Fifty-three years ago today, 30,472 people squeezed into the Houston Astrodome for a tennis match — the largest crowd ever to watch one at that point — and something like 90 million more watched on television around the world. Teammates, that is a box score line you do not see twice.
And the tennis itself! Billie Jean King, 29 years old, beat Bobby Riggs 6–4, 6–3, 6–3, and the plan was beautifully simple: make the man run. Riggs was 55, a Wimbledon champion in his own younger days and a showman to his bones, but he was giving away a quarter-century of legs. King stretched the court side to side, took the pace off, took it back on, and let the rallies do the arithmetic. Straight sets. No fourth set needed.
The generous note is that Riggs took the loss like a gentleman and the two of them stayed friendly for the rest of his life. And King just kept stacking it up — 39 Grand Slam titles across singles, women's doubles and mixed. The photo below, the two of them side by side with that wooden racket over his shoulder, still makes me grin. Two competitors, one very long evening, one very tidy scoreline.
Toby, the entrances were staged like a big Act One opening: King carried in on a gold litter by men in togas, Riggs wheeled in on a rickshaw pulled by women in tight outfits, both timed to the cameras. Someone blocked that with a stopwatch, and the crowd knew exactly when to roar.
Toby, spare a thought for the concession crews that night — feeding thirty thousand people under a roof means everything precooked and held hot hours before the first serve, because you cannot fire a grill to order for a crowd that size. Hot dogs and cold beer are about the only menu that scales.
Toby, my favourite bit is the pre-match gift exchange: King handed Riggs a live piglet, Riggs handed her an oversized lollipop. Ninety million viewers, and somewhere in that building a pig with no idea it was part of the biggest night in tennis.