COURT HUSTLER
By Bobby Riggs with George McGann 1973
Reviewed by Billy E. Crawford
Prior to reading this book, I knew very little about Bobby Riggs, the tennis player.
I knew of him more from his reputation as a promoter and his history of gambling. Riggs once said to Mike Wallace in a TV interview, “If I can’t play for big money, I play for little money. And if I can’t play for little money, I stay in bed that day.”
I remember watching on television the famous “Battle of the Sexes” match with Riggs against Billie Jean King in 1973. The match was played in the Houston Astrodome with 30,000 spectators and a television audience estimated at 50 million viewers. It was a $100,000 winner-take-all match between the 55 year- old Riggs, coming out of a 20 plus year retirement, against a top tennis pro in the prime of her career. Before warming up for the highly promoted tennis match, Riggs presented King with a large red lollipop; she gave him a little live pig. “ The Lipper against the Libber.” I also remember King won in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.
From my previous reading I remembered the story about Riggs’ famous wager prior to the Wimbledon Championships in 1939. Gambling was legal in England. Riggs bargained with the bookie as to the odds of his winning all three of the matches in which he was entered. He left the shop with a parlay of 3 to 1 on himself in singles, 6 to 1 on doubles, and 12 to 1 on mixed doubles riding on the original one hundred pounds (US $500.00).
After winning all three titles, he returned to the bookmaker’s shop to collect. His winning sum was f21, 600 or $108,000. (2011 buying power would be $1.7 million). He deposited the money into a London bank vault. Then, World War II broke out. Riggs had to sweat out the Battle of Britain. After the war he was able to withdraw his earnings.
Robert Larimore “Bobby” Riggs was born in 1918 into a family of five older brothers and an older sister. His father was a minister in the strict, fundamentalist Church of Christ.
Born in California, the climate enabled him to play outdoor sports year-round with lively competition. His introduction to tennis was happenstance. He went with his older brother, John, who had decided to try out for his high school tennis team. While watching John, he borrowed a racquet and started hitting balls in his bare feet. Watching nearby was a woman, who asked John how old was his brother? He told her 12 years old. The woman was Dr. Esther Bartosh, a professor and the third-ranking female player in Los Angles. Dr. Bartosh then said, “That’s the perfect age to start anyone in tennis. If you like, I’ll be glad to help him.”
Bobby indeed received a very lucky break! But first he had to get a racquet. In typical Riggs style, days later he was “playing keeps” in a marble game-winning all the boy’s marbles. The boy wanted his marbles back, so Bobby exchanged the marbles for a tennis racquet.
By age 14, with the teaching of Dr. Bartosh, he greatly improved his tennis game. However, he was not accepted as a student by Perry Jones, who headed the Southern California Tennis Association, whose headquarters were the exclusive Los Angles Tennis Club.
Dr. Gerald Bartosh now joined his wife’s efforts to shun the local tennis establishment and worked even harder with Bobby to improve his game. By sixteen Bobby decided to devote himself completely and to becoming the world’s best player.
Riggs was very successful in Junior Tennis. At seventeen he won the National Junior Championships, defeating Joe Hunt (Hunt later became national singles champion in 1943 and died in a Navy training plane during the war).
When he turned 18, he decided to move to the big-time tournaments in the East, particularly the grass-court circuit, then consisting of Longwood, Seabright, Rye, Southhampton, and Newport, leading up to the U.S. Nationals at Forest Hills.
As a 20 -year -old amateur, Riggs was part of the American Davis Cup winning team in 1938. The following year he made the finals of the French Championship, won Wimbledon singles, doubles and mixed doubles. In 1940, he and Alice Marble won the U.S. mixed doubles championship. In 1941 he won his second U.S. Championship singles title. Then, his tennis career was interrupted by military service during World War II.
After the war, he toured on various professional tours, playing against the best professional tennis players of his time.
After retiring from professional tennis, he spent most of the next 18 years playing golf, betting on himself to win matches.
Then, in 1973 he revived his tennis career with his two matches against the best women professional tennis players.
Riggs was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1967.
Bobby Riggs died of prostate cancer October 25, 1995, in Encinitas, California, age 77.
But there is more! You get “extra credit” if you can answer these questions correctly before reading this book.
1. Who was the top woman tennis professional that Riggs defeated 6-2, 6-1 on Mother’s Day, May 13, 1973?
2. Who was Rigg’s partner in the doubles and in the mixed doubles when he won the “trifecta” at Wimbledon in 1939?
3. Riggs stated publically that he went six years in competitive tennis without making this error. What was it?
HAPPY READING
