The International Tennis Hall of Fame will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Hall of Famer Billie Jean King’s Battle of the Sexes victory by hosting an educational evening revisiting the match, and its impact on women’s sports.
“Battle of the Sexes: Then and Now” will feature a conversation with Dr. Bonnie Morris, professor of history at the University of California Berkeley, and Olga Harvey, Chief Strategy and Impact Officer at the Women’s Sports Foundation.
The event will be held on Thursday, September 21 at the Hall of Fame, with tickets on sale now for $20 at tennisfame.com/battle-of-the-sexes-lecture. Attendees are encouraged to participate in a reception with light food and beverage starting at 6 p.m., followed by the conversation.
In 1973, King accepted a challenge from Hall of Famer and former men’s world No. 1 Bobby Riggs to compete in a televised match. Riggs, a self-described “male chauvinist”, claimed that even he, at age 55, could defeat any player at the top of the women’s game. The match was held September 20 at the Houston Astrodome and viewed by a worldwide audience of more than 90 million, with King defeating Riggs 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. To this day, it is the most watched tennis match of all time.
The panel conversation with Morris and Harvey will look back on the paradigm shifts that occurred following King’s victory. The pair will discuss how the event shifted the trajectory of women’s sports, propelled King into the global spotlight as a leader and activist, and the progress still being made today in women’s sports worldwide.
Morris is the author of several books surrounding the subjects of Title IX and women sports history, including What’s the Score: 25 Years of Women’s Sports History. She has taught Sports and Gender for over 20 years at campuses ranging from Georgetown to Semester at Sea, and is also a consultant to the Smithsonian and Disney Animation. She is currently on the history faculty at UC Berkeley.
Harvey is the Chief Strategy and Impact Officer at the Women’s Sports Foundation. In her role, she develops education and advocacy programs designed to build lifelong leadership skills in girls through tennis and other sports. Previously, she played collegiate tennis at Cornell University and acted as Senior Director of Development for New York Junior Tennis and Learning.
