So it had the feeling of a really different kind of tennis match. The chaos at the beginning - all the people that were on the court, there were many more people than normal. But I was like, ''That is an odd pose.' And now, being in the broadcast business, can you imagine opening an on-camera with your broadcast partner like that?Īnd then I can remember the way Billie Jean was carried onto the court, and the size of the Astrodome - these are things that stood out. She was Billie Jean's closest friend and doubles partner. Being a professional broadcaster, obviously she had an opinion too. One of the things that stood out to me was Howard Cosell putting his arm around Rosie Casals - I can remember just how weird it looked. My older sister was 13, I was 11, and then we have a baby sister who's eight years younger, so she was too young to remember. I think every tennis club had a mini event around the match. The night of the match in 1973, we had a babysitter, and my parents went to the tennis club. I can remember that, I can't say at 11 I had a real sophisticated response or feeling to that. They reenacted certain media conferences, their repartee, the way Bobby would needle and dig about women's tennis and women and where they belonged. When I saw the 'Battle of the Sexes' movie on Saturday, I was prompted to remember certain things. The Margaret Court match had already happened, and she lost (to Riggs) - that was Mother's Day that year. I have a July birthday, so I remember my godmother gave me a birthday present - she may have made it herself from newspaper article clippings about the match that was coming up. I remember a tremendous lead-up to Battle of the Sexes.

Bringing the tennis to life in 'Battle of the Sexes'.

So that was a big, important year - to know that I was elite not just in Maryland or in mid-Atlantic or in my USTA section, but nationally, I was starting to get on the map.

But when I was 13, I think that was the year that, behind Tracy Austin, I had become ranked nationally. I still played varsity basketball my freshman year of high school - basketball was the last sport I gave up for my tennis. It's when I gave up skiing, I gave up winter sports. When I was 13, tennis became more of my life. But in the scheme of how the top 11-year-olds train these days, I didn't play anywhere near the amount of tennis. I was starting to play some state tournaments, maybe I played one national tournament. It was becoming a bigger part of my life, but it was still mainly my summer hobby. Living in Baltimore at age 11, I was still not single-focused on tennis. She recalled for espnW her memories of that day. Pam Shriver, who would go on to win 21 major doubles titles, was 11 at the time. 20, 1973, Billie Jean King played Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes.

Pam Plays Doubles by Jean MacGibbon