King's book highlights 'Battle of the Sexes' match

NEW YORK -- Billie Jean King occasionally got hot-tempered on the tennis court, so her father once threatened to take a power saw to her racket in the family garage.

He didn't, but he made his point.

King never needed the control that her parents taught her more than when she played Bobby Riggs in the $100,000 winner-take-all "Battle of the Sexes" match at the Houston Astrodome on Sept. 20, 1973.

The 55-year-old Riggs, a self-proclaimed "male chauvinist pig," threatened to jump off a California bridge if he lost to the 29-year-old King. A television audience of 48 million tuned in to see what would happen.

Now, King's new book Pressure is a Privilege: Lessons I've Learned from Life and the Battle of the Sexes remembers the pivotal match ahead of its 35th anniversary, combining those memories with the wisdom the tennis legend gained from her blue-collar parents while growing up in Long Beach, Calif.

King won the battle with Riggs, of course, outplaying the hustler in straight sets.

"That match taught me a lot, dealing with the media and the attention and pressure and what it stood for -- the symbolism of the women's movement," King told the Associated Press in a recent interview.

King's eighth book, her first in 20 years, is scheduled for release Tuesday. It covers kitchen-table conversations with her parents plus chapters on preparation, visualization and knowing your worth.

"It's a fun read, it will take you an hour and half, it's quick," King said. "Besides (chapters on) pressure is a privilege and champions adjust, I talk about integrity and my heroes that were important in my childhood like my teachers, Rev. Bob Richards and Alice Marble."

King's father, Bill Moffitt, was a Navy man and a firefighter. He was tapped for an NBA tryout, but declined the invitation and opted for a steady job and paycheck to help support his young family.

Her mother, Betty, was a homemaker who loved to dance and body surf in the Pacific Ocean. Although she was quiet, King called her mom "the velvet hammer" because she never let up until a job was finished.

Billie Jean and Randy Moffitt, her brother, were expected to be home each day for dinner at 5:15 p.m. Their parents shuttled them to tennis and baseball practice, and Randy eventually became a relief pitcher for the San Francisco Giants.

Flash forward to 1973. Riggs, the son of a preacher, was a former No. 1 player who won the 1939 Wimbledon singles, doubles and mixed titles. Always wearing his black horned-rimmed glasses, Riggs provoked controversy. Women belonged in the kitchen and the bedroom, he said.