ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 27, 1996 TAG: 9602270096
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: Associated Press
A businessman who has contributed $500,000 for a new University of Virginia tennis complex that he wants named in memory of Arthur Ashe also wants Ashe's papers at the university's library.
Sheridan Snyder, a pallbearer at Ashe's funeral and a longtime friend of the tennis star, believes the university may be able to win the letters and research papers over Ashe's alma mater, UCLA, and Yale, where he taught.
``I will tell you without question that we are the most aggressive by far of those universities,'' Snyder said. ``So it's something, quite frankly, I'm confident will come about.''
Snyder told The Daily Progress of Charlottesville that he is trying to persuade Ashe's widow, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, that UVa should be the repository for his papers.
A telephone call to the Ashe residence in New York was not answered Monday.
Ashe, a native of Richmond, as a child was not allowed to play tennis on the city's tennis courts, then restricted to whites. He left Virginia as a teen-ager, becoming the first black man to win Wimbledon. He was a forceful spokesman for civil rights before he died in 1993 from AIDS, which he contracted through a blood transfusion.
Snyder said his ultimate goal is for the library to put Ashe's life story on the Internet.
``I don't want Arthur's life beyond tennis and AIDS to be forgotten,'' Snyder said.
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