Caption: Bobby Riggs hits a backhand while linesperson Betsy Blaney looks on.

By Betsy Blaney

Betsy Blaney is retired and lives in Lubbock, Texas. She spent about 20 years as a tennis professional before becoming a journalist. She worked for The Associated Press and the Lubbock affiliate of NPR during her 29 years in journalism. Now she teaches tennis to kids, plays a lot of Pickleball and volunteers with a local hospice.

September 16, 2023

I was a ball girl for her in the 60s.

I (remarkably) called lines for her in the 70s.

I played her and her partner in doubles in the 1980s.

And, as a newspaper and wire service journalist, I wrote two first-person anniversary pieces (in the 1990s and the 2000s) from my unique, on-court vantage point for her triumph over Bobby Riggs.*

It’s an understatement to say that Billie Jean King has been a steady part of my life’s timeline as a tennis player and a journalist. My serve and volley game is a direct result of watching her play in Milwaukee in the early years of my tennis playing.

No one I knew foresaw the long-lasting implications of the Battle of the Sexes match in Houston’s Astrodome on Sept. 20, 1973.

I sure didn’t. I was a somewhat meek 19-year-old – living in Dallas and learning how to teach tennis – who lucked into calling lines on the historic match.  And I will always remember her circling back near my chair to tell me I’d blown a call on Riggs’ serve. It wasn’t a pretty admonishment.

The influence she’s had in my life, in the lives of millions of women – athletes of all sports and just generally – can’t be quantified. 

As the match anniversary approaches, it’s important to remember she is also responsible for women receiving equal prize money at the four Grand Slam tournaments. The first Grand Slam was the 1973 US Open, which recently honored her and 50 years of her efforts to elevate women in all arenas. 

I had the great good fortune of taking in the entire fortnight of Wimbledon this year. I was nearby the media building one day and spotted Billie Jean. I approached her, shook her hand as I re-introduced myself to her. She remembered the supposed blown call and our two interviews for the anniversary pieces. I just wanted to wish her a happy 80th birthday in November. She wished me the same for my 70th next spring.

It was a nice bookend to how our paths have crossed since I ran after tennis balls as she played the Virginia Slims tournament in Milwaukee 60 years ago.

*Note: Another article entitled Line Judge Turned Reporter, by Brooke Sjoberg, appeared in the Texas Standard: The National Daily News Show of Texas on September 20, 2018.