NCAA Theodore Roosevelt Award recipient Althea Gibson died September 28 of respiratory failure at an East Orange, New Jersey, hospital. Gibson was 76.

Gibson was bestowed the NCAA's highest honor at the Association's 1991 Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. At the time, she was the first female to be awarded the "Teddy," given annually since 1967 to a distinguished citizen of national reputation and outstanding accomplishment who was a varsity letter-winner in college.

A 1953 graduate of Florida A&M University, Gibson competed on the women's tennis and basketball teams and the men's golf team. She joined the LPGA in 1965, but her forte was tennis.

Gibson, who was raised in New York City, was the first black tennis player to gain international prominence. She won 56 major singles and doubles championships during her 23-year career. She was the American Tennis Association of National Negro Women singles champion for 10 straight years from 1948 to 1957.

In 1956, she was the singles champion and a member of the doubles championship team at the French Open Championship. Gibson also won the singles titles at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open Championship in 1957 and 1958.

After retiring from the tennis circuit, Gibson became director of community relations and a promotional representative for Ward Banking Company in New York. She joined the Essex County (New Jersey) Park Commission as a sports consultant in 1970 and became program director at Valley View Racquet Club in 1972.

In 1975, she was appointed as state commissioner of athletics in New Jersey and served in that position until 1985. She served on the three-member state athletics control board from January 1986 to March 1988, when she was appointed to the Department of Community Affairs, specializing in physical fitness and its application to senior citizens.

Her many honors include the Associated Press Poll-Frederick C. Miller Eagle and Babe Zaharias awards as the most outstanding woman athlete of 1957-58 and the Banchees award for sportsmanship. She received an honorary degree from Monmouth University in 1980 and is honored in the Florida Sports Hall of Fame and the National Lawn Tennis Hall of Fame and Museum.