Billie Jean talks Wimbledon, youth sports, more on Zoom

Let's state this up front: The lore of Billie Jean King's heralded life and tennis career is all but universally known. That is, in tennis and women's sports and equality circles. Her biography—yea, her legend—has been ballyhooed in films made for television and theaters. (Remember those?) It has been documented ad nauseam for decades, as it's profoundly inspiring.

And dare I say, it's similarly compelling each time she speaks to it as the first time one heard it.

Front-loaded with a fine lineup of local notables, this "virtual fireside chat" with King benefited the Indianapolis Junior Tennis Development Fund, founded by one who some call "Indy's own BJK," Barbara Wynne.

Getty Images

"At every stage of tennis, you've been a leader, you've been an innovator, and you've shown people how to get it done," Wynne said of King. In turn, King saluted Wynne's advocacy for tennis for all, noting that her friend started tennis programming circa 1955, about the time that King herself was taking to the game.

To the surprise of none who know her well, King dubbed Wynne one of her "sheroes."

The two recounted their sides of a tale from yesteryear. King formerly came to Indy fairly regularly, for Indiana Loves matches in the World TeamTennis league, if not for the U.S. Clay Court Championships that later became the hardcourt-laden RCA Championships. (She noted that the USTA beckoned her to favor grass courts in lieu of clay.)

On one of those Indy jaunts, Wynne beckoned King to join her at Indy's North Central High School. There, Wynne had laid the groundwork for a program that would become much more. (Then: 21 courts. Now: 34, with a clubhouse.) King agreed to say hello and chat with Wynne's tennis-enthusiast schoolkids. "Twenty minutes," she said.

She stayed for four hours.

"I did [stay that long], as the kids were so motivated," she said on this Zoom chat, as Wynne beamed into dozens of screens.

Tech entrepreneur and executive

Such a thrill to interview tennis legend and champion for equality @BillieJeanKing. She is amazing and such an inspiration. pic.twitter.com/pZHch8kuLx — Scott Dorsey (@ScottDorsey) June 30, 2020">Scott Dorsey (ExactTarget, Salesforce, High Alpha) and U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Sean Buck, also both based in or from Indy, rounded out the Zoom event's early fete of King. Dorsey himself took to interviewing King for the back half of this online event.

Again, that BJK herstory, as she terms it, here in de facto CliffsNotes: Billie Jean Moffitt's father actually didn't see her for 2.5 years after she was born in Long Beach, California, in 1943. (He was stationed in the U.S. Navy in Norfolk, Virginia.) She grew up on team sports, particularly relishing basketball.

"[My parents] cared about health and education," she said, "and they liked sports because it kept us busy, and tired, and out of drugs and trouble."

Even so, piano was her first love, by her telling, and her mother made her learn how to read music before she could leave behind the concept of tickling those ivories. (She wasn't great at it, she said.)

What's more, her first racquet was lavender colored, with lavender strings. She says she slept alongside it—and you believe her. "I dreamed about winning Wimbledon," she told this Zoom crowd. "I was obsessed."

Some of her early memories of tennis were, well, jarring: "Everybody plays in white shoes, white clothes. everything and everyone is white. That's not right. I came from basketball, and just thought, Everyone should play this amazing sport."

That took the Zoom conversation at length to—where else?—the All England Club in London.

King's first Wimbledon was in 1961, which happened to be the first year that players couldn't compete in both junior and adult competitions. (The Open era of professional tennis would begin in 1968.)

As 2020 marks the 50-year anniversary of that fledgling WTA Tour's beginnings, the group of enterprising young female players known as "the Original Nine" were to be feted at Wimbledon this year. (The first actual WTA tournament was in 1971, but its origin story began months earlier.)

"I'm having withdrawal symptoms, as yesterday was to be opening day at Wimbledon," King said via Zoom. "Granted, a lot of people have it way worse during COVID-19. It's not fun, but I miss Wimbledon terribly this year."

Getty Images

Be it a global pandemic or everyday cares and considerations, King noted, "Champions adjust—and I don't mean just sports champions, I mean champions in life."

She also shared a trio of truisms that she and friend Edgar "Ed" Woolard, former chairman and CEO of DuPont, a Fortune 500 company, established together for people to see "inner and outer success" in their lives:

1

Relationships are everything—with yourself, family, friends, others. "We have a relationship with everything around us," King said.

2

Keep learning, and keep learning how to learn. That's part of tennis also, a certain inquisitiveness so as not to simply stay interested, but rather to thrive.

3

Be a problem solver, or an innovator even. Fill a void, need, or want. As King had it, "If you're playing a match and the ball's coming to you, it's about figuring out your next move."

King was probably most animated in speaking to how to reach today's youth from a tennis perspective. Her musings on that matter arrived on the heels of reports that over 3.3 million Americans are playing pickleball, a sport some say can coexist readily with tennis as its sibling racquet sport.

"I don't like the word 'lesson,'" King said matter-of-factly to her captive Zoom audience, including many parents of high-school tennis players and young hitters in Wynne's junior tennis program, "Kids don't like it. So I don't say that. I say 'instruction.'"

Patience was a virtue in King's upbringing, and in her budding tennis career. Thus she knew the true power of a work ethic: "My dad was always teaching me delayed gratification. I don't think he knew what a great life coach he was."

About midway through her remarks across a wide swath of topics, she said something poignant that, after about a dozen times hearing her speak live in person or interviewing her one-on-one, I had yet to hear her utter: "The more you know about history, the more you know about yourself."

Real talk welcomes all.