ORLANDO, Fla. – Sun Devil Women’s Tennis Head Coach Jamea Jackson was named a Black Excellence Award recipient by the American Tennis Association (ATA) Monday night at its award gala in Orlando, Florida.
The award exemplifies leadership and impact on the game of tennis. Former USTA National Coach (2003-20) Richard Ashby was honored with the award alongside coach Jackson.
Coach Jackson led the Sun Devils to a share of the Big 12 regular season title and their first 20-win season since 2001, leading the team to host an NCAA Regional for the first time since 2003. Jackson was named ITA/Dunlop Southwest Coach of the Year in June and was one of five ASU teams to win a Big 12 title last season, joining Men’s and Women’s Swim and Dive, Volleyball and Softball.
The ATA launched the Black Tennis Experience in 2025, highlighting black history in the sport and athletic excellence. The organization boasts more than 4,000 members and was the only platform that black players could compete nationally when the organization was founded in 1916.
The ATA oldest black sports organization in the U.S., with its first national championships taking place in 1917 in Druid Hill Park, Baltimore. The awards gala serves as a kickoff event for the ATA National Championships, which start July 27 through August 2 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, helping to celebrate athletic excellence in tennis and honoring black history in the sport.
The ATA is a non-profit organization with the mission to develop, promote and highlight opportunities in tennis in diverse communities. The ATA showcases multiple tennis tournaments during the year, honors its partnerships with HBCU coaches and develops youth players to compete at the collegiate level.
Notable athletes to be a part of the ATA was Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson. Gibson was the first African-American to win Wimbledon, Roland Garros and the U.S. Open. She won the 1947 ATA women's singles championship, the first of 10 straight titles. Gibson would be a trailblazer in the sport by winning five grand slam singles titles, five grand slam doubles titles and one mixed doubles grand slam trophy. Gibson was named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year in 1957 and 1958.
Ashe, became the first black man to win the U.S. Open in 1968 and would later be the first African-American to win the Australian Open (1970) and Wimbledon (1975). Ashe would serve in the U.S Army during his 1968 U.S. Open victory and was ranked the No. 1 player by the USLTA. He would become the first African-American to play in the Davis Cup for the United States in 1963.
Jackson played professionally on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour from March 2003 to August 2009 and achieved a career-high ranking of No. 43 in 2006. She competed in all four Grand Slams and represented the red, white and blue in the Fed Cup competition in 2006.