Billie Jean King: A Trailblazer In Sports And Social Activism

Billie Jean King is a name that resonates with anyone who loves sports, equality, and social justice. Born on November 22, 1943, in Long Beach, California, she became not only a dominant force in women's tennis but also a groundbreaking advocate for gender equality in sports. With numerous accolades, including 39 major championships and being the first prominent female athlete to openly admit her homosexuality, King’s legacy goes beyond the tennis court. Her life story is one of resilience, courage, and a relentless pursuit of equality.

Who Is Billie Jean King?

Billie Jean King became the top-ranked women's tennis player by 1967. In 1973, she formed the Women's Tennis Association and famously defeated Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes." The first prominent female athlete to admit her homosexuality, King continued her work as an influential social activist after retiring from tennis.

Athletic Beginnings

King was born Billie Jean Moffitt on November 22, 1943, in Long Beach, California, to parents Bill and Betty. The Moffitts were an athletic family: Bill was offered a tryout for an NBA team before becoming a firefighter, and Betty, a homemaker, was an excellent swimmer. Their second child, Randy, became a Major League Baseball pitcher.

King's early sport was softball; at age 10, she played shortstop on a team of 14- and 15-year-old girls that won the city championship. However, her parents suggested she try a more "ladylike" sport, and at age 11, she began to play tennis on the Long Beach public courts.

Early Career

In 1958, King emerged as a talent to watch when she won the Southern California championship for her age bracket, and in 1959, she started to receive coaching from former women's tennis great Alice Marble. After a series of losses to top-seeded players in various competitions around the country, King made sports headlines for the first time in 1961, when she and Karen Hantze Susman became the youngest pair to win the Wimbledon women's doubles title.

While attending California State University, Los Angeles, from 1961 to 1964, King continued to compete in tournaments and also worked as a tennis instructor to make ends meet. However, after achieving mixed results in several competitions, King realized that she would need to step up her practice schedule if she wanted to reach her full potential, and she embarked on an exhaustive training regimen to sharpen her fundamentals.

Major Singles Titles and Rise to No. 1

After several years of promising play, King won her first major singles championship at Wimbledon in 1966. She successfully defended that title in both 1967 and 1968, adding her first U.S. Open singles championship in 1967 and her only Australian Open triumph the following year. In 1968, having claimed the world's No. 1 ranking in women's tennis, King turned professional.

Renowned for her speed, net game, and backhand shot, King was a regular presence in the winner's circle in singles, doubles, and mixed-doubles tournaments over the next few years. In 1972, she won the U.S. Open, French Open, and Wimbledon, claiming three Grand Slam titles in a single year!

'Battle of the Sexes'

For all her tennis accomplishments, Billie Jean King is probably best known for her 1973 match against former men's champion Bobby Riggs, dubbed the "Battle of the Sexes." The 55-year-old Riggs had assumed an overtly chauvinistic public persona to bait the sport’s top women into playing him, and after easily defeating multi-time champion Margaret Court in the "Mother's Day Massacre" of May 1973, he secured King as his next opponent.

The match took place on September 20, 1973, at the Houston Astrodome. Embracing the spectacle of the event, King entered the court in a gold litter carried by four muscular men, while Riggs rolled in on a rickshaw pulled by a team of women called "Bobby's Bosom Buddies." But King was all business once the match started, handily beating Riggs in straight sets before an estimated television audience of 90 million viewers.

Equal Pay Activism, WTA and WTT

Never shy about speaking her mind, King jolted the tennis establishment with her views that the sport needed to shed its country-club image and offer equal payouts to both genders. In 1970, she joined the brand-new Virginia Slims Tour for women, and in 1971, she became the first female athlete to top $100,000 in prize money in a single year. However, she was frustrated by the smaller paychecks earned by her peers.

In 1973, King spearheaded the formation of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Leveraging her position as its most celebrated player, she threatened a boycott of the 1973 U.S. Open if pay inequality was not addressed. Her demands were met, and the U.S. Open became the first major tournament to offer equal prize money to women and men.

Later Tennis Career and Retirement

King announced her retirement from singles play after winning Wimbledon in 1975, but she resumed singles competition two years later and continued through 1983. In the meantime, she remained a force in doubles for many years, winning Wimbledon in 1979 and the U.S. Open in 1980. She continued to play WTA doubles matches sporadically until retiring for good in 1990.

Altogether, King won 39 major singles, doubles, and mixed doubles championships, including a record 20 at Wimbledon. Her achievements set a high standard for future generations of athletes.

Acknowledging Her Sexuality

The budding tennis star married Larry King in 1965 but soon found herself wrestling with her feelings for other women. Her private affairs were thrust into public view with a lawsuit brought by her former female personal assistant and lover in 1981. As the first prominent woman athlete to admit her homosexuality, King lost her endorsements but became a torchbearer for the LGBT community. She divorced her husband in 1987 and settled into a long-term relationship with former player Ilana Kloss.

Tennis and LGBT Ambassador

Named to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987, King remained closely tied to the sport throughout the 1990s as a television commentator. She also served as captain of the U.S. team at the 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympics. In 2006, the New York City facility that hosts the U.S. Open was renamed the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in her honor.

King's accomplishments have gone beyond the world of tennis. She has been honored by various organizations, notably earning the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. A board member of the Women’s Sports Foundation, which she formed during her playing days, she has also served as acting director for the Elton John AIDS Foundation and the National AIDS Fund.

'Battle of the Sexes' Movie

The story of the 1973 King-Riggs match spawned the 2017 feature film Battle of the Sexes, starring Emma Stone as King and Steve Carell as Riggs. The film received generally strong reviews, with both Stone and Carell earning Golden Globe nominations for their performances.

The saga had previously been dramatized in the 2001 TV Movie When Billie Beat Bobby, which featured Holly Hunter as the women’s tennis champ and Ron Silver as her opponent. This highlights how King’s story continues to inspire and resonate with audiences today.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Billie Jean King
BORN: November 22, 1943
BIRTHPLACE: Long Beach, California

Quotes

• A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.
• I didn’t get comfortable in my own skin until I was 51 about being gay.
• That’s the way I want the world to look: men and women working together, championing each other, helping each other, promoting each other — we’re all in this world together.