Today in History—September 20: Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs

Written by

Amy Tikkanen

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Sep. 17, 2026 •History

On this day in 1973, Bobby Riggs took on Billie Jean King in a tennis match televised around the world. He was a 55-year-old self-described “male chauvinist pig.” She was 29 and the top-ranked women’s player. He said women’s tennis “stinks.” She thought it deserved more respect.

Their showdown was billed as the Battle of the Sexes. It became one of the greatest spectacles in sports—and a defining cultural moment.

The early 1970s had brought major gains for the women’s movement. There were legislative victories, landmark court rulings, and growing attention to the cause. But not everyone was supportive. Riggs, a three-time Grand Slam champion, said that “women belong in the bedroom and kitchen, in that order.” He also claimed that he could beat the top women’s players. (Whether his chauvinism was genuine is debated; some believe he was just an opportunist seeking attention.)

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First up was Margaret Court, one of the world’s greatest players. But the future Hall of Famer distanced herself from the women’s liberation movement, and she saw the match as “an inconsequential novelty.”

They played on May 13, 1973, and Riggs crushed her, 6–2, 6–1. The “Mother’s Day Massacre” landed Riggs on the covers of Time and Sports Illustrated. He then set his sights on King, whom he called the “women’s libber leader.”

King was one of her sport’s greatest champions. She lobbied for equal pay in tournaments and founded the Women’s Tennis Association. Hoping to redeem women’s tennis and bolster the women’s movement, King accepted his challenge.

Fun Fact

King and Riggs later became good friends, and the day before he died in 1995, they told each other, “I love you.”

The match was held at a packed Houston Astrodome, and more than 90 million TV viewers tuned in. King was carried like a queen into the arena on a golden litter held aloft by shirtless men. Riggs entered on a rickshaw pulled by female models and wore a jacket emblazoned with “Sugar Daddy.”

When the two met at the net, King gave Riggs a live piglet named Larimore Hustle (Larimore was Riggs’s middle name); he gave her a large lollipop.

Once the match finally began, the battle quickly became a rout. King won, 6–4, 6–3, 6–3. Afterward, Riggs hopped the net and told her, “I underestimated you.”

It was a victory for King and a landmark moment in women’s tennis and the fight for gender equality.

By the Numbers

$100,000: Prize money King won for beating Riggs
$10,000: Prize money King received for winning the 1972 U.S. Open
$5.5 million: Prize money the men’s and women’s winner each got at the 2026 U.S. Open

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