Another Outside the Lines doozy before football takes over everything...
The first real legitimization, in many people's minds, of women's sports in this country was the famed second "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match, where tennis hustler and (at least in front of the cameras) Male Chauvinist Pig Bobby Riggs, after defeating World #1 Margaret Court only four months before, ceding only three games in a two-set win in the process, against probably the pre-eminent activist for women's tennis in the day, Billie Jean King, in front of over 30,000 people (and a television audience of over 50,000,000 in the US alone), to this day the largest crowd ever to see an American tennis match, on September 20, 1973.
King won the match in three straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.
There has been widespread speculation that Riggs threw the match, due to his hustler nature getting himself in serious money trouble with the Mafia.
ESPN has gained evidence to support this theory, and released it this week.
A Tampa, FL pro shop worker of the day reported a post-midnight meeting between three members of various sectors of the Mafia and a fourth man that he did not recognize.
Riggs, the meeting reported, was over $100,000 in arrears to dirty sports bets, and it was decided that he must throw the Houston match to get it back. In fact, the Tampa pro shop worker believes that, effectively, Riggs had already told the Mafia types that there would be two "Battle of the Sexes" matches, in which he would crush Margaret Court, and then lose the match to Billie Jean King.
This would make sense on multiple levels: Not only was Riggs in a compromised position, but he was a hustler in the first place (making him vulnerable), and an inside to the match would let the Mafia clean up many times that $100K, because of the fact almost no sane person was betting on King to defeat Riggs in their match -- this fact was reported by no less than Jimmy "The Greek" before the match.
Riggs was always gambling on every tennis match he played, it seemed, and there was at least one time at which Riggs openly threw a five-set doubles loss. The ATP would've banned Riggs immediately, but the guy was no less than a hustler, a scam artist, a sham, and the winner of five US Professional championships in Forest Hills, NY (the precursor to the US Open).
Basically, it is not hard to read between the lines and realize that Riggs felt that he, himself, was too good for tennis and had to find other ways to challenge himself.
He actually had challenged King first, and she declined -- until Riggs crushed Court and King, to this day, states she was, then, compelled to face him. The promoter of Ali-Frazier in 1971 (any surprise here?) took care of the rest, and the showdown at the Astrodome was on.
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It's a fascinating read, but it's clear that it should be a surprise to no one.
This was, as noted, one of the seminal moments in American sport, held up as the first real legitimacy of women's sports (not coincidentally, ESPN's women's-based "Nine for IX" movie series is, tonight, showing a film questioning whether women's sports achievements mean a meaningful damn at all, or whether women are "Branded" to be simply sex objects on the fields and nothing more...) in the 1970's.
Billie Jean King was openly attempting to get equal purses for the women's tournaments to the men, and aided in starting the Virginia Slims Tour to aid in this endeavor.
All the while, Riggs was partying it up in scary fashion, and with some scary characters around to boot. Reading everything he did, it's a wonder someone didn't shoot the man for simply being so stupid or something!
It's almost as if Bobby Riggs was, himself, the precursor to today's sports -- that the biggest sporting event of the early 1970's (long before football became The National Religion) was a scam job by a hustler in league with the Mafia.
Fact is, this should surprise no one. Click the link, and read for yourself.
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