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This courageous woman
opened tennis to millions
of TheColumnists.com
We wore our tennis
shorts and sneakers, filled the tables with booze and snacks,
sprawled on the floor and lounge chairs in front of the television
set and screamed and argued for a couple of hours.
This was the 1973 Battle of the Sexes, bombastic Billie Jean
King and brazen Bobby Riggs in a tennis match at the Houston
Astrodome that would prove once and for all whether any man,
even an elderly athlete, could beat a woman at the game in her
prime.
There were jokes about the hustling skills of Riggs, who made
money legally betting on himself years earlier at Wimbledon,
and the time of the month for King.
There were men in our crowd that rooted for a love match, a complete
shutout by Riggs over the upstart gal and women in the group
who hoped Riggs would collapse in pain.
It was all in good fun for friends, a scene repeated across the
country by so many of us interested in tennis and so many more
of us just interested in the oldest argument since Adam and Eve,
men versus women.
King won in a romp and Riggs jumped the net as a gracious gentleman
for congratulations for the gal who was carried on court by a
chariot with dangling chains. Rumors swirled that Riggs dumped
the match, his greatest hustle, and that King couldn’t beat
him in a winner take all the dough contest. No matter. King won.
Riggs is gone now but he is hustling and laughing and claiming
victory with the announcement that the United States Tennis Center
will be named for Billie Jean King on the first night of the
United States Open on August 28.
(Nine years ago African-Americans celebrated the naming of the
stadium, located within the Tennis Center, for black tennis superstar
Arthur Ashe.)
“Think about it, “King said. “I didn’t pay
trillions for this.”
The 62-year-old tennis legend was referring to the ugly act of
teams selling naming rights to their facilities for some company’s
big bucks. Houston was stuck when it took Enron’s money
for its stadium and had to back off and sell to Minute Maid after
Enron was exposed as a sham.
Now companies are lining up to get their names on the new Yankee
Stadium and the new Shea Stadium in New York. The Yankee Stadium
was named after the team and Shea was named after the New York
lawyer who created the team in 1962.
The Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows,
Queens, New York will be a lasting tribute to the historic figure
whose courage and toughness put women on the athletic map and
energized women to move into careers and industry throughout
the world.
Hardly a profession is without female leaders now from Army service
to industry service, from sports to medicine, from construction
work to police work.
No organization was as conservative, staid and retrogressive
as the United States Tennis Association in the late 1950s and
1960s. The men fought for more money and more say in its operation
all the time.
The women were shuttled off to the back dressing rooms at Wimbledon
and old Forest Hills. Then, in the late 1960s, along came Miss
Billie Jean Moffitt, who broke into the game as a teenager under
her maiden name, to pull and push her excellence on the court
into equality off the court.
Everything was upgraded with the Billie Jean drive for women
in tennis and in all sports. With her then-husband, Larry King
(not the CNN Larry) she pushed the promotion of women’s
tennis, the pay equality level and the status and standing of
women everywhere.
When an associate even publicly branded her as gay, Billie Jean
admitted the life style and came out of the event as more courageous
and strong.
King won 71 singles titles, a dozen in grand Slams, founded Virginia
Slims, a tennis tour for women alone, created the Women’s
Tennis Association and invented World Team Tennis where men and
women play together on colored courts and fans can cheer themselves
silly.
A lot of the money being pulled in by tennis players today can
be accounted for by the doings of King three decades ago.
She played every match with verve and brought a sleepy sport
on to the television screens across America. Jimmy Connors and
John McEnroe brought the game into the homes of millions. Billie
Jean King brought millions of women into the game.
Go down to your local club or park on a Saturday morning. You’ll
be fighting for court time with soccer moms really enjoying their
own thing, a good volley against their pals or smashing one across
the net at a loud mouthed husband.
For centuries, women cooked and cleaned and obeyed the discipline
of their guys. Billie Jean King inspired women and men, too,
dammit, to stand up to each other when things weren’t right.
Billie Jean King National Tennis Center will be an inspirational
setting for women and men every time they walk on those courts.
For two weeks a year the big guys and gals play there. For 50
other weeks a year it is the most democratic (little d) setting
in New York City. All you need is a pair of sneakers, a tennis
racquet and a little BJK courage.
©2006 by Maury Allen. The Maury Allen
caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. The illustration is a
staff artist's impression of a news photo of Billie Jean King
in action on the courts. This column first posted Aug.14, 2006.
You
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