Arthur Ashe is best known for his storied tennis career, but his work off the court likely influenced more people.

When he won the 1965 singles, doubles and team Division I tennis championships for the University of California, Los Angeles, Ashe was at the beginning of a career that would include championships in either singles or doubles at the U.S. Open, French Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon. Ashe has many "firsts" to his credit, including being the first (and only) African-American to win the Division I men’s tennis championship, the first African-American on the Davis Cup team and the first African-American to win Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

He founded numerous charitable organizations, including the National Junior Tennis League and the Athlete-Career Connection.

In 1988, he was diagnosed with HIV, contracted through a blood transfusion during heart surgery in 1983. He subsequently formed the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, which works to improve health-care delivery. He also addressed the United Nations to ask for more funding for AIDS research. Named Sports Illustrated’s Athlete of the Year the year before he died in 1993, Ashe also founded what is known today as the Association of Tennis Professionals.

Casey Angle, director of media relations for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, said Ashe was in a class all by himself.

"He was a Grand Slam champion, but he did so many other things in terms of humanitarian works, in terms of his sportsmanship, in terms of being a person that went beyond the sport. So few athletes have done that in any sport," Angle said. "College was just a springboard for him."