Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Thursday, September 20, 1973. The Battle of the Sexes and the Death of Jim Croce.

"The Battle of the Sexes" took place in the Houston Astrodome between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. King won three straight sets.

King and Riggs prior to the match.

This event was a big deal at the time, and I can recall my parents watching the television coverage of it.  It's always seemed odd to me as Riggs, who had been a tennis great in his youth, was well past his prime, while King was in hers.  Riggs, however, was quite the promoter and much of the attention can be attributed to that.

It was, up until that point, the most watched tennis match of all time.


Jim Croce, age 30, was killed along with five others when a chartered Beechcraft E18S hit a tree during takeoff from the Natchitoches Regional Airport in Louisiana.  

Croce was a well known pop singer at the time.  When in grade school, one year we had to learn his Time In A Bottle song for a performance of some sort.  Perhaps it's for that reason, but I've never liked that song since then, and I didn't like it then.  Or maybe its just the song.  I have always liked his Leroy Brown song.

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