A Necessary Spectacle: Billie Jean King, Bobby Riggs, and the Tennis Match That Leveled the Game

by Selena Roberts

Book Overview

Billie Jean King didn't want to play Bobby Riggs. He baited and begged her for months while she ignored his catcalls and challenges. But after Margaret Court's ignominious defeat in the so-called... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400051460
• ISBN13: 9781400051465
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

the best about a great person, and tennis player

she changed the world that nite. read this to know how.

THE MATCH and how it changed the world

The subtitle of this book 'the Tennis Match that Leveled the Game' isn't quite strong enough. This single match, called the 'Battle of the Sexes' was far, far more than a tennis match, and the aftereffect was far, far more than levelling the tennis game. For a tennis standpoint, before The Match womens tennis was not a serious sport. The women played, but almost by themselves. The money, the sponsors, television, the fame wasn't there. After it was all there. From a legal standpoint, The Match put power behind Title IX that required equal funding in schools for men and womens atheletic programs. From the overall women's rights viewpoint The Match was in 1973, so was Row v. Wade. Ms. Roberts is a sports columnist. This training gives her a newspaper like writing style that is very well suited to the subject she is covering here. The book reads almost like a novel, an excellent novel but also conveys the impact of The Match that changed women's sports forever.

A necessary read!

I loved this book! I'm not a huge tennis fan so as I began reading, I was shocked at how quickly this story pulled me in and kept me fascinated. It's about so much more than tennis. The personalities and motivations of Billie Jean and Bobby were so thoroughly explored that as this spectacle of a match was becoming imminent, I could feel the pressure and the tension that must have been felt not only by them, but by many women and men in the 1970s as gender lines were being tested. This book did a great job of framing the importance of that one event, as circus-like as it was. Billie Jean and Bobby brought discussions of gender roles into people's living rooms that day and the consequences have paved the way for women and for the athletes we cheer on today. "A Necessary Spectacle" gave me new insight. Excellent!

GREAT BOOK ABOUT A GREAT LEGEND!

I'VE FOLLOWED BJK'S CAREER SINCE SHE WON HER 1ST WIMBLEDON TITLE IN 1961! THIS BOOK GIVES YOU A VERY CANDID LOOK INTO THE LIFE OF THIS GREAT TENNIS LEGEND, THE STUGGLES SHE FOUGHT BOTH PERSONAL & PUBLIC. INTERSTING DETAILS ON THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES WITH BOBBY RIGGS AND HIS LIFE. AN EASY ENJOYABLE READ FOR ANYONE, BUT ESP. FOR TENNIS FANS FROM THE 60'S70'S ON!