I thought this has been common knowledge for years.
Yeah, this isn’t new.
Yes, I’d read aboUT this year’s ago. Also, “iconic” is really stretching it. What I remember is that not a word came out of Riggs mouth that didn’t seem tongue in cheek. He was TRYING to really piss off the fem set. That’s “box office” as Muhammad Ali put it.
I have a low-grade case of nausea that flares up every time someone mentions this sideshow as some great, seminal moment in women’s athletics.
Even Billie Jean King herself has jumped onboard the ‘Title IX Big Bang’ Bandwagon and pretends it’s anything more than what it was - a farce. A circus. A spectacle. A vintage 70s distraction on a par with Evel Knievel and All-Star Anything Goes.
Unfortunately, it still makes those PC lists favored by ESPN and others in which Jackie Robinson gets mentioned for the 8,204,389th time.
Speaking of which, the look-at-me Carlos and Smyth in 1968 also get feted as pioneers instead of punks. They could have announced their ‘principles’ any time at all leading up to the Olympics but took the coward’s way out.
AND on the same subject, Megan Rapinoe may merit a place on the women’s national team due to ability but the captaincy is a purely ceremonial, honorary role. Has anyone asked the national coach why someone who refuses to participate in the ceremony and has no honor was ever chosen captain?
The hilarious part of Riggs v King is that they’ve got nothing else, because women can’t beat men at sports. So this one gets recycled endlessly.
“I thought this has been common knowledge for years.”
The reason why it has never been repeated.