In 49 short years, Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. left a legacy for the ages.

	In 1975, Ashe became the first black man to win Wimbledon, one of his three Grand Slam titles.

On the court, Ashe is best remembered for the cool manner in which he dismantled the heavily-favored and defending-champion Jimmy Connors at Wimbledon in 1975, becoming the first black man to win the prestigious All-England Club event. But his record as a trailblazer started much earlier than that.

In 1963, while a student at UCLA, Ashe was the first African-American ever picked for U.S. Davis Cup team. In 1964, he won the prestigious Johnston Award, given to the American tennis player who contributes the most to the growth of the sport while exhibiting good sportsmanship and character. He won NCAA individual and team championships for UCLA in 1965, the U.S. Open in 1968 (as an amateur) and the Australian Open in 1970.

But to measure Arthur Ashe by his on-court accomplishments alone misses the essence of the man entirely. Even as a player Ashe began to involve himself in other things. In 1968, he helped create the National Junior Tennis League, a program designed to develop inner-city tennis players. In 1969, he helped found the ATP.

He didn't confine his world view to tennis, either. In 1969, he applied for a visa to play in the South African Open. When his request was denied because of his race, he called for South Africa to be expelled from the tennis tour and Davis Cup play. His bold stand began to raise the world's awareness of South Africa's apartheid government.

Four years later, South Africa granted Ashe a visa, and he became the first black man to play a tennis tournament in that country.

When congenital heart disease forced him to retire in 1980, he turned his energies to other arenas. He became the national campaign chairman for the American Heart Association. Throughout the 1980s he took part in the growing number of protests and demonstrations against racist South Africa. In 1988, he published the definitive history and record of black athletes in this country, the critically acclaimed, three-volume "A Hard Road to Glory." He won an Emmy Award for co-writing the book's adaptation for television.

In 1988, Ashe was discovered to be HIV-positive, having been infected with the virus during a blood transfusion connected with his second heart surgery in 1983. He managed to keep the illness private for years, all the while continuing his philanthropic work.

But on April 8, 1992, Ashe announced to the world that he was suffering from AIDS. He spent the remaining 10 months of his life fighting for new causes. In September '92, Ashe was arrested outside the White House while protesting the American crackdown on Haitian refugees. Three months later, on World AIDS Day, Ashe addressed the United Nations General Assembly, imploring the delegates to boost funding for AIDS research.

Ashe died Feb. 6, 1993, but his memory lives on in the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS, in Arthur Ashe Stadium at the National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y., and in the hearts of all the people he touched and inspired.