SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
Let’s make the first serve here the 50th anniversary of Billie Jean King’s magical ace.
It was she who fought to make the 1973 United States Tennis Association the first sporting event to offer equal prize money to female and male competitors.
Now I see where King is still being celebrated for what she brought to women’s sports via this golden anniversary.
Good, she deserves it all.
Not just tennis where the Hall of Famer is among the finest to ever set on the court, whether the hard, grass or clay.
It was around the early 1970s when the stellar athlete out of California cracked down on money issues.
She was one of many who differed with how much the men were paid for tennis tournament victories to what the women weren’t paid.
Others spoke about it, but didn’t have the means or gumption to solve it, except for her.
I go way back with her, back to when she first won the United States Open at the once World’s Fair site in the New York borough of Queens in Flushing Meadow.
It was 1972 and most of the sport’s news belonged to the men players. They got the headlines, the fans and most important, more money.
Those were set in stone from day one of the sport until King came along.
And when I came along to find out her older brother, Randy Moffitt, was pitching out of the bullpen for the Major League baseball Giants.
So whenever I met up with her, I asked how Randy was doing. It always excited her and she always had a pleasant answer.
And back in those days, there was more leeway among the players, so I hooked up with King and her doubles partner Rosie Casals and we would stroll down the streets of New York City.
“I’m working on it,” King would say and Casals would happily nod in regard to more moola for the women.
She was married at the time to attorney Larry King, thus the family name, and she and Casals were the number one doubles duo.
So it was that one day at the U.S. Open King at the entrance to the media section that she informed me she finally made great news for her gender, bigger paydays, more publicity, and more happy faces.
She waited for my response. First I asked how her brother Randy was doing, then she gave me the good news about women’s tennis, about more money, new regulations, and a new 10-player ladies list that helped piece it together.
Singles, doubles, it didn’t matter, the men and women were now to be paid equally. She said that no more will the men get twice what the women were getting.
“This time,” she said, “I didn’t make the usual remarks about hoping to win again, instead, and had threatened to not play at all the next year, and added that no other women would either.”
But she came away with what she fought so long for. Mission accomplished.
It also brought the headlines and a flow of interviews King’s way.
Then I learned that yak-yak long-time men’s player Bobby Riggs had challenged her to a match in Houston at the Astrodome.
I was there, the huge indoor site was packed, and as I watched her warm up, she looked around and said, “How about this crowd?”
It turned out to be the largest for a tennis match in history. Riggs was still promoting it until the final point of his 2-set embarrassing setback, but now the throng belonged to King, who paraded around to the cheers.
“A joke wasn’t it?,” she said to me later. “No Margaret Smith Court falling apart to him in this one.”
It was Riggs who initially challenged former champion Court and the Australian let her nerves get the best of her and it was a no contest rout.
So it was that King avenged that one and remained in the headlines.
The other women players including Court were still thanking their savior Billie Jean, an elite player who went to bat for them and won.
Then injuries set in. Knees the worst. When she was forced to wear braces on both knees, it was time, she said, to call it quits.
I was writing back then for the Miami Herald and she was playing up in Tampa in a charity tournament. I was notified of this and went.
When King came out for her matches, she was hobbling around, her knees weren’t good, but I came over to say hello and she instantly gave me a high-five and a hug.
Of all the stellar players here for charity, she received the most cheers. Even with men players invited, she was the most popular.
And now flash forward to that huge number 50 that will be the seminal moment celebrated at the Grand Slam tournament staged at the facility that now bears Billie Jean King’s name.
Simply no question that her courage and her leadership opened the door to this. No doubt this wonderful woman spearheaded that change.
It will be obvious by never being forgotten. At her age now, no injuries can keep her from the U.S. Open that she attends every year.
