Women's History Month: Honoring Billie Jean King

My first act as Minister of Second Wave Outrage and Pro Tennis Hoodoo is to honor the great Billie Jean King, a tennis genius who changed women's sports forever. King won Wimbledon 6 times, the U.S. Open 4 times, the Australian Open twice, and the French Open once. And that was just in singles. She also won 16 grand slam women's doubles titles, and 11 mixed doubles grand slams. She was ranked number one in the world 5 times, and holds a 52-4 win record as a U.S. Fed Cup member. She was twice captain of the Fed Cup team.

In 1973, King founded the Women's Tennis Association, which launched the Virginia Slims Tour. In 1974, she founded both the Women's Sports Foundation and Professional World Team Tennis. She was also the first female Comissioner in professional sports (Team Tennis), and the first woman to coach a professional mixed gender sports team, the Philadelphia Freedoms. King has been inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame, the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and the National Women's Hall of Fame. In 1990, Life Magazine named her "one of the 100 most important Americans of the 20th Century."

King will always be remembered for her brilliant all-court play, but she commands just as much respect for what she did for women's sports. By breaking out and creating the WTA, King led the movement to recognize women's tennis as a separate entity and to provide equal prize money for women tennis players. Without Billie Jean King's resolve and courage, women would have continued to be treated as afterthoughts in the world of professional tennis.