In February 1976, Arthur Ashe – three-time Grand Slam singles champion, including the 1970 Australian Open – and some of his contemporaries happily flew to Nigeria to compete in the Lagos Tennis Classic.
A week later, they were kicked out of court at gunpoint – and quickly fled the country for their lives.
Ashe was the most famous member of the group that flew to Africa for the Lagos-based round of the World Tennis Championship (WCT), which had a $60,000 prize money thanks to business tycoon Olatunji Ajisomo Alabi – popularly known as Lord Rumens.
Ashe was the reigning Wimbledon singles champion, but Tom Okker, Dick Crealy, Jeff Borowiak and Brian Fairlie were also in attendance.
The tournament’s big claim at the time was that it was the first of its kind in black Africa.
Coincidentally, Brazilian soccer icon Pele was also in Nigeria in February on a Pepsi-sponsored ambassador tour.
Director of Nigeria’s International Tennis Academy, Godwin Kienka, remembers it as a great moment for sports fans in the country.
“Arthur Ashe was as famous as Pelé in football. It was a good omen,” he recalls.
“It just so happened that two great sportsmen were in the country at the same time.”
Expelled from the field
The Lagos Lawn Tennis Club (LLTC) tournament had gone off without a hitch until Friday, February 13, the fourth day of the Open.
It was the day that General Murtala Mohammed, the Nigerian Head of State, was assassinated on his way to work in Lagos as part of an attempted military coup.
Nevertheless, the tournament organizers – led by WCT International Director John McDonald – pressed for the tournament to continue, despite the chaos that was beginning to grip the country.
Matches resumed on Sunday, February 15, with four Americans – Dick Stockton, Bob Lutz, Ashe and Borowiak – in the quarterfinals.
A day later, the LLTC was packed with spectators on center court excitedly taking their places to watch Ashe play her semi-final match against Borowiak.
But, just at the start, five men walked onto the court and stopped the game.
“Arthur Ashe was actually playing a game when the army guys – upset about the coup and the murder of Murtala Mohammed – arrived,” Kienka recalled, picking up the story.
“And they said, ‘What are you doing here? “”
According to Kienka, Ashe and Borowiak raised their hands in a motion to surrender. They were told “get out of here” and then “they drove [Ashe] with a gun.”
As events unfolded, the capacity crowd also began to flee, running from the stadium into the street.
Kienka told BBC Sport Africa how Ashe walked into the locker room where the tournament director was locked up. From there, they rushed through the crowd until they found a taxi sent by the United States Embassy to pick them up.
“Then when they pulled into traffic, the car couldn’t move,” he added.
“They got off and started running towards the embassy. They just found the next plane out of the country.
“They couldn’t have continued, it was too traumatic for them.”
A legacy in Lagos
Ashe had played a pivotal role in the WCT’s decision to hold the event in Lagos in the first place; he had previously visited Nigeria in 1970 with fellow American tennis star Stan Smith as part of a US State Department goodwill tour.
Despite how it ended, Nigerian Tennis Federation president Ifedayo Akindoju believes the impact of Ashe’s visit cannot be underestimated.
“Arthur Ashe brought two things: he came to Nigeria to play tennis and gave Nigerians confidence that they can excel at this game as well,” he said.
“We didn’t have to travel to the US, we didn’t have to travel to the UK – tennis was right under our noses here in Lagos. We saw the same game being played with the same racquet that we hold.
“Secondly, soon after, we had a lot of Nigerians – up until the early 1980s – who even went so far as to play in Grand Slam tournaments.
Nigeria have never had a Grand Slam champion, but Kienka says Ashe’s momentous visit brought domestic success.
“Young boys who were ball boys and tournament officials still talk about it today,” the ITA manager said.
“Many of them became national champions in the country. The inspiration came from visiting Arthur Ashe.”
Indeed, Kienka believes it ultimately led to a “golden age” of Nigerian tennis.
“The impact lives on, the legacy is huge,” he said.
“It’s the same as when you have Messi, or Ronaldo, or Mbappe coming to Nigeria and playing football with kids in schools.
“The impact they have on their sporting career cannot be quantified. And that is in fact what happened.”
