Our Laguna: Billie Jean King still at the top of her game

Tennis immortal Billie Jean King Billie Jean King will be among the 16 recipients of the Medal of Freedom on Wednesday at the White House.

It is so deserved.

This year’s recipients were selected as “agents of change.”

Billie not only changed tennis, she changed the way women think of themselves and are treated in the workplace, in education and in politics — at least in this country. Maybe it isn’t perfect, but it is a hell of lot better because of her.

I first met Billie more than 40 years ago. She was a force to be reckoned with then and she still is.

One of my favorite memories of her was the night before a singles final at Wimbledon.

My late, former husband, Women’s Tennis Assn. Executive Director Jerry Diamond, and her husband, Larry King, were in the midst of one of their interminable chess games. I was stretched out at the foot of her bed. Billie was having trouble breathing. She is highly allergic to grass, on which the All England Championships are played, and had a touch of asthma

“Billie,” I said, “are you going to play tomorrow?”

She looked at me as if I had just arrived from Mars, with my brains leaking out of my ears.

As if anything could have kept her off of Centre Court short of death and that might have had to wait its turn.

Of her 39 Grand Slam victories in singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles, 20 were won at Wimbedon.

Allergies be damned.

Much of the public’s perception of what Billie accomplished on behalf of women is tied to the “Battle of the Sexes,” her match against the aging tennis hustler, Bobby Riggs, in 1973.

It was not a match she sought and for some of her admirers not the apex of her career, let alone her life.

“Some of the players tried to talk me out of it,” Billie said.

The worriers included my husband and hers.

“I wanted to win so badly because Title 9 had been passed in 1972 — the first equal funding for women going to college or universities,” Billie said. “We wanted to tack on sports.

“Today, 57% of the enrollment in colleges and universities are women. I would have been happy with 51%. Now I am worried about the boys.”

The Medal of Freedom news release issued by the White House mentions the Riggs match, her acknowledgment of her lesbian sexual orientation in 1981 and the co-founding of World Team Tennis.

These had a major impact on the public perception of Billie — she even wrote a book last year to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Riggs match, “Pressure is a Privilege: Lessons I Learned from Life and the Battle of the Sexes.”

The original World Team Tennis was founded in 1974, a league with teams of men and women playing singles and doubles matches and a different scoring system. Not earthshaking, now, but it was groundbreaking big time then.

Billie played for the Philadelphia Freedoms — a team owned by Dick Butera (Carol Reynolds’ former cousin-in-law).

Sir Elton John wrote “Philadelphia Freedom” for her. They have remained close and she serves on the board of his charitable foundation.

Now she is co-owner of the Breakers, who play in Newport Beach.

Billie was the first major sports figure to come out the closet. Her longtime partner is Ilana Kloss.

But these are just a whiff of the whirlwind we never called B.J.

Less well known to the general public:

 Billie and Larry founded the Women Sports Magazine and Women’s Sports Foundation, on which board she still serves.

 She co-founded GreenSlam, an environmental initiative for the sports industry in 2007.

 Billie was named as Global Mentor for Gender Equality by UNESCO in 2008.

 Oh, and you know those snazzy sneakers you wear?

Billie convinced Adidas to make a pair of blue suede shoes for her — a first.

“I argue with them that with color TV coming in they would look great and be different,” Billie said.

The blue was the same color as tennis outfits designed for her by the late Teddy Tingling to emphasize her sparkling blue eyes.

 Her indefatigueable efforts to increase the size of the women’s draw and prize money cannot be overstated.

Efforts included walking out on negotiations with Virginia Slims when they wanted to exclude lesser ranked players, even though there was not another sponsor in the offing.

Eventually V.S. and the women reconciled.

“We were all being stupid,” Billie said. “We should have compromised.”

Compromise is not a word I associate with Billie. She stands tall for her beliefs.

Increasingly exasperated by the treatment of women tennis players in the late 1960s by the male dominated USTA, which was eliminating women’s draws from tournaments, Billie rebelled. And she convinced others to join her.

They formed the nucleus of the Women’s Tennis Assn., which can trace its origins to a meeting in 1970 in Houston when tournament promoter Gladys Heldman signed nine women to $1 contracts: Billie, Rosie, Nancy Richey, Kerry Melville Reid, Peaches Barkowiez, Kristy Pigeon, Judy Tagart Dalton, Valerie Zigenfuss and Julie Heldman.

Heldman came up with financing for a women’s tour.

Led by a gimpy Billie, recovering from her second or third knee operation, the first Virginia Slims tournament was in September 1971.

“I was gonna get killed; I didn’t care,” Billie said. “I wanted to be in the first tournament.”

Jerry got involved in tennis promotions when Billie and Larry convinced British Motor Cars owner Kjell Qvale to sponsor a women-only tournament. Qvale hired Jerry to promote it.

Jerry was so sure the tournament was going to be a financial disaster that he declined to be paid — instead he took a third ownership of the tournament, which is why I now have a house in Laguna.

The prize money for the BMC Women’ Pro Championships, Jan. 6 to 9, 1971, in San Francisco was $15,000, with $4,200 to go to the winner, the biggest purse ever for a women’s tournament to that date. Just eight years later, prize money for single tournament was $100,000. Now that’s barely the winner’s share in some tournaments.

You’ve come a long way baby.

Eventually Billie persuaded Jerry to head up the Women’s Tennis Assn., a relationship that was productive, but volatile — with battles royal that left everyone around them exhausted as they walked away arm-in-arm to get a rum raisin ice cream cone.

“We both thrived on pressure,” she said.

At one point, Billie, Larry and Jerry were my bosses. I was the editor of “Inside Women’s Tennis,” the official publication of the WTA. The Kings were the publishers. I was loathe to use a byline because of the conflicts of interest. Billie blew her stack.

“You do it, you get credit,” she said.

Among her credits:

In 1990, Life Magazine named her one of the 100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century.

She received the Gerald R. Ford Award in 2008 in recognition of her contributions to higher education and intercollegiate athletics in 2009.

In 2006, the National Tennis Center, home of the U.S. Open was renamed for her, to honor her contributions to tennis, sports in general and society.

She said her thoughts at that time are similar to the ones she has now on the eve of being presented with the Medal of Freedom.

“I am so thankful for everyone in my life: I had great parents; I grew up in Long Beach where I got free tennis lessons; I’ve had great instructors; Larry, Jerry, Gladys, Ilana — all the other people who are part of this medal,” Billie said.

Looking back on her life, she said, “I just got lucky, lucky, lucky.”

Some of fellow medal recipients are her heroes.

“To be in the company of people like Steven Hawking, Desmond Tutu, Nancy Brinker is unbelievable,” Billie said.

The records on and off the court prove she belongs there.

OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box 248, Laguna Beach, 92652; call (949) 380-4321 or e-mail [email protected]