No, not thrown, and I watched it.
Hal Shaw, friend of Bobby Riggs, told ESPN that it was all a setup.
According to Shaw, who was an assistant golf pro 40 years ago at the Palma Ceia Golf and Country Club in Tampa, Fla., where Riggs also was working, he was toiling late one night fixing golf clubs when he saw mob lawyer Frank Ragano, Florida mob boss Santo Trafficante Jr. and New Orleans crime boss Carlos Marcello enter the clubhouse.
Ragano told the men Riggs was going to “set up two matches . . . against the two best women players,” Shaw told ESPN’s “Outside the Lines.”
For those who don’t know, Billy Jean King was ranked number 2 in the world then. Margaret Court of Australia was ranked number 1.
Months before losing to King, the 55 year old, long retired, Riggs crushed then-No. 1 women’s player Margaret Court.
Riggs was one of his era’s greats, winning Wimbledon and the US Open in 1939. He won the US Open at Forest Hills again in 1941 at age 23.
I watched it. She kicked his butt. Of course a young player is going to beat a 55 year old. But still it was a hoot.
He lived on vitamins and moved like an 80 year old.