HU PROFESSOR, ALUMNUS RECEIVES WRITERS NOTES BOOK AWARD

Hampton, VA - Doug Smith, visiting professor in the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications at Hampton University, has been awarded a 2005 Writers Notes Book Award for his book, Whirlwind: The Godfather of Black Tennis, in the category of Culture.

The Writers Notes Book Awards, granted by The Writers Notes Magazine, recognize excellence in publishing through eleven categories. The awards were open to academic, independent small press and self-published books that were released within the last two years. Smith’s book won the Culture category award, which was open to titles demonstrating the human or world experience. The Writers Notes Magazine is an extension of the international free resource tool Writers Notes online.

Whirlwind is a biography of the late Dr. Robert Walter Johnson. Johnson was a physician who built a tennis court in his backyard in Lynchburg, Va., where he trained and developed promising Black tennis players including Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson in the 1940s and 1950s.

Smith takes great pride in his recent book and is honored to receive the award. “This is the man [Johnson] who made it possible for Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson, our first two African-American tennis champions, realize their dreams,” said Smith. “I felt that Johnson’s contribution was important and that his life should be documented.”

Smith is an award winning journalist with more than 25 years of successful achievement as an editor and writer with three of the most influential newspapers in the United States – Newsday, The New York Post and USA Today. He also co-authored Zina, My Life in Women’s Tennis, the life story of former tennis pro Zina Garrison. Smith graduated from HU in 1964 where he majored in mathematics. He was a member of the University’s CIAA championship (1961, 1962 and 1964) tennis teams.