Billie Jean King: Karen, before we played, kept telling me, telling me we could win. I go, “Karen,” she [said] we got to look at the draw.” I said, “I never look at the draw except the night before. Who am I playing tomorrow?” She goes, “No, come in with me.” I go, “No, it’s bad luck. I don’t want to look at the draw.” She takes me over. “We can beat this team. We can beat this team. We can beat this team.” Now, remember: Karen went to Wimbledon the year before, so she’s the vet now. And she’s saying we can beat these people. So here we are at Wimbledon. We’re playing, you know, Margaret Smith and Jan Lehane, and we did beat them, and we were the youngest team ever. Karen was 18, I was 17. And we’re still the youngest team ever to have won Wimbledon.
How did you celebrate?
Billie Jean King: We probably went to a wimpy bar. We didn’t have any money. We had to eat, you know, dinner. But they have a Wimbledon ball, and everybody says, “Are you going to the ball?” And we’re going, “What?” I said, “I’m assuming you have to have a nice dress.” They said, “Well, of course.” And we’re going, “We’re not going.” So Bud Collins, who is a great writer, uh, for the Boston Globe, found out that we couldn’t go to the— couldn’t go to the ball. And he comes and he says, “I’ll take you to dinner tonight. How’s that?” And we went across from— in this basement very near Harrods. And we had an Italian dinner. And he said, “Well, let’s get— let’s get some champagne.” And we said, “No, we don’t drink.” And I always remember Bud saying, “God, this is great. You’re such cheap dates.” You know, it’s like, like so cute. But Bud became a great friend, and uh, I loved him. He was a great guy. He played— he was actually a boxing writer, he loved to write about boxing as well. But he loved tennis.