Billie Jean King Biography - family, children, parents, mother, old, information, born, husband, year Billie Jean King Biography Long Beach, California American tennis player I nternational tennis star Billie Jean King won a record twenty Wimbledon championships and helped win equal treatment for women in sports. Encouraged by her parents Billie Jean (Moffitt) King was born on November 22, 1943, in the southern California city of Long Beach. She was the first of Willard and Betty Moffitt's two children. Her father was an engineer for the fire department, and her mother was a receptionist at a medical center. Both she and her brother, Randy, who would become a professional baseball player, excelled in athletics as children and were encouraged by their parents. At fire department picnics, her father's coworkers always wanted Billie Jean to play on their softball team. Billie Jean developed an interest in tennis at age eleven and saved money to buy her first racket. When she was fourteen years old she won her first championship in a southern California tournament. She began receiving coaching at age fifteen from Alice Marble, a famous player from the 1930s.

The product of a working-class family, Billie Jean soon found herself caught up in a country club sport. Despite her success on the court, the fact that tennis was mainly geared toward men would prove a personal challenge to her in later years. Tournament successes In 1961 Billie Jean competed in her first Wimbledon tournament in England. Although she was defeated in the women's singles, she teamed with Karen Hautze to win the doubles (two-person team) title. She married attorney Larry King in 1965. In 1966 she won her first Wimbledon singles championship and repeated in 1967. That same year she also won the U.S. Open singles title at Forest Hills, New York. In 1968 King won both the women's singles and doubles titles at Wimbledon. In 1971 she became the first woman athlete to win more than one hundred thousand dollars Billie Jean King. Reproduced by permission of Archive Photos, Inc. in a single year. It was 1972, however, that would be King's banner year. She won the women's singles title at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, and the French Open.

(These three tournaments plus the Australian Open now make up the "Grand Slam" of tennis.) 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. It was then that she began to openly criticize the low prize money offered to women competitors. She noted that women were receiving far less than men for what she considered equal ability and effort. Her statements on this issue led to the offer from a major U.S. drug manufacturer of a large sum of money to make the prize money at the U.S. Open equal for both men and women. A victory for women's liberation King's career coincided with the women's liberation (feminist) movement of the 1970s. Her working-class upbringing in southern California and the second-class treatment she received as a professional athlete made her a natural spokesperson for the movement.

Her role as a leader in the feminist cause reached its peak in September 1973, when she faced the 1939 men's tennis champion Bobby Riggs (1918–1995) in a nationally televised match at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. King easily beat the aging Riggs and emerged as the winner of what had been billed as the "Battle of the Sexes." In 1975 King won her sixth Wimbledon singles championship, but she announced that she would no longer compete in major events because of injuries to her knees. In all she won a record twenty Wimbledon championships (including singles, doubles, and mixed doubles). Today, women competing in professional athletic contests owe much to Billie Jean King. With her outstanding play and forceful attitude, she earned them the right to compete for the same money as men. Later years King helped to found the Women's Tennis Association and served as its president from 1973 to 1975 and again from 1980 to 1981. After retiring from professional tennis in 1984, King and her husband have promoted coed (open to both men and women) team tennis.

King has also been active in charitable events. In 1995 she joined the Virginia Slims legends tour along with Chris Evert (1954–) and Martina Navratilova (1956–) to raise money for the fight against acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS; a disease that destroys the body's ability to fight off infection). King is also an investor in Discovery Zone, a chain of children's "play lands" that promotes the equal athletic abilities of boys and girls. King continues to be associated with the sport as a broadcaster, teacher, and coach. In 1999 and 2000 she coached the U.S. women's team, whose members included Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Lindsay Davenport, and Jennifer Capriati, to victories in the international Federation Cup tournament. For More Information Billie Jean King - Tennis Player, Athlete - Biography.com Billie Jean King American tennis great Billie Jean King broke down barriers in her push for equal prize money for women, and as one of the first well-known openly gay athletes. IN THESE GROUPS “A champion is afraid of losing.

Everyone else is afraid of winning.” Billie Jean King Synopsis Born on November 22, 1943, in Long Beach, California, Billie Jean King became the top-ranked women's tennis player by 1967. In 1973, she formed the Women's Tennis Association and famously defeated Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes." The first prominent female athlete to admit her homosexuality, King continued her work as an influential social activist after retiring from tennis. Early Years Billie Jean Moffitt was born on November 22, 1943, in Long Beach, California, to parents Bill and Betty. The Moffitts were an athletic family: Bill was offered a tryout for an NBA team before becoming a firefighter, and Betty, a homemaker, was an excellent swimmer. Their second child, Randy, became a Major League Baseball pitcher. Billie Jean’s early sport was softball; at age 10, she played shortstop on a team of 14- and 15-year-old girls that won the city championship.

However, her parents suggested she try a more "ladylike" sport, and at age 11, she began to play tennis on the Long Beach public courts. Rise to No. 1 In 1958 Billie Jean emerged as a talent to watch when she won the Southern California championship for her age bracket, and in 1959 she started to receive coaching from former women's tennis great Alice Marble. After a series of losses to top-seeded players in various competitions around the country, in 1961 Billie Jean made sports headlines for the first time when she and Karen Hantze Susman became the youngest pair to win the Wimbledon women's doubles titles. While attending California State University, Los Angeles, from 1961 to 1964, Billie Jean continued to compete in tournaments and also worked as a tennis instructor to make ends meet. She also married law student Larry King during this time. However, after achieving mixed results in several of the competitions, Billie Jean soon realized that she would need to step up her practice schedule if she wanted to reach her full potential, and she embarked on an exhaustive training regimen and worked on sharpening her fundamentals.

Billie Jean King's efforts were finally rewarded in 1966, when she won her first major singles championship at Wimbledon. She went on to successfully defend that title in each of the following two years, and added her first U.S. Open singles championship in 1967 and her only Australian Open triumph the following year. In 1968, having claimed the world's No. 1 ranking in women's tennis, King turned professional. Renowned for her speed, net game and backhand shot, King was a regular presence in the winner's circle in singles, doubles and mixed-doubles tournaments over the next few years. In 1972, she won the U.S. Open, French Open, and Wimbledon to claim three Grand Slam titles in one year. Activist and Innovator Never shy about speaking her mind, King jolted the tennis establishment with her views that the sport needed to shed its country-club image and offer equal payouts to both genders. In 1970 she joined the brand-new Virginia Slims Tour for women, and in 1971 she became the first female athlete to top $100,000 in prize money in a single year.

But she simmered over the smaller paychecks earned by her peers. In 1973, King spearheaded the formation of the Women's Tennis Association. Leveraging her position as its most celebrated player, she threatened a boycott of the 1973 U.S. Open if the pay inequality was not addressed. Her demands met, the U.S. Open became the first major tournament to offer equal prize money to women and men. The following year, King and her husband founded the World TeamTennis co-ed circuit. As player-coach of the Philadelphia Freedoms, she was one of the first women to coach professional male athletes. Battle of the Sexes King's push for equality made her a prime target for Bobby Riggs , the 1939 men’s Wimbledon champion turned self-promoter. The 55-year-old Riggs had assumed an overtly chauvinistic public persona to bait the sport’s top women into playing him, and after he easily defeated multi-time champion Margaret Court in May 1973, he secured King as his next opponent. The "Battle of the Sexes" took place on September 20, 1973, at the Houston Astrodome.

Embracing the spectacle of the event, King entered the court in a gold litter carried by four muscular men, while Riggs rolled in on a rickshaw pulled by a team of women called "Bobby's Bosom Buddies." But King was all business once the match started, and she handily beat Riggs in straight sets before an estimated television audience of 50 million viewers. Afterward, King acknowledged the pressure she felt that day. "I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn't win that match," she said. "It would ruin the women's tour and affect all women's self esteem." Later Tennis Career King announced her retirement from singles play after winning Wimbledon in 1975, but she resumed singles competition two years later and continued through 1983. In the meantime, she remained a force in doubles for many years, winning Wimbledon in 1979 and the U.S. Open in 1980. She continued to play WTA doubles matches sporadically, until retiring for good in 1990. Altogether, King won 39 major singles, doubles and mixed-doubles championships, including a record 20 at Wimbledon.

Off the Court and Post-Tennis King's private affairs were thrust into public view with a lawsuit brought by her former female personal assistant and lover in 1981. The first prominent woman athlete to admit her homosexuality, King lost her endorsements but became a torchbearer for the LGBT community. She divorced her husband in 1987, and settled into a long-term relationship with former player Ilana Kloss. "I didn't get comfortable in my own skin until I was 51 about being gay." Named to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987, King remained closely tied to the sport throughout the 1990s as a television commentator. She also served as captain of the U.S. team at the 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympics. In 2006, the New York City facility that hosts the U.S. Open was renamed the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in her honor. "That's the way I want the world to look: men and women working together, championing each other, helping each other, promoting each other -- we're all in this world together." King's accomplishments have gone beyond the world of tennis.

She has been honored by an array of organizations, notably earning the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. A board member of the Women’s Sports Foundation, which she formed during her playing days, she has also served as acting director for the Elton John AIDS Foundation and the National AIDS Fund. Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us ! Citation Information ESPN.com - Page2 - Thank you, Billie Jean Thank you, Billie Jean By Chris McKendry Page 2 columnist I floated into the newsroom on a personal high. "I just interviewed Billie Jean King!" I told a guy I work with. Billie Jean King, coaching at the Fed Cup on Saturday, was instrumental in getting Title IX passed. "Cool ... if you're a tennis fan," he said. I crashed down to earth. What if I had just interviewed Muhammad Ali? Would the response have been, "Cool, if you're a boxing fan"? I stood there shocked. I don't know if I was shocked with anger or sadness, or by his ignorance. But one of sports' great humanitarians had just been dismissed by one of my colleagues in the supposed sports capital of the world.

I have listened to men here give John Vander Wal's value as a pinch hitter more thought. As upset as I was at the moment, he could not ruin my day. Nobody could. It was such a good day that only one feeling lingered. I felt lucky. Lucky to live in a time when a great athlete whom I admire can also directly touch my life. King opened the door for all women and girls to participate in sports. Although she was an elite athlete, she fought for the average woman. She fought for me. To me, meeting her was no different than a black ballplayer meeting Jackie Robinson. I sat there looking at the person who made my opportunities possible. And she was looking back at a living example of her vision. Our meeting made me think of one of her favorite quotes, "The more you know about history, the more you know about yourself." I was eager to hear, first-hand, her experiences from the 1960s and '70s. And I wondered how they would compare to my own, decades later. At 11, King realized that she was discounted because she was a girl.

She was watching a minor-league baseball game with her younger brother Randy Moffitt , who would go on to be a big-league pitcher. ("Good slider, no curve," Billie Jean succinctly summarizes. She is so proud of her brother. She loves it when people introduce her as Randy Moffitt's sister.) When King enrolled in college, Cal State Los Angeles, she had already won a Wimbledon title. She was the most famous person on campus. But she did not receive an athletic scholarship. It had nothing to do with King being a pro player, because she wasn't ... tennis players were still amateurs. Anyhow, she recalls turning to Randy and saying, "You can be a big-league ballplayer and I can't." He asked why. "Because I'm a girl." "Because I'm a girl" was too often a theme in her life. When King enrolled in college, Cal State Los Angeles, she had already won a Wimbledon title. She was the most famous person on campus. But she did not receive an athletic scholarship. It had nothing to do with King being a pro player, because she wasn't ... tennis players were still amateurs. Athletic scholarships simply weren't available to women.

Her ex-husband Larry King -- a supremely mediocre player -- received scholarship money for playing on the men's team. This inequity, she explains "woke her up" to life as a "second-class citizen." And so, she "went to work." In the early '70s her work began to really pay off. In 1972, King was instrumental in seeing that the Education Amendment, especially one portion of the Bill, Title IX, was passed by Congress. Title IX bans sex discrimination in schools, whether in academics or athletics. The following year, 1973, she made an even louder political statement when she beat Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes. She also led other women tennis players in a break with the tennis establishment. Signing contracts worth a dollar apiece, they founded the WTA. King was a prime draw. She had the most to lose financially ... and did. During this time, King also fought for and won equal prize money for men and women at the U.S. Open. (Of course, the fight is far from over -- 30 years later Wimbledon still pays men more.) King's accomplishments could not change her past. But she can live with that.

As she says, "It's each generation's job to push the next." I was the next. And boy, are things different! Like King, I grew up with brothers and loved team sports almost from birth. I can't remember a time when I didn't know which teams were in the AL or NL. I can't even remember who taught me; it's like trying to remember who taught you English. Some things you just know. King and I were both public parks kids, as well. But our experiences differ greatly. First of all, in my time, it was considered cool for a girl to be athletic. I had girls' teams and leagues to play on. We, like the boys, were the Somerton Spartans. But for every age group, if there was a boys' team there was a girls' team. And I never thought twice about it. King actually took up tennis because there were no teams for her to join. She loved the constant movement of the game and it was at least "feminine," which was important in the 1950s. I took up tennis because there was a co-ed tennis team at our playground.

When King told me she did not receive a free college education, I felt a little guilty. I received scholarship money ... for playing tennis, no less. And nowhere near her level. I've never been to Wimbledon, even as a spectator. I never took the money for granted, but I never viewed making women's tennis being a scholarship sport as some great leap of faith on the part of the Drexel University athletics department. I was wrong. While it wasn't a leap of faith, it was progressive on the school's part. Too many universities are still not in compliance. Billie Jean's priority now is World Team Tennis. She calls the co-ed format, "the future." Building women's sports remains important to her, but her next goal is to foster co-ed teams that cooperate with and respect each other. Billie Jean King crushed Bobby Riggs in straight sets (6-4, 6-3, 6-3) in 1973's "Battle of the Sexes." King was as thought-provoking and passionate as I had imagined she'd be. And while she's still fighting for equality, she does enjoy the progress women have made.

(For the record, she "loves" Venus Williams' $40 million deal with Reebok.) Microphones off, Billie Jean began interviewing me. She had read my bio. She knew I played tennis in colleges. "I see you went to Drexel. Division I. Good. Scholarship money?" Me: "Yes, I wasn't very good but the education sent me on this path." "Great", she said. "What's next?" We talked then about jobs that are becoming cliché for women in TV. And how best I can avoid those. It was just another little push from one generation to the next. On my way out, I asked King, the history buff, one last question. How would history remember her? She scoffed, "Maybe I'll get a line in a book somewhere, Chris." I hope and expect that will not be the case. As King says, "The more you know about history, the more you know about yourself." Without knowing her history, future generations of women will never know their own. I thanked her. For everything. SportsCenter anchor Chris McKendry is a regular columnist for Page 2.

For more on Billie Jean King and other prominent women athletes, watch ESPN's Women & Sports Weekend on ESPN, ESPN 2 and ESPN Classic June 21-23. MEETING HISTORY Articles about Billy Jean King - latimes Billie Jean King: Be careful about protesting at Sochi Olympics January 9, 2014 | By David Wharton Billie Jean King says she now believes that athletes should think twice about protesting for gay rights at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The former tennis great, who will be part of the official U.S. delegation, cited Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter, which bans political demonstrations by participants at the Games. "I don't want any athlete getting in trouble, although I think they should do anything they want," King told the Associated Press. "Before I knew about Rule 50, I thought it would be sweet to wave some flags or something.

Advertisement IN BRIEF : Billie Jean King to Receive Award April 7, 1989 | From Times wire service s Billie Jean King, who holds a record 20 Wimbledon titles, will be the 1989 recipient of the Forest Hills Award to be presented Saturday, May 6, at the $602,500 Tournament of Champions. King won 13 U.S. Open titles and singles victories in the French Open and Australian Open, was ranked No. 1 in the world five times and was in the top 10 for 17 years. She led the U.S. doubles list for a record 12 years and won 29 Virginia Slims circuit singles titles. King founded the Women's Tennis Assn. SPORTS With Billie Jean King's help, U.S. takes right stand at Sochi Games December 18, 2013 | Helene Elliott In hockey terms, appointing openly gay athletes Billie Jean King and Caitlin Cahow to the presidential delegation that will represent the United States at the Sochi Olympics is a face wash - that quaint, queasy custom of rubbing stinky gloves in another player's face as an irritating tactic.

Sending tennis immortal King and two-time Olympic hockey medalist Cahow to play significant roles alongside straight colleagues is a message of unmistakable defiance to Russia, which has adopted anti-gay legislation that bans "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relationships to minors," effectively prohibits gay-rights rallies, and jeopardizes those who express support of gays. SPORTS Billie Jean King is still making team work June 30, 2009 | BILL DWYRE Michael Jackson sang about one Billie Jean, and the tennis world has long celebrated the other. Still does. Even though Billie Jean King is 65 now, she is still figuratively rushing the net, going all out, all day, every day. She could easily rest on the laurels of a tennis career that started as a pigtailed public-court player named Billie Jean Moffitt, from a middle-class family in Long Beach, and resulted in 39 Grand Slam tournament titles, 12 of them in singles and six of those at Wimbledon.

SPORTS Billie Jean King: Be careful about protesting at Sochi Olympics January 9, 2014 | By David Wharton Billie Jean King says she now believes that athletes should think twice about protesting for gay rights at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The former tennis great, who will be part of the official U.S. delegation, cited Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter, which bans political demonstrations by participants at the Games. "I don't want any athlete getting in trouble, although I think they should do anything they want," King told the Associated Press. "Before I knew about Rule 50, I thought it would be sweet to wave some flags or something. SPORTS Tennis / Julie Cart : Billie Jean King Is Still Looking to the Future June 15, 1986 | Julie Cart Billie Jean King is crusading, again. As a player she railed against under-the-table payments. Later, she risked even more by founding and supporting the upstart women's circuit, the Virginia Slims. For years, Billie Jean King was one of the few women whose names could be found in the sports pages.

King loved to banter with sportswriters and she was never more comfortable than when she was expounding on issues. Not a thing has changed. SPORTS There's no slowing down for Billie Jean King June 15, 2008 | Melissa Murphy, Associated Press NEW YORK -- Billie Jean King is far from slowing down. The 64-year-old tennis great recently presided over the grand opening of her Women's Sports Center in the new Sports Museum of America in lower Manhattan. Her coed World Team Tennis league starts its 33rd season in July with a new franchise in Washington featuring Serena Williams. And King's new book, "Pressure is a Privilege, Lessons I've Learned from Life and the Battle of the Sexes," will be released in August to commemorate the 35th anniversary of her match with Bobby Riggs. ENTERTAINMENT Review: Billie Jean King's story is about much more than tennis September 9, 2013 | By Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times Television Critic Forty years ago, Billie Jean King played Bobby Riggs in the most famous tennis match in American history.

Dubbed "The Battle of the Sexes," it was as much a contest of ideologies as athleticism. King represented the fight for women's rights, and Riggs, who proudly identified himself as a male chauvinist pig, stood in for the patriarchy. Millions tuned into the wildly hyped telecast, many of whom had never seen a tennis match. When King soundly beat Riggs (who, though a former champion himself, was 26 years her senior) SPORTS Billie Jean King keeps her eye on the future of tennis in the U.S. May 26, 2012 | Bill Dwyre She is 68 going on 40. Her name is Billie Jean King, and she still hints that a cure to all that ails her beloved sport of tennis can be found in how she did it. "Leave your guts on the court," she says, and she means in life, as well as tennis. She comes to town this time of year to stir up a little interest in one of the loves of her life, her World Team Tennis league.

It is in its 37th season, has a local team in the Orange County Breakers, tries to squeeze a season in between Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, and serves as a metaphor for who King was and always will be. That would be a county-parks, holes-in-her-shoes, play-for-fun-till-the-sun-goes-down competitor. SPORTS Gay athletes chosen for Sochi honor December 17, 2013 | Wire Reports President Obama sent Russia a clear message about its treatment of gays and lesbians with whom he is - and isn't - sending to represent the United States at the Sochi Olympics in February. Billie Jean King will be one of two openly gay athletes in the U.S. delegation for the opening and closing ceremonies, Obama announced Tuesday. For the first time since 2000, however, the U.S. will not send a president, former president, first lady or vice president to the Games. Russia has come under fierce criticism for passing national laws banning "gay propaganda.

ENTERTAINMENT Review: Billie Jean King's story is about much more than tennis September 9, 2013 | By Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times Television Critic Forty years ago, Billie Jean King played Bobby Riggs in the most famous tennis match in American history. Dubbed "The Battle of the Sexes," it was as much a contest of ideologies as athleticism. King represented the fight for women's rights, and Riggs, who proudly identified himself as a male chauvinist pig, stood in for the patriarchy. Millions tuned into the wildly hyped telecast, many of whom had never seen a tennis match. When King soundly beat Riggs (who, though a former champion himself, was 26 years her senior) SPORTS Billie Jean King keeps her eye on the future of tennis in the U.S. May 26, 2012 | Bill Dwyre She is 68 going on 40. Her name is Billie Jean King, and she still hints that a cure to all that ails her beloved sport of tennis can be found in how she did it.

"Leave your guts on the court," she says, and she means in life, as well as tennis. She comes to town this time of year to stir up a little interest in one of the loves of her life, her World Team Tennis league. It is in its 37th season, has a local team in the Orange County Breakers, tries to squeeze a season in between Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, and serves as a metaphor for who King was and always will be. That would be a county-parks, holes-in-her-shoes, play-for-fun-till-the-sun-goes-down competitor. SPORTS Tennis royalty holds court in Central Park September 2, 2010 | Bill Dwyre Thursday morning, well before summer in the city got dirty and gritty, dozens of girls gathered at the Central Park public tennis courts to await visiting royalty. About 8:30 a.m., the two queens arrived, first Billie Jean King and then Steffi Graf. Make that Stefanie Graf, who, the program director/master of ceremonies explained to the gathering, "does not like to be called Steffi. Other people put that on her.

" Like the Wizard of Westwood who didn't want to be a wizard but could never quite shed the label, Stefanie Graf will never quite stop being Steffi. SPORTS After winning a second straight Wimbledon title, Serena Williams' chief competition is history July 3, 2010 | By Diane Pucin Serena Williams squints when she tries to picture the future, maybe 10 years from now when she is absolutely finished with tennis. She thinks she might be living with her older sister Venus, and lots of dogs. "I've always dreamed of having tons of dogs," Serena said Saturday. "I've proven myself difficult to live with." There was almost nothing Vera Zvonareva didn't find difficult about Williams on Saturday, not after Williams beat the overmatched Russian, 6-3, 6-2, a pummeling that took only 67 minutes on Centre Court in the Wimbledon final. SPORTS Billie Jean King is still making team work June 30, 2009 | BILL DWYRE Michael Jackson sang about one Billie Jean, and the tennis world has long celebrated the other. Still does.

Even though Billie Jean King is 65 now, she is still figuratively rushing the net, going all out, all day, every day. She could easily rest on the laurels of a tennis career that started as a pigtailed public-court player named Billie Jean Moffitt, from a middle-class family in Long Beach, and resulted in 39 Grand Slam tournament titles, 12 of them in singles and six of those at Wimbledon. CALIFORNIA | LOCAL Bill Moffitt, 88; Father of Athletes Billie Jean King, Randy Moffitt June 18, 2006 | From Times Staff and Wire Reports Bill Moffitt, 88, the father of tennis star Billie Jean King and former major league pitcher Randy Moffitt, died Friday at his home in Prescott, Ariz., after a brief illness, World TeamTennis spokeswoman Rosie Crews said Saturday. Born April 8, 1918, in Montana, Moffitt lived much of his adult life in Long Beach before retiring to Prescott. A former Long Beach City College basketball player, Moffitt served in the Navy in World War II. He spent 35 years with the Long Beach Fire Department.

NEWS No Match fo the Opposition March 1, 1999 | LAURIE K. SCHENDEN, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES Billie Jean King doesn't like the heat. That's why, she explains from the comfort of her Chicago office, she left the West Coast. Some might speculate, however, that things got too hot for the Southland tennis legend after she admitted to an extramarital affair with a woman in 1981. But King, now 55, was never one to wilt in the face of opposition--whether on the court or in a courtroom. There's no slowing down for Billie Jean King June 15, 2008 | Melissa Murphy, Associated Press NEW YORK -- Billie Jean King is far from slowing down. The 64-year-old tennis great recently presided over the grand opening of her Women's Sports Center in the new Sports Museum of America in lower Manhattan. Her coed World Team Tennis league starts its 33rd season in July with a new franchise in Washington featuring Serena Williams.

And King's new book, "Pressure is a Privilege, Lessons I've Learned from Life and the Battle of the Sexes," will be released in August to commemorate the 35th anniversary of her match with Bobby Riggs. CALIFORNIA | LOCAL Bill Moffitt, 88; Father of Athletes Billie Jean King, Randy Moffitt June 18, 2006 | From Times Staff and Wire Reports Bill Moffitt, 88, the father of tennis star Billie Jean King and former major league pitcher Randy Moffitt, died Friday at his home in Prescott, Ariz., after a brief illness, World TeamTennis spokeswoman Rosie Crews said Saturday. Born April 8, 1918, in Montana, Moffitt lived much of his adult life in Long Beach before retiring to Prescott. A former Long Beach City College basketball player, Moffitt served in the Navy in World War II. He spent 35 years with the Long Beach Fire Department. Billie Jean King facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Billie Jean King American tennis player B illie Jean King, more than anyone, revolutionized women's tennis.

One of the greatest players ever, King was in the Top Ten five times between 1966 and 1972, and has won 20 Wimbledon championships. She founded charitable organizations as well as the Women's Tennis Association and the Women's Sports Foundation, which she established to ensure that females have equal access to participation and leadership opportunities in sports and fitness. King, involved with the sport for more than five decades, has been most effective in addressing matters of financial equity and respect for women's tennis. Life magazine in 1990 named King one of the "100 Most Important Americans of the Twentieth Century," and Sports Illustrated in 1994 ranked her No. 5 in its list of top 40 athletes who have elevated their sport. King, honored frequently for athleticism and public service, is a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the National Women's Hall of Fame. Against All Odds Billie Jean Moffitt was only a teenager when she took the international spotlight by winning, with Karen Hantze, the women's doubles tournament at Wimbledon in 1961. Her journey to the first of an amazing run of victories there began on the public tennis courts at Long Beach, California .

The daughter of Betty Jerman Moffitt, who sold Avon and Tupperware products, and fireman Willis "Bill" Moffitt, King grew up in a working-class family with brother Randy, five years her junior. She was named after her father, though the family often called her the more affectionate "Sister" or "Sissy." She was "a little angel," her mother recalled in a 1975 interview with journalist Joe Hyams. Like their father, the young Moffitts were baseball fans, and Billie Jean, who played softball as a youngster, became an excellent hitter. (Randy earned 96 saves in 12 years as a major league relief pitcher, mostly for the San Francisco Giants.) Realizing at age 11 that "there was no place for an American girl to go in the national pastime," she wrote in Billie Jean, the young athlete sought an alternate sport. Afraid to swim and bored by golf, she was left with tennis—"what else could a little girl do if she wasn't afraid to sweat?" she wrote in her 1982 autobiography.

Her parents signed her up for instruction with the Long Beach city recreation program, where she borrowed a racquet and received free lessons. At the time, however, tennis was mostly an activity for the elite, and the adolescent felt out of place among her teammates. For one thing, King wore eyeglasses to correct her 20-40 vision. In addition, at 5 feet, 41/2 inches, she struggled with weight problems. Her knee problems would require many surgeries. And as if those obstacles weren't enough, her family could not afford the traditional tennis whites, leaving her to play in a blouse and shorts her mother had made. Though fiercely competitive and gifted, King had to sit out the photo session of her peers in the Southern California Junior Championships because of her homespun outfit. Not yet a teen, she had already felt the stings of exclusion. Career of Firsts Playing with the cheaper nylon instead of gut strings and enduring the snobbery of players groomed at elite country clubs, she won her first junior championship at age 14. She told her family of her intention to one day win Wimbledon, the world's most prestigious tourney.

A year following her first big win, King received a coaching offer from tennis legend Alice Marble, the lone voice to stand up to the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) in 1950 and insist the organization rescind its policy of segregation. Throughout the late 1950s, King spent weekends with Marble, whose biggest challenge was getting King off the court to attend to her schoolwork. With additional coaching by Frank Brennan, she qualified for women's play at Wimbledon in 1961. She was only 18. Though she suffered the first bout of what would become chronic sinus trouble in England , she was clearly at home at Wimbledon. King and Hantze, also 18, became the youngest team to win women's doubles there. They repeated as champions in 1962. Chronology Captain of Federation Cup team 1996, 2000 Captain of U.S. Olympic tennis team Returning from Europe , she graduated from Los Angeles State College of Applied Arts and Sciences, which she financed with her job as a playground instructor.

She was playing at the highest amateur level and was generating ample media attention, but at the time, athletic scholarships for women were practically unheard of. In 1965 she married Larry W. King, a pre-law student at the College of Applied Arts and Sciences and a year behind her. The two had been dating for about two years, with periods of interruptions, including a three-month break when she went to Australia on an all-expenses-paid trip to study with coach Mervyn Rose, former Davis Cup player for Australia. Rose changed King's forehand and service. During the first six months of their marriage, King stayed home in an attempt to be "a good wife," as was the expectation at the time. But she was miserable. With her husband's full support, she started hitting a few balls around again and soon completely dedicated herself to tennis. A year later, she won her first Wimbledon singles. (The prize: a self-confidence boost and a gift certificate for tennis wear.) In 1966 she and doubles partner Rosemary Casals won the U.S. hard-court and indoor tournaments. In 1967 Casals and King took the doubles title at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, and the South African championship.

King and Casals dominated women's doubles for years, becoming the only doubles team to have won American titles on grass, clay, indoor, and hard surfaces. King even played a tournament while suffering from typhus. The Associated Press named her Woman Athlete of the Year in 1967 for defending her Wimbledon singles title, which she would repeat again in 1968. Other wins of the decade included U.S. Open, French Open, and Australian Open titles. With such recognition and nine Wimbledon titles under her belt, King felt confident enough to approach the USLTA with champion Rod Laver and insist on prize money for tournament winners. Laver and King felt they should be fairly compensated; otherwise, the sport would remain available only to wealthy players. She referred to "shamateurism" as the USLTA's practice of paying top players under the table to guarantee their entry into association-sponsored tournaments. Though the USLTA finally gave in to their demands—the "Open Era" began in 1968—the prize money it offered women was consistently, and steeply, far less than male players.

When she won the Italian Open in 1970 she received $600; her male counterpart, Ilie Nastase, won $3,500. The men's purse in the Pacific Southwest Championships that year was $12,500 to the women's $1,500. Nonetheless, King in 1971 became the first female athlete to earn $100,000 in prize money in a season of competition. That year she won again at Wimbledon (mixed doubles), and the U.S. Open (singles, mixed doubles). Champions Women's Rights King took a stand on the red-hot issue of abortion, when in 1971 she admitted to having had one. Despite the highly personal revelation, she felt defensive about publicity regarding hers and her husband's private life. Awards and Accomplishments Wins the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage for her fight to bring equality to women's sports 2002 Receives the Radcliffe Medal, awarded annually to a person whose life and work has significantly improved society In 1972 she won the French Open and Wimbledon singles, ending a three-year drought in the latter. She also won her third U.S.

Open singles title, which awarded her $10,000. Nastase, the men's singles champion, won $25,000. King was irate. It was hardly the first time she recognized prize-money disparity, but it was the last time she would remain quiet about it. When she complained to the U.S. tennis establishment, she was told that men were paid more because few people watch women's tennis. But King insisted women's tennis enjoyed many enthusiastic fans. In fact, when Hyams interviewed King in 1975 in a hotel coffee shop, he says they were interrupted half a dozen times by autograph seekers, mostly men. King continued to sweep up Grand Slam titles and break ground for her sport. Fed up with the tennis establishment's attitude and lack of financial commitment to women's tennis, she took action. After she and a small group of other players refused to play a tournament where the women's prize money was one eighth of the men's, King organized the first women's-only professional tennis tournament. When the nine defectors were threatened with suspension by the U.S.

Tennis Association (USTA), King, with the help of World Tennis magazine founder Gladys Heldman, put together their own prize money. The nine players all agreed to accept a $1 contract from Heldman, who secured sponsorship from Philip Morris Company just as it was to target a new cigarette, Virginia Slims, to women. Thus the Virginia Slims Championships were launched in Houston . By 1973 the tour covered 22 cities and had $775,000 in prize money. After its 1994 season, the Slims became the Women's International Tennis Association Tour Championship. In 1973 King was elected first president of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), a players' union. She also created "team tennis," America's only professional co-ed team sport, and became the first woman to coach a professional co-ed team when she signed on with the Philadelphia Freedoms.

But she cemented her status as a heroine of the women's movement with her match against Bobby Riggs, a self-proclaimed "male chauvinist pig," who claimed even a mediocre male player, such as the 55-year-old Riggs himself, could beat the best female player, regardless of age. Riggs, who won Wimbledon (1939) and the U.S. national championships (1939, 1941), had beaten Australian Margaret Smith Court in May 1973. So when King took up his challenge in September, in an exhibition that became known as the Battle of the Sexes, the stakes were higher. King says she was sick to her stomach before the match, which was unusual for her. "Sissy Bug will murder this Riggs," her father told Sports Illustrated writer Curry Kirkpatrick. "I hope Sissy shuts him up good. … Sissy will kill him, bet you five." Bill Moffitt was right. His daughter ruled the court that night.

Before 30,472 fans (a record crowd for one tennis match) in the Houston Astrodome, and 40 million television viewers, King beat Riggs in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, and became a potent symbol of the women's movement. King went home with the $100,000 purse, the largest amount of prize money ever paid for a single match. "Billie Jean King didn't just raise consciousness, which was the feminist mantra then," Frank Deford wrote in Sports Illustrated. "No, she absolutely changed consciousness." In 2001, the TV movie When Billie Beat Bobby dramatized this event, with Holly Hunter playing King, Ron Silver as Riggs. A Safer Place Between 1961 and 1979, King collected six singles, ten doubles, and four mixed doubles championships at Wimbledon, and reached 27 final events. King, the only woman to win U.S. singles titles on all surfaces (grass, clay, indoor, hard), holds a singles title in every Grand Slam event.

Even upon her 1983 retirement, King was still ranked 13th in the world. King and Rosemary Casals virtually dominated women's doubles. King took numerous late-career wins, including the 1979 Wimbledon doubles and 1980 U.S. Open doubles, both with Martina Navratilova . She helped the U.S. to seven Federation Cup victories. During the 2000 Olympics in Sydney , King coached the American women's team, which included Lindsay Davenport, Monica Seles , and Venus Williams and Serena Williams . The team came home with two golds (Venus Willams in singles, Venus and Serena Williams in doubles) and a bronze (Monica Seles in singles). In 1999, King urged Wimbledon officials to set the prize money for women ($651,000) equal to that of men ($724,000). "Treating women as less valuable than men generates ill-will that is disproportionate to the amount of money you are saving," she urged in her statement.

Related Biography: Tennis Promoter Gladys Heldman Tennis promoter Gladys Medalie Heldman grew up as an non-athletic, intellectual young woman. A 1942 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University, Heldman received her M.A. in medieval studies the following year from the University of California, Berkeley. Born May 13, 1922 in New York, Heldman took up tennis late, after her marriage in 1947 to Julius Heldman, the 1936 left-handed U.S. Junior champion. She quickly adapted, playing in the U.S. Championships from 1949 to 1953, and at Wimbledon in 1954. Both her daughters, Trixie and Julie, held national junior rankings. Julie won the Italian Open in 1969 and ranked fifth in the world that year and again in 1974. Heldman achieved USTA rankings in the top ten in women's 35 doubles, women's 45 doubles, and mother-daughter events. In 1953, she founded World Tennis magazine, which she edited until 1972.

Heldman aligned herself and her magazine with the female players, most notably Billie Jean King and Rosemary Casals, King's doubles partner, who rebelled against the male tennis establishment. Heldman and the "Houston Nine" (King, Casals, Peaches Bartkowicz, Kerry Melville, Valerie Ziegenfuss, Nancy Richey, Kristy Pigeon and Judy Tegart Dalton) departed from the traditional, mixed-sex tournaments and in 1970 set up a women's-only tour, which, with backing from friend Joe Cullman, chairman of Philip Morris, became the hugely successful Virginia Slims Championships. Shortly thereafter, Heldman brought the first women's pro tour to Europe in 1971 and Japan in 1972. She has received numerous awards, including the U.S. Tennis Writers award in 1965, World Championship Tennis award in 1980, and the Women's Sports Foundation award in 1982. In 1979 she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. She wrote three books on tennis and one novel, The Harmonetics Investigation (Crown, 1979).

She lives with her husband in Santa Fe, New Mexico . Always outspoken on women's rights, King was initially reticent about gay rights. Then, former lover Marilyn Barnett, a Beverly Hills hairdresser, "outed" her in 1981. King has long been openly gay, though the attention has cost her about $1.5 million in endorsements. She lost sponsorship of the women's tour after publicly acknowledging her homosexuality. King, never fully comfortable living her life in public, is more an effective organizer and strategist. She told Michele Kort of The Advocate magazine she was trying to work within corporations to get them to set up domestic-partner benefits. "I think it's better if you do those things internally, rather than talking about them publicly," she said. Clearly wounded by Barnett's palimony suit, King remained silent about her sexuality for quite a while, much to the criticism of gay activists. She said she feared a backlash.

"It's really tough if I hurt the business [team tennis]," she told Kort, "because it ends up hurting others, not just me." Still, King said gay young athletes being open about their sexuality "will help set them free." She added, "Each person's circumstances are unique, so I think it's impossible to judge whether another person should come out. You just hope they will on their own time and their own terms. And, hopefully, we'll make the world a safer place so young people will feel safe to deal with their sexuality and whatever else." King has supported various initiatives on behalf of tennis, sports, health, education, women, minorities, gays and lesbians, children, and families. Today she remains an activist for health, fitness, education, and social change. She sits on the board of directors for the WTA, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, and the National AIDS Fund. She is also the national ambassador for AIM, which assists handicapped children, and is a member of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. King has regularly worked as a sports commentator for numerous networks and cable stations. Most recently, King was captain of the U.S. Federation Cup team for the USTA.

Her status as a catalyst has resonated beyond the tennis courts. Her outspokenness boosted measures such as the 1972 enactment of Title IX, which helped assure gender equity in sports funding and participation among female students. As for women's tennis itself, the changes are so immense there will be no going back. CONTACT INFORMATION Address: c/o Diane Stone, 960 Harlem Ave., Suite 983, Glenview, Ill 60025. Fax: 847-904-7362. Email: dstone@wtt.com. SELECTED WRITINGS BY KING: (With Kim Chapin) Tennis to Win. New York: Harper, 1970. (With Joe Hyams) Billie Jean King's Secrets of Winning Tennis. New York: Holt, 1974. (With Kim Chapin) Billie Jean. New York: Harper, 1974. (With Greg Hoffman) Tennis Love: A Parents'Guide to the Sport. New York: Macmillan, 1978. How to Play Mixed Doubles. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1980.

(With Reginald Brace) Play Better Tennis, New York: Smithmark, 1981. (With Frank Deford) Billie Jean. New York: Grenada, 1982. Where Is She Now? Though retired from competitive tennis, Billie Jean King can still be found on the courts, whether it's coaching the 2000 Olympic women's tennis team or teaching inner city kids the elements of a strong backhand. One of the tennis champion's most recent ventures has been Women's Sports Legends (WSL), of which King is a founding member. It arranges events featuring its "legendary" members, including Martina Navratilova, Pam Shriver, Rosemary Casals, Chris Evert, Virginia Wade, Wendy Turnbull, and Zina Garrison. WSL aims to promote its shareholders as a public relations agency would, but with its members having more control over the decisions that affect their lives. The company also attempts to sustain the camaraderie the women members developed while on the pro tour.

Recent awards for King include the International Olympic Committee's Women and Sport World Trophy, the National Football League's Players Association Lifetime Achievement Award, and honorary degrees from Trinity College, the University of Pennsylvania , and the University of Massachusetts. King resides in New York City and Chicago. (With Cynthia Starr) We've Come a Long Way: The Story of Women's Tennis. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988. FURTHER INFORMATION Books American Decades CD-ROM. Detroit : Gale Research, 1998. The Bodywise Woman: Reliable Information about Physical Activity and Health (with a foreward by Billie Jean King). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Publishers, 1993. Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Contemporary Heroes and Heroines, Book III. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998. Gay and Lesbian Biography. Detroit: St. James Press, 1997. Great Women in Sports, Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1996. Reader's Companion to American History.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991. St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000. Periodicals "American Diabetes Association and Billie Jean King Foundation Present the Fourth Annual 2001 Donnelly Award Winners."PR Newswire (August 7, 2001). "Billie Jean King: A Candid Conversation with the Contentious Superstar of Women's Tennis."Playboy (March 1975). Braley, Sarah J. F. "Legends of the Court." Meetings and Conventions (August 1997): 19. Kort, Michele. The Advocate. (August 18, 1998): 40. Kort, Michele. The Advocate. (September 26, 2000): 34. Richmond, Ray. "When Billie Beat Bobby," Hollywood Reporter. (April 16, 2001): 10. "Williams Sisters to Play for USA Olympic Team in Sydney, Australia." Jet. (August 21, 2000): 46.

Other Barnard College. 22, 2002; December 23, 2002; December 26, 2002; December 29, 2002). Baseball Library.com. Randy Moffitt Statistics, (December 22, 2002). Billie Jean King Foundation. vpr2.admin.arizona.edu/ (December 22, 2002). Daily Celebrations. (December 22, 2002). Delaware Smash World Team Tennis. (December 23, 2002). Gale Free Resources. (December 27, 2002). Infoplease.com, Bobby Riggs Profile. (December 26, 2002). International Tennis Hall of Fame, Billie Jean King, Gladys Heldman and Mervyn Rose Profiles. (December 23, 2002). "Radcliffe Medalist 2002—Billie Jean King." Radcliffe College, (December 23, 2002). Tennis Corner, Billie Jean King Career Highlights.

(December 23, 2002). "There She Is, Ms. America." CNN/SI, sportsillustrated.cnn.com/ (December 27, 2002). William and Mary College. (December 27, 2002). Wimbledon Championships. 26, 2002). Women's Sports Legends Online. (December 23, 2002; December 30, 2002). World Team Tennis. (December 23, 2002). Sketch by Jane Summer Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. MLA Long Beach, California American tennis player I nternational tennis star Billie Jean King won a record twenty Wimbledon championships and helped win equal treatment for women in sports. Encouraged by her parents Billie Jean (Moffitt) King was born on November 22, 1943, in the southern California city of Long Beach. She was the first of Willard and Betty Moffitt's two children. Her father was an engineer for the fire department, and her mother was a receptionist at a medical center.

Both she and her brother, Randy, who would become a professional baseball player, excelled in athletics as children and were encouraged by their parents. At fire department picnics, her father's coworkers always wanted Billie Jean to play on their softball team. Billie Jean developed an interest in tennis at age eleven and saved money to buy her first racket. When she was fourteen years old she won her first championship in a southern California tournament. She began receiving coaching at age fifteen from Alice Marble, a famous player from the 1930s. The product of a working-class family, Billie Jean soon found herself caught up in a country club sport. Despite her success on the court, the fact that tennis was mainly geared toward men would prove a personal challenge to her in later years. Tournament successes In 1961 Billie Jean competed in her first Wimbledon tournament in England . Although she was defeated in the women's singles, she teamed with Karen Hautze to win the doubles (two-person team) title. She married attorney Larry King in 1965. In 1966 she won her first Wimbledon singles championship and repeated in 1967. That same year she also won the U.S.

Open singles title at Forest Hills, New York . In 1968 King won both the women's singles and doubles titles at Wimbledon. In 1971 she became the first woman athlete to win more than one hundred thousand dollars in a single year. It was 1972, however, that would be King's banner year. She won the women's singles title at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, and the French Open. (These three tournaments plus the Australian Open now make up the "Grand Slam" of tennis.) 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. It was then that she began to openly criticize the low prize money offered to women competitors. She noted that women were receiving far less than men for what she considered equal ability and effort. Her statements on this issue led to the offer from a major U.S. drug manufacturer of a large sum of money to make the prize money at the U.S. Open equal for both men and women.

A victory for women's liberation King's career coincided with the women's liberation (feminist) movement of the 1970s. Her working-class upbringing in southern California and the second-class treatment she received as a professional athlete made her a natural spokesperson for the movement. Her role as a leader in the feminist cause reached its peak in September 1973, when she faced the 1939 men's tennis champion Bobby Riggs (1918–1995) in a nationally televised match at the Astrodome in Houston , Texas . King easily beat the aging Riggs and emerged as the winner of what had been billed as the "Battle of the Sexes." In 1975 King won her sixth Wimbledon singles championship, but she announced that she would no longer compete in major events because of injuries to her knees. In all she won a record twenty Wimbledon championships (including singles, doubles, and mixed doubles). Today, women competing in professional athletic contests owe much to Billie Jean King. With her outstanding play and forceful attitude, she earned them the right to compete for the same money as men.

Later years King helped to found the Women's Tennis Association and served as its president from 1973 to 1975 and again from 1980 to 1981. After retiring from professional tennis in 1984, King and her husband have promoted coed (open to both men and women) team tennis. King has also been active in charitable events. In 1995 she joined the Virginia Slims legends tour along with Chris Evert (1954–) and Martina Navratilova (1956–) to raise money for the fight against acquired immune deficiency syndrome ( AIDS ; a disease that destroys the body's ability to fight off infection). King is also an investor in Discovery Zone, a chain of children's "play lands" that promotes the equal athletic abilities of boys and girls. King continues to be associated with the sport as a broadcaster, teacher, and coach. In 1999 and 2000 she coached the U.S. women's team, whose members included Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Lindsay Davenport, and Jennifer Capriati, to victories in the international Federation Cup tournament. For More Information King, Billie Jean.

Billie Jean. New York: Viking Press, 1982. King, Billie Jean. Secrets of Winning Tennis. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974. Marble, Alice, and Dale Leatherman. Courting Danger. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991. Rappoport, Ken. Girls Rule!: The Glory and Spirit of Women in Sports. Kansas City , MO: Andrews McMeel Publishers, 2000. Cite this article

Question: Ex baseball player Randy Moffit has a famous sister, name her
Answer: Billy Jean King