Whites Are Right, But Color Is Coming

"I'm a progressive," says U.S. Amateur Tennis Ace Arthur Ashe. Perhaps that explains why Ashe took the court recently for exhibition matches in Manhattan's Vanderbilt Tennis and Athletic Club wearing snazzy powder-blue shorts and shirt. All the other players were showing colors too--either "Match Blue," like Ashe, or "Trophy Yellow." What's more, the new Technicolor togs, manufactured by Catalina Martin, bore the endorsement: "Selected by the U.S.L.T.A. for the U.S. Davis Cup Team."

There's only one problem. The endorsement, which the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association has given in return for royalties, does not mean quite what it says. "As far as the Davis Cup team is concerned," says U.S.L.T.A. President Robert J. Kelleher, "the color of their clothes will be up to their captain." Moreover, many U.S. tennis clubs back up the longstanding tradition that "whites are right" with written bylaws that specifically prohibit color from their courts.

Meanwhile, Australians John Newcombe and Tony Roche, together with six other members of Dave Dixon's professional World Championship Tennis Inc., began a six-month tour in Kansas City, Mo., last week garbed in gaudy green, yellow, blue and red shirts, some with socks to match. "Color is good and correct for tennis," insists Dixon. "In fact, today white looks washed out and bush league." Surprisingly, the argument is gaining support, even in traditional circles. Says Walter Elcock, president of Brookline's Longwood Cricket Club, where players have worn only whites since 1877: "So many changes are being made in tennis, I can't see that a few more will hurt the game. I might even try a colored outfit myself."

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