Tell me about Billy Jean King?

Question

I need to know as much as I can about Billy Jean King and her fight for women's rights. I could us anything. Web sites are great. If you know anything put it down.

Answer 1

Oh, wow! I could go on and on about Billie Jean, but I'll just give some highlights:

-The National Tennis Center at the US Open is named after her.

-The US Open was the first Grand Slam tournament to award equal prize money to men and women, thanks in large part to her efforts.

-She has a total of 39 Grand Slam titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles.

-She and Martina Navratilova share the all time record for Wimbledon titles (20)

-She is the founder of World Team Tennis

-She is a co-founder of the Women's Sports foundation

-She is one of the original members of the Virginia Slims women's tennis tour (Now the Sony-Ericsson WTA Tour)

Billie Jean may be best known to some people for the "Battle of the Sexes" match in which she defeated Bobby Riggs, but she has accomplished so much more than that. She is truly one of the most influential people in sports history. She has a new book out called "Pressure is a Privilege", which was written with sportswriter Christine Brennan. She has also authored several other books.

Check out these websites:

http://www.billiejeanking.com

http://www.biography.com/search/article....

http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/2/pla...

Answer 2

www.wikipedia.org

^^

answers for everything are there.

Answer 3

Despite King's achievements at the world's biggest tennis tournaments, the U.S. public best remembers King for her win over Bobby Riggs in 1973.

Riggs had been a top men's player in the 1930s and 1940s in both the amateur and professional ranks. He won the Wimbledon men's singles title in 1939, and was considered the World No. 1 male tennis player for 1941, 1946, and 1947. He then became a self-described tennis "hustler" who played in promotional challenge matches. In 1973, he took on the role of male chauvinist. Claiming that the women's game was so inferior to the men's game that even a 55-year-old like himself could beat the current top female players, he challenged and defeated Margaret Smith Court 6–2, 6–1. King, who previously had rejected challenges from Riggs, then accepted a lucrative financial offer to play him.

Dubbed the Battle of the Sexes, the Riggs-King match was played at the Houston Astrodome in Texas on September 20, 1973. The match garnered huge publicity. In front of 30,492 spectators and a worldwide television audience estimated at 50 million people in 37 countries, King beat Riggs 6–4, 6–3, 6–3. The match is considered a very significant event in developing greater recognition and respect for women's tennis. King said, "I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn't win that match. It would ruin the women's [tennis] tour and affect all women's self-esteem."[69]

In recent years, a persistent urban legend has arisen, particularly on the Internet, that the rules of tennis were modified for the match so that Riggs had only one serve for King's two and that King was allowed to hit into the doubles court area. This is untrue because the match was played under the normal rules of tennis.

This is just a chunk of info from the sites listed below. They are full of great info so click them!