[SeekAndFind]

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.

[RedMonqey]

Months before losing to King, the 55 year old, long retired, Riggs crushed then-No. 1 women’s player Margaret Court.

I don't remember that, but then I was just in my early teens when the "Battle of the Sexes" happened.

If so then why the big friggin deal about the Riggs-King match?

Just pondering....

[hecticskeptic]

Months before losing to King, the 55 year old, long retired, Riggs crushed then-No. 1 women’s player Margaret Court.Hey… Maybe Margaret Court was in on the fix? What I don’t get are the number of people who think that at 55, Riggs lost it basically on the age differential. I’ve seen some great athletes who perhaps have lost a step or two with age but are still in fantastic condition. Ok, George Foreman didn’t do it when he was 55 but he was still the world champ at the age of 48.

[bobby.223]

I can’t see two VERY heavyweight Outfit Crime Boss Guys like Trafficante and Marcello waltzin’ into some golf course clubhouse, late at night, without at least 4 of their big burly bodyguards comin’ inside with ‘em. Well, might have happened, who knows?