Game, Set, Match: Billie Jean King and the Revolution in Women’s Sports

Notes

Notes Source Abbreviations BJK, Billie Jean (1974) Billie Jean King with Kim Chapin, Billie Jean: An Autobiography (New York: Harper and Row, 1974) BJK, Billie Jean (1982) Billie Jean King with Frank Deford, Billie Jean (New York: Viking Press, 1982) Dunkle Margaret Dunkle Papers NOW National Organization for Women Records PEER Project on Equal Education Rights Records PSEW Project on the Status and Education of Women (Association of American Colleges) Records Sandler Bernice Resnick Sandler Papers SL The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University WEAL Women’s Equity Action League Records WSF Archives Women’s Sports Foundation Archives, East Meadow, N.Y. 216 notes to pages 1–6 Prologue 1 For a general introduction to the match, see Selena Roberts, A Necessary Spectacle: Billie Jean King, Bobby Riggs, and the Tennis Match That Leveled the Game (New York: Crown Publishers, 2005). 2 “The Troubles, and Triumph, of Billie Jean King,” New York Times, May 6, 1981, A30; Bruce Lowitt, “25 years ago, she was King of a cause,” St. Petersburg Times, September 20, 1998, 1C; Jere Longman, “Soccer’s Move: Grass Roots to Grand Stage,” New York Times, July 10, 1999, D1. 3 Billie Jean King, “I Just Had to Win,” Tennis, August 1998, 30; Barbara Huebner, “When King Reigned,” Boston Globe, November 18, 1998, C7; BJK, Billie Jean (1974), 170; “The Hustler Outhustled,” Newsweek, October 1, 1973, 63. See also Lucinda Hahn, “The shots heard ’round the World,” Tennis, August 1998, 22. 4 Dan Wakefield, “My Love Affair with Billie Jean King,” Esquire, October 1974, 138. 5 George Solomon, “Queen Ready for King,” Washington Post, February 5, 1973, D4; Hahn, “The shots heard ’round the World,” 25. 6 Joel Drucker, “The Battles of the Sexist,” Tennis, August 1998, 33; Nora Ephron, “Bobby Riggs, The Lady-Killer,” New York Magazine, September 10, 1973, 53. See also Tom LeCompte, The Last Sure Thing: The Life and Times of Bobby Riggs (Easthampton , Mass.: Skunkworks Publishing, 2003). 7 Joe Jares, “Riggs to Riches—Take Two,” Sports Illustrated, September 10, 1973, 24–25. Chapter 1 of Roberts, A Necessary Spectacle, describes the match. 8 See, for example, Pete Axthelm, “The Battle of the Sexes,” Newsweek, September 24, 1973, 82–85; and “How Bobby Runs and Talks, Talks, Talks,” Time, September 10, 1973, 54–60. 9 Jares, “Riggs to Riches,” 25; LeCompte, The Last Sure Thing, 298; Ephron, “Bobby Riggs, The Lady-Killer,” 53. 10 Axthelm, “The Battle of the Sexes,” 85. 11 Wakefield, “My Love Affair with Billie Jean King,” 138; John Leonard, “When She Was King,” New York Magazine, May 1, 2006, 118. The quote appeared in the HBO documentary that Leonard was reviewing, Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer, which first aired on April 26, 2006. 12 William Gildea, “Tennis Match Just Last Act,” Washington Post, September 20, 1973, D1; Michael Murray, “Media,” Commonweal, October 19, 1973, 63; “One Vote for Billie Jean,” Wall Street Journal, September 18, 1973, 20. The editorial reasoned that she was the better player but couldn’t resist adding, “And never let it be said we never stuck out our necks on behalf of women’s liberation.” 13 Axthelm, “The Battle of the Sexes,” 85; Grace Lichtenstein, “Mrs. King Calls Victory ‘Culmination’ of Career,” New York Times, September 21, 1973, 31. Lichtenstein also wrote a book about her year following the women’s tour, which prominently mentioned the role Marilyn Barnett played in Billie Jean King’s life. See Grace Lichtenstein , A Long Way, Baby: The Inside Story of the Women in Pro Tennis (New York: William Morrow, 1974). 14 Murray, “Media,” 63; Barry Tarshis, “A Lot Preceded the Ms.-Match,” New York Times, September 23, 1973, 215. Originally Jack Kramer had been scheduled to be a 217 notes to pages 6–12 commentator on ABC, but King threatened to pull out of the match entirely if he was onscreen because he had been so antagonistic to women’s tennis. See chapter 1. 15 Erik Brady, “King-Riggs match took a giant step for equality,” USA Today, September 18, 1998, 9C; King, “I Just Had to Win,” 26. 16 King, “I Just Had to Win,” 28. This was such a favorite phrase that she chose it for the title of a recent book: Billie Jean King, Pressure Is a Privilege: Lessons I’ve Learned from Life and the Battle of the...