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Thursday, April 04, 2002

By Milan Simonich, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

William L. Colbert was a trailblazing athlete who opened Pittsburgh's tennis courts to black people and later used his political clout to reshape the face of city government.

Trim, intelligent, fierce and determined, he became a force for social change in Pittsburgh as a teen-ager in the 1940s. He did it by winning a citywide tennis tournament, the first black player to accomplish that feat in an era of segregated courts.

Mr. Colbert, of the Park Place section of the East End, died Tuesday of prostate cancer. He was 73.

From his beginnings in tennis, Mr. Colbert spent a lifetime breaking down barriers created by race. He became a quiet confidant of the late Mayor Richard Caliguiri, and used that connection to place more black people in influential city jobs.

"The mayor had complete confidence in his integrity," said David Matter, who was Caliguiri's chief of staff and now is president of Oxford Development Co. "Bill was instrumental in bringing forward qualified African Americans for leadership positions in the police department, city courts and various boards and commissions.

"He never asked for anything for himself, but he was a very wise man and a wonderful counselor who quietly made the city better."

Mr. Colbert, who made his living as a Bell System government relations representative, brought city government more than able bodies.

Matter said it was Mr. Colbert who persuaded city politicians to embrace the 911 emergency telephone system that was beginning to emerge in the 1970s.

Mr. Colbert's influence was not limited to Pittsburgh or Allegheny County.

Benjamin Hooks, who was executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from 1977 to 1993, kept Mr. Colbert as one of his trusted, unpaid advisers.

"In my position you could get bogged down and miss the big picture," Hooks said yesterday from his home in Memphis, Tenn. "When I wanted to find out how people felt about our program, I would ask Bill and he was frank with praise or criticism, as the case may be. He had a wonderful intellect."

Born in Pittsburgh on Aug. 29, 1928, Mr. Colbert tasted discrimination every day of his young life. He played piano and tennis with prodigious skill, but being talented did not necessarily count for much in those times.

While growing up in the Upper Hill District, he found himself barred from the public tennis courts. Those who controlled the game had just one thing against him -- the color of his skin. Mr. Colbert was permitted to play only on the school yard behind Madison Elementary.

His breakthrough came in the 1940s, when he was allowed to enter a citywide tournament. He defeated the otherwise all-white field to claim the championship.

Even his triumph did not force immediate change. It wasn't until the late 1950s that the city's courts were integrated.

"I was the only one," Mr. Colbert often would say. "I integrated tennis personally."

He remained one of the top players in the area into the early 1970s, when he was in his 40s.

"He was always in absolute control of himself, physically and emotionally," said William Bokman, who played with Mr. Colbert in the 1960s and now lives in Santa Fe, N.M. "He would glide from side to side on the court like he was on a streetcar track."

Mr. Colbert stopped competing in tournaments in his later years but remained involved in tennis.

He helped found and organize the Tennis Patrons Foundation of Greater Pittsburgh. It offers free clinics and lessons to more than 1,000 city kids during summer. Mr. Colbert also helped organize the annual NAACP Open Tournament.

"He was a goodwill ambassador for the game," said Frank Bolden, former city editor of the Pittsburgh Courier, who covered a number of Mr. Colbert's matches.

Though fewer people knew it, Mr. Colbert was just as skilled at playing the piano as he was on the court. He loved to perform jazz and contemporary songs on his Steinway.

Perhaps even less obvious to the community at large was his public service. Across his adult life, he was a member of a range of volunteer boards, including the Urban League, United Way, county Children and Youth Services, United Methodist Foundation and the state branch of the NAACP.

Public controversy hounded him just once.

While chairman of the Pittsburgh Housing Authority Board in 1990, Mr. Colbert helped authorize a secret $43,500 retirement bonus for Executive Director Daniel Pietragallo. Mayor Sophie Masloff called on Mr. Colbert and other board members to resign after the payment became public knowledge.

Mr. Colbert complied, though he defended what he had done. Pietragallo was continuing work after his retirement on the Broadhead Manor public housing complex, so Mr. Colbert said he felt comfortable with the special payment.

"I would gamble the amount of the bonus on rebuilding that community any day," he said.

Mr. Colbert is survived by a brother, Roderick; a sister, Jessie Parker; and his companion, Anne Davis.

Friends will be received from 2 to 9 p.m. tomorrow in Samuel Jones Funeral Home, 2644 Wylie Ave. The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Saturday in Warren United Methodist Church, 2604 Centre Ave. He will be buried in Allegheny Cemetery, Lawrenceville.

Staff writer Phil Axelrod also contributed to this story.