(July 13)
So, what does Wimbledon tennis have to do with a New Orleans inspector general’s critical report about the New Orleans Recreation and Development Commission and its supporting foundation?
Not much, really, except in my own mind. But bear with me, because NORD is really important.
Many of you may be reading this on Sunday morning as the Wimbledon men’s final is on TV in the background. The former sports writer in me really wanted to write about the 50th anniversary of the great Wimbledon drama of 1975, wherein Americans Arthur Ashe and Jimmy Connors competed in one of the great grudge matches of all time. It made a huge impression on me.
At the time, Ashe was the captain of the U.S. squad in the Davis Cup, the international competition wherein the players compete as a team, representing their country. Connors refused to play in the Davis Cup, choosing instead to play in lucrative exhibition matches. Ashe had responded by calling Connors “unpatriotic,” after which Connors sued Ashe for defamation — news that broke just before Wimbledon began.
When both reached the finals, Ashe arrived on court in a “USA” sweat jacket — and proceeded to thoroughly out-think Connors for a 6-1, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 victory.
Watching as an 11-year-old, I was impressed. Here was Ashe, a Black, motherless child (she died when he was six) who grew up amid nasty segregation in Confederate-revering Richmond, Virginia, fiercely and proudly expressing love of his nation. Connors, a White, private-school child of relative privilege, was the one more interested in cash than country.
And the patriot — the man who concentrated on the blessings of America rather than the way it treated him for his first quarter-century as a second-class citizen — was the one who won….
But … let’s get back here to Louisiana in the here and now. (Trust me, there is a topical connection here.) For months, I’ve tracked (and written a column about) the situation at NORD, which had allowed some of its facilities to deteriorate embarrassingly and which was late in paying its summer lifeguards, all as an inspector general analyzed its operations…. [To see what the link is between Ashe and NORD, read here.]
