50 free Billie Jean King trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Billie Jean King learned tennis on free public courts in Long Beach with an $8 racket, told her minister at 13 that she would be the best player in the world, and then went out and won 39 Grand Slam titles, a record 20 of them at Wimbledon. Along the way she beat Bobby Riggs in front of 90 million people, founded the WTA, forced the US Open into equal prize money, and turned a cigarette sponsorship into the first professional women's tour. This quiz covers the whole arc: the softball shortstop who switched sports, the 1961 doubles title at 17, the rivalry with Margaret Court, the $100,000 season and Nixon's phone call, the palimony suit that outed her, World TeamTennis, the Dodgers and Angel City stakes, the Masked Singer costume and the history degree she finally finished at 82. Fifty questions, four options each, with a short explanation after every answer. Play on your phone or print it for a sports quiz night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Billie Jean King was born in which California city?
Long Beach
Her firefighter father and swimmer mother raised an athletic family; one of the city's tennis facilities is now named the Billie Jean Moffitt King Tennis Center.
Q 02How many Grand Slam titles did King win across singles, doubles and mixed?
39
The haul breaks down as 12 singles, 16 women's doubles and 11 mixed doubles titles.
Q 03King beat which former Wimbledon champion in the 1973 'Battle of the Sexes'?
Bobby Riggs
Riggs, the 1939 Wimbledon champion, had styled himself a tennis hustler and had just crushed Margaret Court 6–2, 6–1.
Q 04Where was the Battle of the Sexes match played?
Houston Astrodome
A crowd of 30,492 watched in person, with an estimated 90 million more on television in 37 countries.
Q 05How old was Riggs when King beat him in straight sets?
55
King was 29; she later said the thrill was not beating an older man but exposing new people to tennis.
Q 06How much was the winner-takes-all purse for the Riggs match?
$100,000
That is roughly $707,000 in 2024 money; King had turned down Riggs until he humiliated Margaret Court.
Q 07King's younger brother Randy Moffitt spent 12 years as a professional in which sport?
Baseball
He pitched for the San Francisco Giants, Houston Astros and Toronto Blue Jays.
Q 08At age 11 King switched to tennis from which sport, at her parents' urging?
Softball
She had played shortstop at 10 on a championship team with girls four or five years older; her parents wanted something more 'ladylike'.
Q 09How much did King save to buy her first racket?
$8
She took free public-court lessons from city pro Clyde Walker, and was once barred from a tournament photo for wearing shorts her mother sewed.
Q 10How many Wimbledon singles titles did King win?
6
Her record 20 titles there also include 10 women's doubles and four mixed doubles crowns.
Q 11With whom did a 17-year-old King win the 1961 Wimbledon doubles title on her first attempt?
Karen Hantze
Locals raised $2,000 to send her to Wimbledon; she and Hantze were the youngest team ever to win the event and repeated in 1962.
Q 12Whose longstanding record of 19 Wimbledon titles did King break in 1979?
Elizabeth Ryan
Ryan had collapsed and died at Wimbledon just one day before King passed her mark.
Q 13Who partnered King to her 20th Wimbledon title and her 39th and last Grand Slam title in 1980?
Martina Navratilova
Navratilova then dropped her for Shriver without discussing it; King confronted her: 'Tell me I'm too old ... but tell me something.'
Q 21Which men's champion earned $15,000 more than King at the 1972 US Open?
Ilie Năstase
King said she would boycott the next year unless the money was equal, and the tournament changed its policy.
Q 22Which cigarette brand sponsored the breakaway women's tour King helped launch?
Virginia Slims
Philip Morris chairman Joe Cullman backed it; King later sat on the Philip Morris board, drawing anti-tobacco criticism.
Q 23Which World Tennis magazine founder bankrolled the original nine-player women's group in 1970?
Gladys Heldman
The walkout followed the Pacific Southwest Open, where the men's top prize was $12,500 and the women's $1,500.
Q 14Which title in 1972 completed King's career Grand Slam in singles?
French Open
She won it without dropping a set, beating Evonne Goolagong in the final, and became only the fifth woman to hold all four majors.
Q 15Which 18-time major champion coached King early on but dropped her over her ambition?
Alice Marble
Marble ended the relationship; in 1967 King matched Marble's 1939 feat of the singles, doubles and mixed treble at Wimbledon and the US Championships.
Q 16Whom did King beat in the 1966 Wimbledon final for her first Grand Slam singles title?
Maria Bueno
It came at her 14th attempt at a major singles title; she credited a new forehand down the line for her semi-final win over Court.
Q 17King won the 1975 Wimbledon final 6–0, 6–1 over which opponent?
Evonne Goolagong Cawley
Calling it a 'near perfect match', she told reporters 'I'm never coming back' and briefly retired from singles.
Q 18In which year did King become the first female athlete to earn $100,000 in a season?
1971
It was her best year for titles (17) and it earned her a congratulatory phone call from the White House.
Q 19Which US president phoned to congratulate King on her $100,000 season?
Richard Nixon
The milestone came despite women's purses that were often a tenth of the men's at the same events.
Q 20Which tournament became the first major to pay men and women equally, in 1973?
US Open
King had been paid $15,000 less than the men's champion there in 1972 and threatened not to return.
Q 24In 1973 King became the first president of which organisation?
Women's Tennis Association
She founded the players' union the same year she beat Riggs; the Women's Sports Foundation followed in 1974.
Q 25What magazine did King launch with her husband and Jim Jorgensen in 1974?
womenSports
The same year she started the Women's Sports Foundation, and the World TeamTennis league began play.
Q 26King's husband Larry co-founded which league that began play in 1974?
World TeamTennis
The couple sank their savings into an Oakland Coliseum event; King became commissioner in 1982 and sold her majority stake in 2017.
Q 27Which Elton John US number one was written for King?
Philadelphia Freedom
Released on New Year's Day 1975, it nodded to her World TeamTennis side, the Philadelphia Freedoms.
Q 28Which comic-strip creator was a close friend who referenced King in his strip?
Charles M. Schulz
Schulz used Peanuts to support the women's sports movement after befriending her.
Q 29Who played King in the 2017 film Battle of the Sexes?
Emma Stone
King attended the 2018 Golden Globes as Stone's guest.
Q 30Under which costume did King compete on The Masked Singer in 2023?
Royal Hen
She was unmasked in an Elton John tribute episode after singing 'Philadelphia Freedom'.