is the 69th anniversary of Althea Gibson defeating Darlene Hard, 6–3, 6–2 to become the first African-American champion at Wimbledon in 1957.
Now there is a USC connection. Darlene Hard was a fixture in the production office at USC student publications from 1983-2019. Students who worked at the Daily Trojan or El Rodeo during that period remember her.
She won the U.S. Open in 1960-61 and French Open in 1957. She was runner-up at Wimbledon in 1957 and 1959. She won 13 doubles titles in Grand Slam tournaments.
- Jeff Borzello of ESPN ranks USC men’s basketball No. 12 in the nation in his preseason poll. That seems pretty high.
- Kaleena Smith, the No. 1-ranked girls’ basketball player in the nation from Ontario Christian, will visit USC on Oct. 23. Smith is visiting at least 11 schools.
InsideUSC with Scott Wolf 
Scott, thanks for the information about Darlene Hard. She and Maureen “Little Mo” Connolly were outstanding women tennis players in the 1950’s when Australia had the major players in amateur tennis. Pro tennis was in its infancy with mainly staged matches and not pro tournaments. If a player accepted any money for exhibitions, they were banned from competitive amateur tennis. Open tennis started down the road a few years. Let’s hope that the LG magic continues to work and we get the number one BB player again next year. Fight on, Dan, Class of 1962
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Darlene doesn’t make me hard.
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She did win the doubles with Althea Gibson at Wimbledon in 1957 and two more doubles at Wimbledon 1959, 1960 & 1963
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DON: So a Miss Smith is the No. 1 high school basketball player in the U.S., and she will be visiting “at least 11 schools.” –That’s a lot of shopping around
KAM: Don’t be cynical now, you don’t wear it well
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DON:: –And one predicter has SC basketball at No. 12. I know they have a lot of new talent coming in but can Muscleman coach them
KAM: All these new guys. I always thought it took a year before a basketball team learns to play like a team.
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KAM Anyway, I bet you feel like saying ‘Hey Iran, when is the funeral over?’
DON: It’s time to make a move with Iran over its nuclear program. I got something they want in exchange for nuclear concessions
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Scooter,
Speaking of Darlene’s, how about Darlene Love, the great singer from Hawthrone who sang all those great songs for Phil Spector? You gots to write about her.
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KAM: I turned on the U.S.-Belgium soccer match and at first I thought the Americans were in white, and so I cheered wildly for a goal only to find out that it was Belgium in white. Turned out that was about the only exciting moment I had
DON: The U.S. isn’t quite ready to battle the Europeans. They have been playing the game a lot longer than we have
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KAM: Saw a cute cartoon where the U.S. soccer player is shown receiving a Red Card by the ref, and then the player pulls out a card with your picture on it
DON: –Just trying to help out whenever I can
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