By KAREN PARKER
County Line Publisher Emerita
It was all the talk back in 1974. Of course, there were only radio, tv and newspapers back then. But that did not stop the breathless conversation over the upcoming Battle of the Sexes. It’s hard to imagine what conspiracy theories and other claptrap would spring up around such an event in the age of the internet.
But it was a different time. The children and grandchildren of my generation do not recall when there was no such thing as girls team sports in high school or college. Even in progressive (at the time) Wisconsin, my school’s athletic offerings to girls included cheerleading. Or cheerleading. Or maybe some modern dance. I guess the Monroe Cheesemakers were not built for ballet.
But when tennis champion Billie Jean King agreed to take on men’s tennis champion Bobby Riggs, it seemed to trigger a rethinking of the role of women in professional sports.
By then, King was a major success in the tennis world, something she attributed to her hero, Althea Gibson. A generation older, Gibson was a street kid from Harlem who dreamed of a career in boxing but ended up in tennis. In 1956, Gibson became the first African-American athlete to win a Grand Slam tournament, the French Championships singles event. She also won the doubles title, partnered with Briton Angela Buxton. Later in the season, she won the Wimbledon doubles championship (again with Buxton), the Italian Championships in Rome, the Indian Championships in New Delhi, and the Asian championship in Ceylon.
In those days, there was no money in amateur tennis. It was a sport for the daughters of the wealthy. Despite her status as a top player, Gibson was rarely included in match invitations. And when she was, she often found herself changing into tennis clothes in the car, as African Americans were not allowed in clubhouses.
Her treatment was equally abysmal when she set the golf world on fire and when she became a lounge singer (she was a talented vocalist and saxophonist).
Gibson was as famous as Jackie Robinson in breaking down racial barriers in the athletic world. But she never became a vocal activist for civil rights, believing that her talent and success would carry the day.
Billie Jean King maintained no such beliefs. She might have been white, but as a woman, she fought for equal pay with men in the sport. In her recent autobiography “All In,” she recounts her struggles for equality and recognition.
When she couldn’t triumph over the establishment, she went around it, founding World Tennis magazine, and broke away from the amateur tour to create the first women’s pro tennis circuit, “ignoring,” as she says, “the sneers of a male-run tennis establishment that told us no one would pay to see us play, and then repeatedly threatened us with suspensions when it looked as if folks might.”
But perhaps her greatest contribution was the years she spent campaigning tirelessly for parity for women in sports. And in 1972, she turned her focus toward helping to pass Title IX.
Title IX removed barriers for girls and women, and while female athletes and their sports programs still have fewer teams, fewer scholarships, and lower budgets than those of their male counterparts, “Since Title IX’s passage, female participation at the high school level has grown by 1,057 percent and by 614 percent at the college level.”
Recently Virginia’s new governor successfully had the term equity removed from most everything in the public education system. He prefers “equality.”
Billie Jean King knew that women are not now and never will be equals in sports. Mostly men can jump higher and have stronger upper bodies. But why should women be denied the same opportunities to compete and excel in sports?
Equality is a great goal, but equity, on the other hand, provides people with resources that fit their circumstances. If you went to a great school in a safe town, then maybe the kid growing up in the inner city with scarce food, a lousy school, and bullets flying through the air needs a bit more “equity.”
Oh, in case you missed it, Billie Jean King did beat Bobby Riggs. Yeah, I know he was 55 and she was 29, and that match made some men in sports feel really, really sad. We had snowflakes back then, too.
Happy Women’s History Month!
