‘Battle of the Sexes’ match highlight of tennis legend’s book

NEW YORK – Billie Jean King occasionally got hot-tempered on the tennis court, so her father once threatened to take a power saw to her racket in the family garage. He didn’t, but he made his point. King never needed the control that her parents taught her more than when she played Bobby Riggs in the $100,000 winner-take-all “Battle of the Sexes" match at the Houston Astrodome on Sept. 20, 1973. The 55-year-old Riggs, a self-proclaimed “male chauvinist pig," threatened to jump off a California bridge if he lost to the 29-year-old King. A television audience of 48 million tuned in to see what would happen. Now, King’s new book “Pressure is a Privilege: Lessons I’ve Learned from Life and the Battle of the Sexes" remembers the pivotal match ahead of its 35th anniversary, combining those memories with the wisdom the tennis legend gained from her blue-collar parents while growing up in Long Beach, Calif. King won the battle with Riggs, of course, outplaying the hustler in straight sets. “That match taught me a lot, dealing with the media and the attention and pressure and what it stood for—the symbolism of the women’s movement," King told The Associated Press in a recent interview. King’s eighth book, her first in 20 years, is scheduled for release Tuesday. It covers kitchen-table conversations with her parents plus chapters on preparation, visualization and knowing your worth. “It’s a fun read, it will take you an hour and half, it’s quick," King said. “Besides (chapters on) pressure is a privilege and champions adjust, I talk about integrity and my heroes that were important in my childhood like my teachers, Rev. Bob Richards and Alice Marble." King’s father, Bill Moffitt, was a Navy man and a firefighter. He was tapped for an NBA tryout, but declined the invitation and opted for a steady job and paycheck to help support his young family. Her mother, Betty, was a homemaker who loved to dance and body surf in the Pacific Ocean. Although she was quiet, King called her mom “the velvet hammer" because she never let up until a job was finished. Billie Jean and Randy Moffitt, her brother, were expected to be home each day for dinner at 5:15 p.m. Their parents shuttled them to tennis and baseball practice, and Randy eventually became a relief pitcher for the San Francisco Giants. Flash forward to 1973. Riggs, the son of a preacher, was a former No. 1 player who won the 1939 Wimbledon singles, doubles and mixed titles. Always wearing his black horned-rimmed glasses, Riggs provoked controversy. Women belonged in the kitchen and the bedroom, he said. After Riggs defeated top-ranked Margaret Court 6-2, 6-1 on Mother’s Day in 1973, he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated and Time. King was next for his baiting. In the final news conference before their match, Riggs suggested King’s biggest handicap “is being a woman." King wouldn’t stand up to the pressure, he said, and “maybe she won’t want to get out of the house and be liberated after this," according to a Washington Post story on Sept. 19, 1973. Riggs was wrong. Looking back now, King called 1973 a “tumultuous time" for the country. “Vietnam was just cooling down, Watergate was heating up, we had Roe vs. Wade," she said. “We didn’t even have fax machines yet, or microwaves or cable television. So you can imagine how much focus was on us." Promoter Jerry Perenchio understood the appeal of a King-Riggs match after hearing arguments between men and women after Riggs defeated Court. So did Lornie Kuhle, who coached Riggs ahead of the match. Did Riggs, who died in 1995, believe the sexist comments he made in the two months before the showdown? “No, he put the whole country on," Kuhle said. “It was tongue in cheek. Women got in an uproar. You know why? Because it’s the oldest battle—man vs. woman—and it happens in homes every day." Some men thought Riggs threw the match. “Impossible. He was in a depression for six months," Kuhle said. “If anybody knew Bobby Riggs, he didn’t want to lose a bet." Kuhle said Riggs’ largest single-bet loss that night was $15,000 to Dick Butera, who later became the coach of the Philadelphia Freedoms in King’s World Team Tennis league. While there were no female sports writers at the match, 15-year-old athlete Christine Brennan watched on TV with her family in Toledo, Ohio. Brennan, now a sports columnist, decided to co-write the book when she saw the reception King got at a panel discussion at the 2007 NCAA Women’s Final Four in Cleveland. “So many people came up, it was as if Mick Jagger was on the stage," Brennan said. “With old Ms. magazines and books and pictures to be autographed. People reaching their hands out to Billie for an hour." A new generation can get acquainted with King, who went on to win 39 Grand Slam titles and helped form the WTA Tour. The WTA now offers $70 million in prize money at 60 events in 34 countries. King wrote that she stopped exercising in her 40s and put on weight before turning her fitness around. At 64, King plays tennis three times a week and does cardio and weight training at the gym. “If there is one lesson to learn from the boomer generation, it is that age is just a number and old is not old anymore," she wrote. King dedicated the book to her parents and brother, “who gave me the compass of my life." It’s also dedicated to friends, coaches and partner Ilana Kloss “who gives me the strength and support to keep living the dream." – AP