Bobby Riggs

• Born: February 25, 1918
• Birthplace: Los Angeles, California
• Died: October 25, 1995
• Place of death: Leucadia, California

Sport: Tennis

Early Life

Robert Larimore “Bobby” Riggs was born in Los Angeles on February 25, 1918. Bobby was the youngest of seven children, six of whom were boys. Bobby’s father, who had enjoyed sports as a young man, was a minister in the Church of Christ. Bobby’s competitions with his older brothers and friends instilled a desire early on to participate in various sports and excel. With Southern California’s year-round dry climate and his family’s support, Bobby eventually developed a special interest in tennis, sparked when his brother John tried out for the high school team. At the age of twelve, with a borrowed racket, Bobby looked like a natural on the court and soon caught the eye of Dr. Esther Bartosh, a local tennis enthusiast. She gave Bobby his first formal lessons and helped him develop the baseline style of play that paved the way for his future success.

The Road to Excellence

Bobby’s first tournament win came just a few months after he began formal instruction in the finer points of the game under Bartosh. Within two years he was the top player in his age-group in Southern California. Bobby built a reputation for winning matches by keeping the ball in play until his opponent made an error. This required great footwork, agility, and endurance; his matches often lasted a long time. While many other players simply served and volleyed, Bobby’s style was unique but effective. He won the California High School Championships from 1932 to 1934, the National Boys’ Doubles Championships in 1933, and his first National Boys’ Singles Championships in 1935.

These successes on the court were often met by disappointments off the court. Bobby felt that the tennis establishment in California did not support him because of his middle-class family background, his 5-foot-7-inch stature, and his unorthodox style of play. However, in 1936, at the age of eighteen, Bobby was ranked fourth in the United States in amateur tennis. After enrolling for a semester at the University of Miami, he returned to California to focus on his tennis career. He continued to refine his style of play, which he later referred to as “airtight tennis”: playing for high-percentage shots, varying the pace and spin on the ball, and playing intelligently with the score in mind.

The Emerging Champion

In 1937, Bobby was the second-ranked amateur tennis player in the United States. Normally, this would have meant favored treatment by all tennis associations and an automatic spot on the prestigious U.S. Davis Cup team. While he was invited to practice with the team, he was not selected. Bobby’s disappointment turned into an even greater determination to prove beyond doubt that he deserved a spot on the 1938 team.

The following three years established a part of his legacy, as he won the deciding match in the 1938 Davis Cup victory over Australia; the 1939 Wimbledon Championships in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles; and the 1939 and 1941 National Singles Championships at Forest Hills, New York. In 1939, he was considered the top-ranked amateur tennis player in the world. His three championships at Wimbledon that year were especially noteworthy because no first-time player had accomplished that before.

Professional tennis players earned their salaries through exhibitions and circuit play, but amateurs like Bobby received only expense money and had few additional incentives to compete. For some time, Bobby felt his confidence and motivation to succeed were enhanced by wagering on himself. During the 1939 Wimbledon championships, he supplemented his expense money with $108,000 in winnings from bets he made on his winning the three titles.

On December 9, 1939, Bobby married Catherine Fischer of Chicago during a tennis tournament. Even though he was employed by the U.S. Advertising Corporation and later, Presbyterian College, his primary and consistent income was generated by his wagers, which he won with steady consistency, until he turned professional in late 1941. World War II interrupted his formal career, though he did play a little while in the Navy. In 1946 and 1947, he returned to competitive tennis to win the U.S. Professional Championships. His trademark style of play carried him until the age of thirty-two, when he began to taper off his competitive play and turned his energies to promoting tennis and baseball events.

Continuing the Story

As Bobby’s tennis career declined, so did his marriage to Catherine. In 1952, following their divorce, Bobby married Priscilla Wheeler, whom he later divorced, and turned his sporting interests to golf. Without a lesson, capitalizing on his innate athletic ability and hard work, he became a three-handicap player. Bobby continued to enjoy the challenge of proving himself when something of value was wagered, adding to his reputation as a fierce but fair competitor. A winner of several paddle-tennis titles, Bobby had not gotten the racket sports out of his system and returned to tennis with the advent of open tennis in 1968, when professionals and amateurs competed together in the same tournaments. He captured the 1970 Wimbledon senior doubles title, thirty-one years after winning his first Wimbledon title.

Ever the flamboyant self-promoter, Bobby introduced himself to a new generation in 1973. Feeling that senior men’s tennis players were superior to women’s tennis players, and deserving of more attention and earnings, Bobby issued an open challenge to all women to play him. Margaret Court Smith was the first to accept his challenge; she lost to Riggs in straight sets. However, on September 20, 1973, before a Houston Astrodome crowd of thirty thousand and a television audience estimated at more than fifty million viewers, Bobby lost the famed “Battle of the Sexes” to Billie Jean King in straight sets. To many observers, this match symbolized significant progress in recognizing women’s accomplishments and redefined athletic status.

Summary

In the years following the “Battle of the Sexes,” Bobby Riggs added to his legacy as a player the unique role of advancing women’s tennis and, consequently, women’s opportunities in society. Whether intended or not, whether an example of gamesmanship or hustle, Bobby enjoyed identification with something bigger than just tennis. Likewise, his 1988 diagnosis with prostate cancer, which ultimately claimed his life at the age of seventy-seven, prompted his establishment of the Bobby Riggs Tennis Museum Foundation to promote disease awareness.

Bibliography

Drucker, Joel. “The Battles of the Sexist.” Tennis, August, 1998, 33-35.

LeCompte, Tom. The Last Sure Thing: The Life and Times of Bobby Riggs. Easthampton, Mass.: Skunkworks, 2003.

Leibowitz, Ed. “Dressed to Kill.” Smithsonian 34, no. 6 (September, 2003): 25-26.

Riggs, Bobby. Tennis Is My Racket. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1949.

Riggs, Bobby, and George McGann. Court Hustler. New York: New American Library, 1974.

Roberts, Selena. A Necessary Spectacle: Billie Jean King, Bobby Riggs, and the Tennis Match That Leveled the Game. New York: Crown Publishers, 2005.

Spencer, Nancy E. “Reading Between the Lines: A Discursive Analysis of the Billie Jean King Versus Bobby Riggs ’Battle of the Sexes.’” Sociology of Sport Journal 17, no. 4 (2000): 386-402.