Bobby was the "Bad Boy of Tennis" long before players such as John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors inherited the mantle-a nickname slapped on him by the press in the Thirties because of his brashness, his penchant for dice and cards, and his feuds with the tennis establishment. The game was a sport for amateurs then, and those who ran it expected the players to be modest and wholesome. There was no prize money. A system of under-the-table payments evolved that allowed the players to make ends meet, while perpetuating the power of the amateur authorities.

Bobby, however, was too brash and too blatant about taking the covert payments. At one point, he was nearly banned from the game-not for his gambling, which today would have gotten him ousted from sports faster than you can say, "Pete Rose," but for "professionalism."

Following his retirement from competitive tennis and after the end of a turbulent 20-year marriage, Bobby's "comeback" in the early 1970s launched a whole new tennis career for him-one short on athleticism, but long on bravado. As sport, the Bobby Riggs-Billie Jean King match meant absolutely nothing. This was about spectacle, not tennis. Afterwards, Bobby discovered he could make a good living just being himself: playing tennis exhibitions, doing his goofy challenges, traveling the country, hustling at whatever and with whomever came his way.

In 1984, he challenged professional golfer Marilynn Smith to a game in which he was allowed to throw the ball at the green 18 times during the match. In 1975, Bobby ran a 50-mile race across Death Valley against long-distance runner Bill Emmerton, a race in which Emmerton gave Bobby a 25-mile head start. In 1974, Bobby bet daredevil Evel Knievel $25,000 that he could ride a motorcycle from Las Vegas to Twin Falls, Idaho, where Knievel was to attempt his ill-fated jump across the Snake River Canyon (Bobby arrived in time to see Knievel's rocket-powered motorcycle sink beneath the canyon rim, and said, "Oh, my god! Evel is gone and my $25,000 with him!"). In 1983, Bobby played a game of tennis strip tease against six women from the Washington, D.C. Board of Realtors-a piece of clothing per point.

The stories themselves became commodities. For a price, you could have your own Bobby Riggs story. At a hundred dollars a shot, Bobby would take on all comers in these goofy handicap matches. After taking their money, he would hand back an "I Was Hustled by Bobby Riggs" button. It was a badge of honor, like being able tom claim you had struck out against Roger Clemens. If you didn't have the time, energy, or inclination to actually play tennis, you could send Bobby the $100 and he'd send you back a button. By the time of his match against Billie Jean King, the stories had become the man, each one adding to the myth, the enterprise that was Bobby.

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