Battle of the Sexes

The Event Internationally televised sporting event between former Wimbledon champions Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King

Date September 20, 1973

King defeated Riggs in a historic tennis match that diminished many stereotypical attitudes about women in general and female athletes in particular, ultimately resulting in a victory for women’s social progress.

Key Figures

• Billy Jean King (1943-    ), tennis champion
• Bobby Riggs (1918-1995), tennis champion

Bobby Riggs had successfully challenged and defeated Margaret Court, 6-2, 6-1, on Mother’s Day, 1973, in a highly publicized tennis match. Buoyed by momentum from that victory and seeking an even bigger venue for his promotional interests, the fifty-five-year-old Riggs set his sights on the top female player of the day. Billie Jean King, twenty-nine years old, was at the peak of her game and had just captured all three titles for which she was eligible at Wimbledon earlier that summer. Riggs had recorded the same feat at Wimbledon thirty-four years earlier. He challenged King to a match to be billed as the Battle of the Sexes.

The event, held in the expansive, indoor Houston Astrodome, was promoted vigorously by Riggs to counter the growing women’s sports movement. His chauvinistic stance asserted that even the best female athlete possessed neither the temperament nor the skill to take on an older, slower male athlete and that women’s prize money should not be on par with men’s. King stayed out of the limelight, eliminating distractions and preparing for his unique style of play.

With more than thirty thousand spectators gathered and an international television audience of more than forty million estimated in thirty-six countries, the event began with unparalleled showmanship. Following a grand entrance and exchange of gifts—King received a giant sucker, Riggs a small pet pig—the match began with an aggressive King and a passive Riggs delighting the crowd. Early on, King’s pace and style of play surprised Riggs to the point that, having failed to return many of King’s accurate shots, he double-faulted on the first set point. Though he broke King’s serve once in each set, his stamina and skill were no match for hers. King prevailed 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in a match lasting two hours and four minutes. King won $100,000 for the night, only slightly less than she earned in all of 1971, when she became the first woman to exceed that figure in professional sports.

Impact

Riggs personified the attitudes of many men when confronted with the women’s movement (and its expression in sports). King had sought to change not only the game of tennis but societal attitudes as well. While both may have anticipated different outcomes, they realized the importance of the match in the context of the sociopolitical scene of America in the 1970’s. As the consequences of implementing of Title IX, the amendment requiring equality for women in school athletics, became clearer during the decade, opportunities in sports and society improved for women—aided by the visibility of such high-profile events as the Battle of the Sexes.

Bibliography

Kirkpatrick, Curry. “There She Is, Ms. America.” Sports Illustrated, October 1, 1973.

Lovinger, Jay, ed. The Gospel According to ESPN. New York: Hyperion, 2003.