August 30, 2022 • 25 mins
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Title IX and since then you'd be hard pressed to find any person who's done more for women’s athletics than Billie Jean King. In addition to her on court accomplishments in tennis, King has served as an activist, a business woman, and an iconic cultural figure. Along with an interview with King herself, Caitlin Thompson of Racquet Magazine joins John Gonzalez to put Billie Jean King’s life and achievements in perspective.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Before we begin, a reminder to please rate and review
our show that helps new listeners discover us and grow
the program. On this episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly. This
year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Title nine, the federal
civil rights law that has been instrumental to women's sports,
(00:20):
and since Title nine's enactment, You'd be hard pressed to
find any person who has done more for women's athletics
than Billy Jean King. In addition to her on court
accomplishments in tennis, King has served as an activist, a businesswoman,
and an iconic cultural figure. Today you'll hear from Billy
Jean King after she won Sis Muhammad Ali Legacy Award,
(00:42):
and to offer additional context, we have Caitlin Thompson of
Racket Magazine here to put Billy Jean King's life and
achievements in perspective. I'm your host, John Gonzalez from Sports
Illustrated and I Heart Radio. This is Sports Illustrated Weekly.
(01:05):
My name is Caitlin Thompson. I am the co founder
and publisher of Racket, which is a quarterly magazine about tennis.
I'm also a former Division one athlete who benefited unbelievably
gratefully from generations of women coming before me, not least
(01:25):
of whom was the tennis legend Billy Jean King. Tennis
is my last sport I grew up. Basketball's my favorite sport,
American football, volleyball, baseball. My younger brother played twelve years
of professional baseball. And then Susan Williams asked me to
play tennis in fifth grade, so we went to her
country club. When I'm going, well, I'm never gonna get
(01:47):
to play tennis because my dad's a firefighter. We don't
have that kind of money. She was a kid having
to go into private tennis clubs in southern California, you
which were very, very dissimilar from the public long beach
tennis courts that she grew up on, with chain link fences,
(02:07):
which were very similar to the ones I played on
as a kid. Never been a member of a country club,
Neither has Billy Jean. Playing at the Los Angeles Tennis Club,
the mecca of tennis in southern California, and I'm I
realized everybody wore white shoes, white clothes, you know, play
with white balls, and everybody's white. And I said, where's
(02:27):
everybody else? Althae and giftson the first black person ever
to win a major in tennis. She was my first shiro.
I would have never thought that, coming from the streets
of New York playing paddle tennis, that I would have
the opportunity to shake the hand of Queen Elizabeth. I
(02:52):
actually got to see her live at the Los Angeles
Tennis Club and I looked at her and if you
can see it, you can be it. And I said,
that's what number one looks like. I wasn't thinking racer.
I think I'm thinking she looks like number one. She's
the best in the world. I had this epiphany last
(03:13):
twelve and I think, tea my whole life. If I
can make it to number one, I have to re
number one. I'm a girl. Nobody will listen if I'm
not at least number one. And I thought, maybe, just
maybe I can make the world a better place. Now.
In the third set, Billy Jeans serves or a match
point beautiful shop, and the Wimbledon title is hers, Mrs
(03:37):
Billy Jean, King of America, the new Queen of Tennis.
Well we have to sort of remember is Billy Jean
was not only a star at the time, but also
somebody who was battling the tennis powers that be, Like,
I don't think they wanted to start their own tour,
Billy in the original nine and Glad Coleman. What they
(04:00):
wanted was to have equal parody for pay, something approximating
equal promotion, equal TV time, you know, all of these
things to be commensurate with the men. The women were
proving that they could draw crowds, that they could be
incredibly similating. You know, they were putting female tennis players
on postage stamps, they were creating fashion crazes. And so
(04:21):
after decades of sort of being marginalized, seeing women getting gains,
and the US American Lawn Tennis Association, led by Jack Kramer,
sought to keep their boots on the necks of women,
like it was not a breakaway league for nothing. And
I think when you look at how often they tried
to get men to the table, she had meeting after meeting,
(04:43):
after meeting with Jack Kramer, with Stan Smith, who also
vehemently opposed equality, with Arthur Ash, who vehemently opposed equality
with the women. Although later Arthur and Billy Jean sort
of made amends and came to an understanding about the
ties between civil rights and gender rights. But every man
who was playing tennis, from what I can tell, quite
threatened by the fact that women were playing alongside them
(05:04):
and asking for money and earning audiences, and they saw
it as a zero's home game. I mean, that's an
attitude that persists to this day. Basically, moment athletes just
were always in the background, and basically we weren't thought
of really that much, and so it's hard on all.
A lot done just on me. But we'd always talk
and say, I wish we had the media attention and
(05:29):
so people could hear our stories as well, because every
human being has a story. When you look at what
it took for Billy to take time out of her
touring schedule to sit down with brands and potential sponsors
and sell them on the concept creating a league and
personally wrangling people like Robert Kraft, who went on to
own the New England Patriots to me one of the
most like celebrated sports team owners of all timer Genie
(05:52):
and the Buses in l A who started as a
world team tennis league holders, getting Virginia Slims to great
as sponsor tournament, getting other women to get paid a
dollar symbolically to leave the tour was a risk, and
she was willing to put her money where her mouth
was every single time. I was lucky enough to have
(06:14):
Racket participated in a documentary about World Team Tennis for
A twenty four this year, and one of the things
that I was really struck by was one of the
men who agreed sort of reluctantly to be part of
this league, who was a self professed, you know, sort
of male chauvinist, as was Bobby Riggs when he faced
off against Billy and the battle of the sexist, and
he said this thing that I really made me laugh,
(06:35):
which is he was basically sort of won over of
it by Billy Jean King, and he kind of changed
his views on women. He thought to himself, I'll be
a different cake when I get it this blender, which
is a phrase It doesn't really make any sense other
than it was so powerful to be faced with a relentless,
essentially a serve and volley type of personality who was
just going to take the fight to you and make
(06:57):
you submit. Following as an exclusive presentation of ABC Sports
Live from the Aspid Dome in Houston, Texas, the tennis
battle of the sexist Billy Jean King versus Bobby Ricks
and you I can get I can't know, you know
(07:24):
you care? I think she knew it was important because
it could galvanize people in a cultural way. And it
was my moment because man, ninety people watching, that's never
gonna happen again playing a tennis match. And it wasn't
about tennis. It's about social change, at least it was
to me. And Title nine just been passed here before,
so I was hoping it would have long lasting impact.
(07:48):
The cultural case needed to be made. And coming into
this match against Bobby Riggs, who was, you know, sort
of a washed up gambler, inveterate you know, booze hound, smoker,
gamble her. He was like a real wild personality. He
stands before I o for exactly what he is. A Charlotte,
a fake, the biggest hustler in the contemporary chronicle of sports,
(08:11):
now ancient, a relic of what he was once he
could play tennis. Now he results to beating women and
destroying the whole lip movement in the United States by himself.
The nub Bobby Riggs. I'm ready to play, and I'm
gonna tid a win for all the guys around the
world who feel as I do, that the mailst king
and the Mail is supreme. I've said it over and
(08:32):
over again. I still feel that way girls play and
ice came a tennis for girl. When they get out
there on a court with a man, even a tired
old man, they're going to be in big couple. You know.
A lot of folks say, like, well, you know he
was maybe two decades old of the Billy Jing King.
Was this even a fair match? For context? He had
beaten Margaret Court, the other sort of luminary of that era.
(08:56):
Bobby Riggs beat her handily in what it became known
as the Mother's Day Massacre. She was somebody who didn't
believe in gender parody. She was somebody who didn't believe
in racial parody. She famously supported apartheid in South Africa.
She is now a anti gay preacher who supports commercial
therapy and perth. You know, she's like a real gem.
But I don't think she at the time understood that
(09:17):
this wasn't just a way to get paid to play
an exhibition match, but in fact, when you put yourself
up against a male athlete, You're really competing for all women.
Women's suffrage was less than fifty years old when Rob
Wade hadn't yet been law. And you know, now in
a context in which women's like authority over their own
bodies is stripped away from us, like, it is so
hard to forget how much this country hates women. Billy
(09:41):
saw in that moment, and how she felt like she
was going to be playing for not just herself and
her own glory and probably the glory of her Nissan
Tennis League, but also every single woman who was being
slapped on the ass as a secretary and kept out
of a boardroom and the things that we know persist
to this day. And then the fact that she went
(10:02):
out and played against Bobby Riggs and beat him in
the best of five in the Battle of the Sexes.
I think for many women became like a rallying cry,
this is gonna be the real match. This was really
all about. Because Bobby challenged me in the first place.
I didn't want to start an issue. But now that
Margaret went ahead and opened the door did such a
miserable job. You know, I think that I can beat Bobby.
(10:27):
I won't be able to strike you out. I'm not marred.
I love pressure. You can try to thank me all
you want. And I think she went into this match
knowing what was on the line, knowing she would have
to not only beat Bobby Riggs, but beat him vehemently,
allow him to spout his male chowbin, his nonsense about
how women deserve to be in the kitchen, and you know,
no little girl is going to come up and show
(10:48):
him what's what in his own court, but also play
along with it and use every opportunity to pugilistically make
the case that this was this cultural moment, the winner
of the Battle of the sex it Billy Jean six
six three six three. I haven't gone through a day
(11:08):
yet that someone hasn't brought it up, not one day.
The women. What really happened right after, particularly, is they
got very excited. They said they finally have more self confidence.
For the first time, they had the courage to speak up,
for the first time, they asked for a raise. Billy
(11:28):
has always understood these cultural moments as being lightning rods
for ways to push forward. And I think for that reason,
you know, making a film, however good or bad, out
of it, was a logical thing for her to sign
onto and be excited about. Are you talking, Abobby more nonsense?
He spelled. The worst going to be when you lose.
(11:50):
I'm the ladies number one, I'm the champ. Why would
I lose? Okausnosaurs can't play tennis. She's very aware of
how these stories tend to get buried or rewritten with
each successive generation. The victors get to write the history,
and if you're not part of that, you're going to
get relegated to the dustband rule cold to find her
(12:26):
a lot of how she transcends sports, activism, culture, our imagination.
Being on stage with you know Elton John who wrote
Philadelphia Freedoms, which became a gay anthem for her to
celebrate her World team Tennis League team called the Philadelphia Freedoms.
(12:56):
You know, she just is at the center of gravity
and a lot of these moments because she can't help herself.
She just can't not be that person. I think, uh
and I you know, I think it's for everyone's betterment.
One thing that Billy has always understood is the power
of not only celebrity and culture, but also the power
(13:18):
of money. When she was founding a league, when she
was getting her own sponsors. Virginia Slims notably came in
as the first sponsor of the w t A Tour.
It wasn't until they could pay prize money that she
(13:38):
felt like it was a real thing that was happening,
and not just sort of charity honorari and prize money,
but prize money that's somewhat approximated the men's equal prize
money at the US Open. And I would have got
the sponsor for that to make up the difference. And
then I went and talked to the tournament and talked
to Billy Tolbert, the tournament director. Again, by the way,
(13:59):
we've got them, need to make the difference. You don't
have to go out and get one more time with sponsorship.
We will give it to you. He went, what now,
I don't think that would have happened or I would
have had the understanding or the courage to go do that,
to ask if I had learned. Because of my ownership
and being in business in the tennis business at the time,
I think it made me understand the other side. As
(14:21):
soon as she was able to establish the Women's Sentence
Association and make sure it was sort of financially sustainable.
She turned her attention to soccer and to basketball, and
to women's softball and all these other sports because she
knew that the power sort of to negotiate was really
where they were going to be able to make permanent,
lasting change and honestly like create permanent respect in the
in the I think in the larger sort of cultural context,
(14:45):
athletes just want more. I want more money, I want
more of this. I want better hotels, I want this,
I want better food. I want, I want, I want,
I want. And then I asked him, do you know
about the business. I don't know. I think if you
want to negotiate that you need to know all sides,
not just your side. It ties to Billy Jean King
(15:09):
and Serena Williams, who has the most grand slams of
any player male or woman, who was arguably the most
dominant player certainly of her era. She doesn't happen without
Venus Williams. And Venus Williams is actually the tie between
Billy and Serena because Venus not only one a handful
(15:29):
of grand slams herself and broke through so that Serena
could be not totally burdened with being an activist. Really,
Venus was the activist between the two sisters, and she
took the playbook right out of Billy Jeans maneuvers. I
arrived to the Grand Slams and Tennis at the age
of sixteen years old, found it I wasn't being paid
equal and that's a hard blow for young women and
(15:50):
I don't want other young women to go through this.
She went to Wimbledon, which at the time was not
giving when men and women equal pay. She wrote an
op for The Times of London about why denying her
equal pay was the wrong thing to do. And then
also she went behind the scenes at the All England
Lawn and Tennis Club and made a case to the
(16:10):
board filled with, as you might guess, old white men,
and then went out the next day and beat Lindsey
Davenport in what is considered one of the greatest final
matches men or women of all time. So many people
like this young lady of the Venus Williards has bounched
back into the room as socle but the Wimbledon talk
(16:31):
to it. So I think Venus really understood from Billy
because they talked in because Billy was very, very keen
to get them on board and get them situated in
the tennis tour, because she knew that her star was
fading and she would have to find people to uphold
not only her legacy but the legacy of women's sports
and push it forward as they have done. And I
(16:52):
think with Billy giving Venus the playbook to be an activist,
to go into those rooms to write the op eds,
then you have Serena who doesn't have the pressure on
her to be the first in the space. She's doing
it with her sister. She can just honestly play tennis
part of Billy's legacy. And I think Serena and Venus
for sure understand that these women who came before them,
(17:16):
much like Title nine did for all these generations of
women who came before me, who I meet in boardrooms,
who I see, you know, giving speeches on the floors
of Congress, like these are people who literally walked so
that we could run. And I think when you look
at what a seismic figure like Billy did with her
vision and then continues to do by backing it up
(17:38):
and training the next generation of folks, then it's sort
of clear where folks can pick up the mantle and
you know, and essentially keep going. Tennis is a catalyst.
It was my way, it was my way of reaching
others and and I'd always try to get the other
players that think like this, obviously, because they all come
from different towns, different villages, different countries, and one thing
(18:00):
about tennis were really international and this is an opportunity
for them to make their place, whatever they decided to do,
to make it better, to improve it, you know, because
we're one of the lucky ones. Athletes are one of
the lucky ones. It's a reason to me, it's a responsibility.
Tennis showed that women from any country in the world,
(18:21):
from any background in the world can compete on equal
footing with men. That's still not true in every other sport,
not quite. Tennis is still the highest paying for women,
and it's the one because of Title nine the women
are able to access. If not the most, then then
certainly in terms of popularity. Tennis doesn't need to be
(18:41):
alone in that. I think, if anything, I would love
to see that every single sport. But because this sport,
like I said, it's got its problems, and the all
white tennis clubs and the you know, lack of sponsorship
or quality. You know, there's no domestic violence policy. However,
on the plus side, I think it has been inspiring
for generations of women. If you look at professional soccer,
(19:03):
it's existed for less than this fan of my lifetime.
The same is true for literally every other women's league.
The w n b A didn't exist before I was born.
But you know what, women were playing tennis professionally, winning
and hoisting cups over their head when before my parents
were born, right, And so a lot of this has
to do with generations and decades of visibility and decades
of progress. You know, he did couldn't get a credit
(19:25):
card in nineteen seventy three. Title lie has just been
passed in V two and everybody thinks it was about sports.
Sports is not even mentioned in title nine. Uh. I
think it talks about activity or something. We got lucky
that that was added, I think. And then you know, um,
I Senator birched By as one of my heroes, and
he and I talked about this, but he had no
(19:45):
idea that the effect it was gonna have and what
it did. Though, it's got rid of the quotas um
for schools for women, like if you want to go
to Harvard to get your medical degree. They only allowed
five per cent in a classroom before nineteen seventy two.
And you'll notice in the seventies early seventies a lot
of schools became co ed because this is about federal
(20:07):
money having to be used equally at colleges, high schools,
private or public. If you get any federal funds, you
had to for the first time give it equally to
boys and girls. And then you'll see all these schools
if you follow the money and always happens. Title nine
(20:29):
is is typically put into a sports contact. Specifically. You
know a lot of collegiate athletes, obviously because they are
seen as the biggest beneficiaries of Title nine. I was
one of them. I got a tennis scholarship to play
at the University of Missouri, where I studied magazine journalism.
I got a free education that I probably would not
(20:49):
have otherwise been able to afford. But I think a
lot of people don't really understand about Title nine, especially
who haven't spent a lot of time around female athletes
and women in positions of power. Is the amount of
women in leadership roles that have benefited from this law
and it is a direct result of their being basically
(21:10):
them being invested in by American society. If you look
at fortune companies, if you look at the you know
US Congress, like Chris and Jilbrand who played college sports,
or Uzio Duba, who you know, wins Emmys. But also
it was a college track athlete paid for by Title
nine at Boston College. When women, when whoever is not
getting a fair deal in this case, women particularly women
(21:31):
of color and live with disability, when they get the
opportunity boom, they take advantage of it. And that's why
you have this flood through the years because it took
a long time for Title line to start kicking in.
It didn't kick in in the fall of seventy two,
even those passed June nineteen seventy two. It really and
(21:52):
it's still not even yet. So it's we have a
long way to go still, but at least you have
to get things started. I thought this year would be
sort of like a celebratory year, to be like, hey,
Title nine, like you know, it's it's fifty years old,
and look how far we've come. And you know, all
these women that won the Olympic gold medal in and
beyond and all these women's sports leagues that are now
(22:13):
grappling with and in some cases achieving parody with their
male counterparts, like the U S women's national soccer team
for example, hockey, basketball, certainly tennis. All of these gender
pay issues are resonant throughout sports. It all goes back
to that generation of women who was raised and fully
funded by Title nine. Like, it's not an accident. This
(22:34):
is a natural conclusion of what happens if you empower
women and then give them something close to equal footing.
It's not quite equal, but something close to equal footing.
And now we're having this conversation instead of like a
celebratory town like, oh, we've rolled back and made laws
specifically that violate the sanctity of women's ability to choose
for themselves what happens with their bodies. And so it's
sort of for me underscores how important it is codify
(22:55):
protections for women and protect them at all costs, because
otherwise we have a society that's seemingly pretty intent on
on rolling back the rights of women to exist equally
in society at every turn. Tennis has sort of been
on the right side of history more than It hasn't
(23:15):
forces inherently political. Who we let play, who gets onto
the field, who we celebrate, who we pay all matters.
It's all choices. It's not an accident. And so I
look back at these decades of something approximating equality with
Title nine, and I think to myself, like, Wow, they
had to push so hard for this. We owe it
to them to push further and not let it backslide.
(23:38):
Billy Jane King is a Tennis Hall of Famer and
the latest recipient of s I S. Muhammad Ali Legacy Award.
Pay Attention. And this is the one thing that Muhammad
Ali Ali and I used to talk about, pay attention.
You never know how another person is going to touch
your life, how you're going to touch their life. Caitlin
(24:01):
Thompson is the publisher and co founder of Racket magazine.
Caitlin also recently reviewed Billy Jean King's autobiography All In
for The New York Times. Will post a link to
that in our show notes. Thanks for listening, and a
reminder to please rate and review our show that helps
people find us. Sports Illustrated Weekly is a production of
Sports Illustrated and I Heart Radio. For more podcasts, from
(24:24):
My Heart Radio visit the I Heart Radio Apple Apple podcast,
or wherever you get your favorite shows. And for more
of Sports Illustrated's best stories and podcasts, visit SI dot com.
This episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly was produced by Jessica Yarmoski,
Jordan Rizzieri, and Isaac Lee, who was also our sound engineer.
Our senior producers are Dan Bloom and Harry swart Out.
(24:47):
Our executive producers are Scott Brody and me John Gonzalez.
Our theme song is by Nolan Schneider, and if you've
stuck around this long, we leave you with this. I'm
really just a backboard for you to hit against. I
like that metaphor.
Before we begin, a reminder to please rate and review
our show that helps new listeners discover us and grow
the program. On this episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly. This
year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Title nine, the federal
civil rights law that has been instrumental to women's sports,
(00:20):
and since Title nine's enactment, You'd be hard pressed to
find any person who has done more for women's athletics
than Billy Jean King. In addition to her on court
accomplishments in tennis, King has served as an activist, a businesswoman,
and an iconic cultural figure. Today you'll hear from Billy
Jean King after she won Sis Muhammad Ali Legacy Award,
(00:42):
and to offer additional context, we have Caitlin Thompson of
Racket Magazine here to put Billy Jean King's life and
achievements in perspective. I'm your host, John Gonzalez from Sports
Illustrated and I Heart Radio. This is Sports Illustrated Weekly.
(01:05):
My name is Caitlin Thompson. I am the co founder
and publisher of Racket, which is a quarterly magazine about tennis.
I'm also a former Division one athlete who benefited unbelievably
gratefully from generations of women coming before me, not least
(01:25):
of whom was the tennis legend Billy Jean King. Tennis
is my last sport I grew up. Basketball's my favorite sport,
American football, volleyball, baseball. My younger brother played twelve years
of professional baseball. And then Susan Williams asked me to
play tennis in fifth grade, so we went to her
country club. When I'm going, well, I'm never gonna get
(01:47):
to play tennis because my dad's a firefighter. We don't
have that kind of money. She was a kid having
to go into private tennis clubs in southern California, you
which were very, very dissimilar from the public long beach
tennis courts that she grew up on, with chain link fences,
(02:07):
which were very similar to the ones I played on
as a kid. Never been a member of a country club,
Neither has Billy Jean. Playing at the Los Angeles Tennis Club,
the mecca of tennis in southern California, and I'm I
realized everybody wore white shoes, white clothes, you know, play
with white balls, and everybody's white. And I said, where's
(02:27):
everybody else? Althae and giftson the first black person ever
to win a major in tennis. She was my first shiro.
I would have never thought that, coming from the streets
of New York playing paddle tennis, that I would have
the opportunity to shake the hand of Queen Elizabeth. I
(02:52):
actually got to see her live at the Los Angeles
Tennis Club and I looked at her and if you
can see it, you can be it. And I said,
that's what number one looks like. I wasn't thinking racer.
I think I'm thinking she looks like number one. She's
the best in the world. I had this epiphany last
(03:13):
twelve and I think, tea my whole life. If I
can make it to number one, I have to re
number one. I'm a girl. Nobody will listen if I'm
not at least number one. And I thought, maybe, just
maybe I can make the world a better place. Now.
In the third set, Billy Jeans serves or a match
point beautiful shop, and the Wimbledon title is hers, Mrs
(03:37):
Billy Jean, King of America, the new Queen of Tennis.
Well we have to sort of remember is Billy Jean
was not only a star at the time, but also
somebody who was battling the tennis powers that be, Like,
I don't think they wanted to start their own tour,
Billy in the original nine and Glad Coleman. What they
(04:00):
wanted was to have equal parody for pay, something approximating
equal promotion, equal TV time, you know, all of these
things to be commensurate with the men. The women were
proving that they could draw crowds, that they could be
incredibly similating. You know, they were putting female tennis players
on postage stamps, they were creating fashion crazes. And so
(04:21):
after decades of sort of being marginalized, seeing women getting gains,
and the US American Lawn Tennis Association, led by Jack Kramer,
sought to keep their boots on the necks of women,
like it was not a breakaway league for nothing. And
I think when you look at how often they tried
to get men to the table, she had meeting after meeting,
(04:43):
after meeting with Jack Kramer, with Stan Smith, who also
vehemently opposed equality, with Arthur Ash, who vehemently opposed equality
with the women. Although later Arthur and Billy Jean sort
of made amends and came to an understanding about the
ties between civil rights and gender rights. But every man
who was playing tennis, from what I can tell, quite
threatened by the fact that women were playing alongside them
(05:04):
and asking for money and earning audiences, and they saw
it as a zero's home game. I mean, that's an
attitude that persists to this day. Basically, moment athletes just
were always in the background, and basically we weren't thought
of really that much, and so it's hard on all.
A lot done just on me. But we'd always talk
and say, I wish we had the media attention and
(05:29):
so people could hear our stories as well, because every
human being has a story. When you look at what
it took for Billy to take time out of her
touring schedule to sit down with brands and potential sponsors
and sell them on the concept creating a league and
personally wrangling people like Robert Kraft, who went on to
own the New England Patriots to me one of the
most like celebrated sports team owners of all timer Genie
(05:52):
and the Buses in l A who started as a
world team tennis league holders, getting Virginia Slims to great
as sponsor tournament, getting other women to get paid a
dollar symbolically to leave the tour was a risk, and
she was willing to put her money where her mouth
was every single time. I was lucky enough to have
(06:14):
Racket participated in a documentary about World Team Tennis for
A twenty four this year, and one of the things
that I was really struck by was one of the
men who agreed sort of reluctantly to be part of
this league, who was a self professed, you know, sort
of male chauvinist, as was Bobby Riggs when he faced
off against Billy and the battle of the sexist, and
he said this thing that I really made me laugh,
(06:35):
which is he was basically sort of won over of
it by Billy Jean King, and he kind of changed
his views on women. He thought to himself, I'll be
a different cake when I get it this blender, which
is a phrase It doesn't really make any sense other
than it was so powerful to be faced with a relentless,
essentially a serve and volley type of personality who was
just going to take the fight to you and make
(06:57):
you submit. Following as an exclusive presentation of ABC Sports
Live from the Aspid Dome in Houston, Texas, the tennis
battle of the sexist Billy Jean King versus Bobby Ricks
and you I can get I can't know, you know
(07:24):
you care? I think she knew it was important because
it could galvanize people in a cultural way. And it
was my moment because man, ninety people watching, that's never
gonna happen again playing a tennis match. And it wasn't
about tennis. It's about social change, at least it was
to me. And Title nine just been passed here before,
so I was hoping it would have long lasting impact.
(07:48):
The cultural case needed to be made. And coming into
this match against Bobby Riggs, who was, you know, sort
of a washed up gambler, inveterate you know, booze hound, smoker,
gamble her. He was like a real wild personality. He
stands before I o for exactly what he is. A Charlotte,
a fake, the biggest hustler in the contemporary chronicle of sports,
(08:11):
now ancient, a relic of what he was once he
could play tennis. Now he results to beating women and
destroying the whole lip movement in the United States by himself.
The nub Bobby Riggs. I'm ready to play, and I'm
gonna tid a win for all the guys around the
world who feel as I do, that the mailst king
and the Mail is supreme. I've said it over and
(08:32):
over again. I still feel that way girls play and
ice came a tennis for girl. When they get out
there on a court with a man, even a tired
old man, they're going to be in big couple. You know.
A lot of folks say, like, well, you know he
was maybe two decades old of the Billy Jing King.
Was this even a fair match? For context? He had
beaten Margaret Court, the other sort of luminary of that era.
(08:56):
Bobby Riggs beat her handily in what it became known
as the Mother's Day Massacre. She was somebody who didn't
believe in gender parody. She was somebody who didn't believe
in racial parody. She famously supported apartheid in South Africa.
She is now a anti gay preacher who supports commercial
therapy and perth. You know, she's like a real gem.
But I don't think she at the time understood that
(09:17):
this wasn't just a way to get paid to play
an exhibition match, but in fact, when you put yourself
up against a male athlete, You're really competing for all women.
Women's suffrage was less than fifty years old when Rob
Wade hadn't yet been law. And you know, now in
a context in which women's like authority over their own
bodies is stripped away from us, like, it is so
hard to forget how much this country hates women. Billy
(09:41):
saw in that moment, and how she felt like she
was going to be playing for not just herself and
her own glory and probably the glory of her Nissan
Tennis League, but also every single woman who was being
slapped on the ass as a secretary and kept out
of a boardroom and the things that we know persist
to this day. And then the fact that she went
(10:02):
out and played against Bobby Riggs and beat him in
the best of five in the Battle of the Sexes.
I think for many women became like a rallying cry,
this is gonna be the real match. This was really
all about. Because Bobby challenged me in the first place.
I didn't want to start an issue. But now that
Margaret went ahead and opened the door did such a
miserable job. You know, I think that I can beat Bobby.
(10:27):
I won't be able to strike you out. I'm not marred.
I love pressure. You can try to thank me all
you want. And I think she went into this match
knowing what was on the line, knowing she would have
to not only beat Bobby Riggs, but beat him vehemently,
allow him to spout his male chowbin, his nonsense about
how women deserve to be in the kitchen, and you know,
no little girl is going to come up and show
(10:48):
him what's what in his own court, but also play
along with it and use every opportunity to pugilistically make
the case that this was this cultural moment, the winner
of the Battle of the sex it Billy Jean six
six three six three. I haven't gone through a day
(11:08):
yet that someone hasn't brought it up, not one day.
The women. What really happened right after, particularly, is they
got very excited. They said they finally have more self confidence.
For the first time, they had the courage to speak up,
for the first time, they asked for a raise. Billy
(11:28):
has always understood these cultural moments as being lightning rods
for ways to push forward. And I think for that reason,
you know, making a film, however good or bad, out
of it, was a logical thing for her to sign
onto and be excited about. Are you talking, Abobby more nonsense?
He spelled. The worst going to be when you lose.
(11:50):
I'm the ladies number one, I'm the champ. Why would
I lose? Okausnosaurs can't play tennis. She's very aware of
how these stories tend to get buried or rewritten with
each successive generation. The victors get to write the history,
and if you're not part of that, you're going to
get relegated to the dustband rule cold to find her
(12:26):
a lot of how she transcends sports, activism, culture, our imagination.
Being on stage with you know Elton John who wrote
Philadelphia Freedoms, which became a gay anthem for her to
celebrate her World team Tennis League team called the Philadelphia Freedoms.
(12:56):
You know, she just is at the center of gravity
and a lot of these moments because she can't help herself.
She just can't not be that person. I think, uh
and I you know, I think it's for everyone's betterment.
One thing that Billy has always understood is the power
of not only celebrity and culture, but also the power
(13:18):
of money. When she was founding a league, when she
was getting her own sponsors. Virginia Slims notably came in
as the first sponsor of the w t A Tour.
It wasn't until they could pay prize money that she
(13:38):
felt like it was a real thing that was happening,
and not just sort of charity honorari and prize money,
but prize money that's somewhat approximated the men's equal prize
money at the US Open. And I would have got
the sponsor for that to make up the difference. And
then I went and talked to the tournament and talked
to Billy Tolbert, the tournament director. Again, by the way,
(13:59):
we've got them, need to make the difference. You don't
have to go out and get one more time with sponsorship.
We will give it to you. He went, what now,
I don't think that would have happened or I would
have had the understanding or the courage to go do that,
to ask if I had learned. Because of my ownership
and being in business in the tennis business at the time,
I think it made me understand the other side. As
(14:21):
soon as she was able to establish the Women's Sentence
Association and make sure it was sort of financially sustainable.
She turned her attention to soccer and to basketball, and
to women's softball and all these other sports because she
knew that the power sort of to negotiate was really
where they were going to be able to make permanent,
lasting change and honestly like create permanent respect in the
in the I think in the larger sort of cultural context,
(14:45):
athletes just want more. I want more money, I want
more of this. I want better hotels, I want this,
I want better food. I want, I want, I want,
I want. And then I asked him, do you know
about the business. I don't know. I think if you
want to negotiate that you need to know all sides,
not just your side. It ties to Billy Jean King
(15:09):
and Serena Williams, who has the most grand slams of
any player male or woman, who was arguably the most
dominant player certainly of her era. She doesn't happen without
Venus Williams. And Venus Williams is actually the tie between
Billy and Serena because Venus not only one a handful
(15:29):
of grand slams herself and broke through so that Serena
could be not totally burdened with being an activist. Really,
Venus was the activist between the two sisters, and she
took the playbook right out of Billy Jeans maneuvers. I
arrived to the Grand Slams and Tennis at the age
of sixteen years old, found it I wasn't being paid
equal and that's a hard blow for young women and
(15:50):
I don't want other young women to go through this.
She went to Wimbledon, which at the time was not
giving when men and women equal pay. She wrote an
op for The Times of London about why denying her
equal pay was the wrong thing to do. And then
also she went behind the scenes at the All England
Lawn and Tennis Club and made a case to the
(16:10):
board filled with, as you might guess, old white men,
and then went out the next day and beat Lindsey
Davenport in what is considered one of the greatest final
matches men or women of all time. So many people
like this young lady of the Venus Williards has bounched
back into the room as socle but the Wimbledon talk
(16:31):
to it. So I think Venus really understood from Billy
because they talked in because Billy was very, very keen
to get them on board and get them situated in
the tennis tour, because she knew that her star was
fading and she would have to find people to uphold
not only her legacy but the legacy of women's sports
and push it forward as they have done. And I
(16:52):
think with Billy giving Venus the playbook to be an activist,
to go into those rooms to write the op eds,
then you have Serena who doesn't have the pressure on
her to be the first in the space. She's doing
it with her sister. She can just honestly play tennis
part of Billy's legacy. And I think Serena and Venus
for sure understand that these women who came before them,
(17:16):
much like Title nine did for all these generations of
women who came before me, who I meet in boardrooms,
who I see, you know, giving speeches on the floors
of Congress, like these are people who literally walked so
that we could run. And I think when you look
at what a seismic figure like Billy did with her
vision and then continues to do by backing it up
(17:38):
and training the next generation of folks, then it's sort
of clear where folks can pick up the mantle and
you know, and essentially keep going. Tennis is a catalyst.
It was my way, it was my way of reaching
others and and I'd always try to get the other
players that think like this, obviously, because they all come
from different towns, different villages, different countries, and one thing
(18:00):
about tennis were really international and this is an opportunity
for them to make their place, whatever they decided to do,
to make it better, to improve it, you know, because
we're one of the lucky ones. Athletes are one of
the lucky ones. It's a reason to me, it's a responsibility.
Tennis showed that women from any country in the world,
(18:21):
from any background in the world can compete on equal
footing with men. That's still not true in every other sport,
not quite. Tennis is still the highest paying for women,
and it's the one because of Title nine the women
are able to access. If not the most, then then
certainly in terms of popularity. Tennis doesn't need to be
(18:41):
alone in that. I think, if anything, I would love
to see that every single sport. But because this sport,
like I said, it's got its problems, and the all
white tennis clubs and the you know, lack of sponsorship
or quality. You know, there's no domestic violence policy. However,
on the plus side, I think it has been inspiring
for generations of women. If you look at professional soccer,
(19:03):
it's existed for less than this fan of my lifetime.
The same is true for literally every other women's league.
The w n b A didn't exist before I was born.
But you know what, women were playing tennis professionally, winning
and hoisting cups over their head when before my parents
were born, right, And so a lot of this has
to do with generations and decades of visibility and decades
of progress. You know, he did couldn't get a credit
(19:25):
card in nineteen seventy three. Title lie has just been
passed in V two and everybody thinks it was about sports.
Sports is not even mentioned in title nine. Uh. I
think it talks about activity or something. We got lucky
that that was added, I think. And then you know, um,
I Senator birched By as one of my heroes, and
he and I talked about this, but he had no
(19:45):
idea that the effect it was gonna have and what
it did. Though, it's got rid of the quotas um
for schools for women, like if you want to go
to Harvard to get your medical degree. They only allowed
five per cent in a classroom before nineteen seventy two.
And you'll notice in the seventies early seventies a lot
of schools became co ed because this is about federal
(20:07):
money having to be used equally at colleges, high schools,
private or public. If you get any federal funds, you
had to for the first time give it equally to
boys and girls. And then you'll see all these schools
if you follow the money and always happens. Title nine
(20:29):
is is typically put into a sports contact. Specifically. You
know a lot of collegiate athletes, obviously because they are
seen as the biggest beneficiaries of Title nine. I was
one of them. I got a tennis scholarship to play
at the University of Missouri, where I studied magazine journalism.
I got a free education that I probably would not
(20:49):
have otherwise been able to afford. But I think a
lot of people don't really understand about Title nine, especially
who haven't spent a lot of time around female athletes
and women in positions of power. Is the amount of
women in leadership roles that have benefited from this law
and it is a direct result of their being basically
(21:10):
them being invested in by American society. If you look
at fortune companies, if you look at the you know
US Congress, like Chris and Jilbrand who played college sports,
or Uzio Duba, who you know, wins Emmys. But also
it was a college track athlete paid for by Title
nine at Boston College. When women, when whoever is not
getting a fair deal in this case, women particularly women
(21:31):
of color and live with disability, when they get the
opportunity boom, they take advantage of it. And that's why
you have this flood through the years because it took
a long time for Title line to start kicking in.
It didn't kick in in the fall of seventy two,
even those passed June nineteen seventy two. It really and
(21:52):
it's still not even yet. So it's we have a
long way to go still, but at least you have
to get things started. I thought this year would be
sort of like a celebratory year, to be like, hey,
Title nine, like you know, it's it's fifty years old,
and look how far we've come. And you know, all
these women that won the Olympic gold medal in and
beyond and all these women's sports leagues that are now
(22:13):
grappling with and in some cases achieving parody with their
male counterparts, like the U S women's national soccer team
for example, hockey, basketball, certainly tennis. All of these gender
pay issues are resonant throughout sports. It all goes back
to that generation of women who was raised and fully
funded by Title nine. Like, it's not an accident. This
(22:34):
is a natural conclusion of what happens if you empower
women and then give them something close to equal footing.
It's not quite equal, but something close to equal footing.
And now we're having this conversation instead of like a
celebratory town like, oh, we've rolled back and made laws
specifically that violate the sanctity of women's ability to choose
for themselves what happens with their bodies. And so it's
sort of for me underscores how important it is codify
(22:55):
protections for women and protect them at all costs, because
otherwise we have a society that's seemingly pretty intent on
on rolling back the rights of women to exist equally
in society at every turn. Tennis has sort of been
on the right side of history more than It hasn't
(23:15):
forces inherently political. Who we let play, who gets onto
the field, who we celebrate, who we pay all matters.
It's all choices. It's not an accident. And so I
look back at these decades of something approximating equality with
Title nine, and I think to myself, like, Wow, they
had to push so hard for this. We owe it
to them to push further and not let it backslide.
(23:38):
Billy Jane King is a Tennis Hall of Famer and
the latest recipient of s I S. Muhammad Ali Legacy Award.
Pay Attention. And this is the one thing that Muhammad
Ali Ali and I used to talk about, pay attention.
You never know how another person is going to touch
your life, how you're going to touch their life. Caitlin
(24:01):
Thompson is the publisher and co founder of Racket magazine.
Caitlin also recently reviewed Billy Jean King's autobiography All In
for The New York Times. Will post a link to
that in our show notes. Thanks for listening, and a
reminder to please rate and review our show that helps
people find us. Sports Illustrated Weekly is a production of
Sports Illustrated and I Heart Radio. For more podcasts, from
(24:24):
My Heart Radio visit the I Heart Radio Apple Apple podcast,
or wherever you get your favorite shows. And for more
of Sports Illustrated's best stories and podcasts, visit SI dot com.
This episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly was produced by Jessica Yarmoski,
Jordan Rizzieri, and Isaac Lee, who was also our sound engineer.
Our senior producers are Dan Bloom and Harry swart Out.
(24:47):
Our executive producers are Scott Brody and me John Gonzalez.
Our theme song is by Nolan Schneider, and if you've
stuck around this long, we leave you with this. I'm
really just a backboard for you to hit against. I
like that metaphor.
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