Billie Jean King

• 1. Introduction

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  Billie Jean King stood on the court at the Houston Astrodome on the 20th of September 1973, facing 55-year-old Bobby Riggs. She was 29 years old. Riggs had already beaten Margaret Court, the world's top female player, and claimed women's tennis was too weak to challenge men. King beat him in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. The match drew 30,492 spectators in person. A television audience estimated at 50 million people watched in the United States, with 90 million more watching in 37 countries. That single match made her famous. But it was only one moment in a career built on stubborn convictions. She believed she belonged on the court, that women deserved equal pay, and that tennis itself needed to change. Where did those convictions come from, and how far did she carry them?

• 2. A Long Beach Childhood

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  Billie Jean Moffitt was born on the 22nd of November 1943 in Long Beach, California. Her mother, Betty Moffitt, was a housewife who excelled at swimming. Her father, Bill Moffitt, was a firefighter who played basketball and baseball and ran track. Her younger brother, Randy Moffitt, pitched in Major League Baseball for 12 years. He played for the San Francisco Giants, the Houston Astros, and the Toronto Blue Jays. As a girl, King played shortstop at age 10 on a softball team with girls four to five years older than her. That team won the Long Beach softball championship. At 11, she switched to tennis because her parents wanted her in a more ladylike sport. She saved $8 of her own money to buy her first racket. She then took free lessons on Long Beach's public courts from a coach named Clyde Walker. One of the city's tennis facilities was later named the Billie Jean Moffitt King Tennis Center in her honor.

• 3. Clashing With Convention Early

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  At one of her first tournaments, officials barred King from a group photograph. The reason was that she wore tennis shorts sewn by her mother instead of the standard white dress. Around age 13 or 14, her minister, former Olympic pole-vaulting champion Bob Richards, asked her what she planned to do with her life. She answered, "Reverend, I'm going to be the best tennis player in the world." King attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School. She then enrolled at Los Angeles State College, now California State University, Los Angeles. She met Larry King in a library there in 1963. The two married on the 17th of September 1965, in Long Beach. King left college in 1964 to focus on tennis full time. She returned decades later, completing a history degree at age 82.

• 4. Building A Rivalry With Margaret Court

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  King made her Grand Slam debut at the 1959 U.S. Championships at age 15. She lost in the first round. In 1961, local supporters in Long Beach raised $2,000 to send her to Wimbledon. There, she and partner Karen Hantze won the women's doubles title. King was 17 and Hantze was 18, making them the youngest team ever to win it. In 1962, King upset top-seeded Margaret Court in the second round at Wimbledon. It was the first time a women's top seed had lost her opening match there. Court and King would go on to define each other's careers for over a decade. From 1966 through 1975, one or both of them played 35 of the 40 Grand Slam singles tournaments held. Together they won 24 of those tournaments. King finally broke through against Court in the 1966 Wimbledon semi-final. She then beat Maria Bueno in the final for her first Grand Slam singles title. King credited the win to a new shot in her game, her forehand down the line.

• 5. A Career Measured In Titles

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  By her French Open win in 1972, King had completed a career Grand Slam. She became only the fifth woman to win all four major singles titles. She also won a record 20 career titles at Wimbledon. That total included six in singles, ten in women's doubles, and four in mixed doubles. Across 51 Grand Slam singles events from 1959 through 1983, she reached at least the semi-finals 27 times. Her overall total reached 39 Grand Slam titles. That included 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. She won 129 singles titles in all, 78 of them WTA titles. Her career prize money totaled US$1,966,487. In Federation Cup competition, she helped the United States win the title seven times. In Wightman Cup play, her personal record stood at 22 wins and 4 losses. In 1973 at Wimbledon, she won the singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles titles in the same tournament. She became the only player to achieve that Triple Crown there during the Open Era.

• 6. Fighting For Equal Pay

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  In September 1970, the Pacific Southwest Open offered a top prize of $12,500 to the men's champion. The women's champion received just $1,500. Women's expenses went uncovered unless they reached the quarterfinals. King and eight other women risked expulsion from the United States Lawn Tennis Association. They boycotted the tournament and organized their own women-only Virginia Slims invitational in Houston. That event helped launch a separate women's tennis circuit. In 1971, King became the first female athlete to earn $100,000 in prize money in a single year. The achievement drew a congratulatory phone call from President Richard Nixon. The following year, King won the US Open but was paid $15,000 less than men's champion Ilie Nastase. She said she would not return unless prize money was equal. In 1973, the US Open became the first major tournament to pay men and women the same prize money.

• 7. Founding The Institutions

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  In 1973, King became the first president of the newly formed Women's Tennis Association, the players' union she helped build. In 1971, her husband Larry King had proposed forming a nine-player women's group. World Tennis magazine founder Gladys Heldman backed the idea financially, alongside Philip Morris chairman Joe Cullman. In 1974, she co-founded womenSports magazine with her husband Larry and Jim Jorgensen. She started the Women's Sports Foundation that same year. Also in 1974, Larry King launched World TeamTennis with Dennis Murphy, Frank Barman, and Jordan Kaiser. Billie Jean later became the league's commissioner in 1982 and a majority owner in 1984. She sold her stake to Mark Ein and Fred Luddy in 2017. She would later serve on the board of Philip Morris in the 2000s.

• 8. Decades Later

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  King retired from competitive doubles in March 1990. She then became captain of the United States Fed Cup team, guiding it to a championship in 1996. She also coached the women's Olympic tennis squad. She helped Lindsay Davenport, Gigi Fernandez, and Mary Joe Fernandez win Olympic gold. In 2002, she dismissed Jennifer Capriati from the Fed Cup team for violating rules on personal coaches. The decision split opinion sharply. The International Tennis Hall of Fame inducted her in 1987. She shared the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year award with John Wooden in 1972. She was named a Time Person of the Year in 1975. In 2006, the USTA National Tennis Center in New York was renamed in her honor. In 2020, the Federation Cup itself became the Billie Jean King Cup. In 2008, she published a book titled Pressure Is a Privilege: Lessons I've Learned from Life and the Battle of the Sexes.