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Billie Jean King

Billie Jean Moffit won her first championship at the age of fourteen in a southern California tournament. In 1961, King competed in her first Wimbledon tournament in England and won the doubles title. In 1966, she won her first Wimbledon singles championship and repeated in 1967. That same year she won the U.S. Open singles title in New York. Billie Jean married attorney Larry King in 1968 and turned professional the same year. That year she won both the women's singles and doubles. In 1971, she became the first woman athlete to win more than $100,000 in a single year. It was 1972, however, that would be King's banner year. She won the Wimbledon women's singles, the U.S. Open singles, and the French Open. For this feat, Sports Illustrated magazine named her "Sportswoman of the Year," and Sports magazine deemed her "Tennis Player of the Year." In 1973, King again won Wimbledon's singles and doubles championships. King's career coincided with the women's liberation movement of the 1970s, and she became a natural spokesperson for the movement. Her status as a leader in the feminist cause reached a zenith in September of 1973, when she faced and defeated the 1939 men's tennis champion Bobby Riggs in a nationally televised match at the Houston Astrodome. In 1975, King won her... Next

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