King, Billie Jean (Moffitt)
Tennis
b. Nov. 22, 1943, Long Beach, CA
Billie Jean Moffitt loved softball as a girl, but her father decided that sport was unladylike and he persuaded her to take tennis lessons when she was eleven. She fell in love with the new sport and began playing in tournaments.
At sixteen, she was ranked 19th in the country and the great Alice Marble began coaching her. Marble later recalled that, when the teen-ager stayed with her on weekends, "She was so crazy about tennis, I'd have to lock her in her room to do her homework."
Under Marble's tutelage, King went from 19th to 4th in less than a year. In 1961, she won her first Wimbledon title, the women's doubles with Karen Hantze. The following year, she upset Margaret Smith, the top seed, in the first round of the singles tournament, and the British press began calling her "Little Miss Moffitt."
She was to become better known under her married name, though. In 1965, she married Larry King, a law student who became her business manager.
As Billie Jean King, she won her first major singles title at Wimbledon in 1966. She went on to win that championship 6 more times, in 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973, and 1975. She won the U. S. Open in 1967, 1971, 1972, and 1974; the Australian Open in 1968; and the French Open in 1972.
Coming into her own when sport was becoming a television staple, King helped transform the popular image of women's tennis with her athletic, aggressive style of play. One sportswriter described her style: "She buzzes the net like a torpedo approaching for the blast."
King's influence extended beyond her on-court performance. After the middle-aged Bobby Riggs struck a blow for male chauvinism by beating Margaret Court on Mother's Day, 1973, King struck back by beating him at the Houston Astrodome on September 30. Billed as the "Battle of the Sexes," the match drew the largest crowd ever to watch tennis, 30,472, and was also a major television event.
After defeating Riggs 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, King told the media, "This is the culmination of a lifetime in the sport. Tennis has always been reserved for the rich, the white, the males--and I've always been pledged to change all that."
King was one of the co-founders of the Virginia Slims Circuit, created in 1970 to increase prize money for women players, and of the Women's Tennis Association, which was instrumental in getting the U. S. Open to award equal prizes to men and women. She was also a founder of the Women's Sports Foundation and of womenSports magazine.
In 1976, King teamed with Martina Navratilova to win the women's doubles at Wimbledon, giving her a record 20 Wimbledon championships. In addition to 12 grand slam singles titles, 6th on the all-time list, and 39 over-all grand slam championships, 3rd all-time, King won 29 Virginia Slims events. She ranks fifth in total tournament victories with 71.
The Associated Press female athlete of the year in 1967 and 1973. Largely because of her victory over Riggs, Sports Illustrated didn't name its annual "Sportsman of the Year" for 1973. Instead, King was on the magazine's cover as "Sportswoman of the Year."