The Battle of the Sexes

This episode is all about trailblazers! We'll dive into the incredible story of Billie Jean King and the impact of Title IX, with a dramatic opening story and a conversation with Coach Ray Scott, the 1974 NBA Coach of the Year - a trailblazer himself as the first African-American to win this prestigious award.

You'll gain insights into the intersection of sports and culture, and be inspired by the determination and resilience of these two remarkable individuals.

#UnstoppablePodcast #WomenInSports #Inspiration #Trailblazers #NBA #tennis #billiejeanking

Check out Coach Ray Scott's book on Amazon (here)

Unstoppable Podcast blends cinematic storytelling with immersive sound design and insightful interviews, celebrating women in sports — past and present.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

September 20, 1973. The Houston Astrodome buzzes with anticipation. Its roaring crowd of 30,492 drowning out faint whispers of history lurking in the background. The air is electric. Camera bulbs flash like lightning. Millions more watch from their living rooms, holding their breath. The doors to the arena swing open. Billie Jean King steps into the spotlight. her signature glasses glinting under the blazing lights. Bobby Riggs is already there, smirking, glasses perched arrogantly on his nose, waving a sugar daddy paddle like it's a sport. But King doesn't blink. She's here for something bigger than this man's antics. Bigger than tennis. Just a year ago, she'd stood up against tennis organizers, forcing them to recognize women as equals on the court. Now, under the harsh lights of this gladiatorial arena, the stakes have only grown. The match begins. The ricochet of the first serve cuts through the crowd's deafening cheers like a cannonball. King is a force to be reckoned with, her feet whispering across the court as she positions herself for every return. Her shots sharp and relentless. Riggs throws every stunt he's got at her. Jump shots, limp wrist mimics, exaggerated strolls around the net. But King doesn't falter. By the final set, it's clear this isn't just a tennis match anymore. It's a reckoning.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Don't forget, he trails three games to five in the third set. Billie Jean having won the first two sets, 6-4 and 6-3.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Every swing of King's racket is a protest. Every point scored, proof that women belong on the stage. The tension builds as the score nears match point. Riggs lobs a sloppy shot to her side. Too slow, too predictable. King pivots on her heel, her racket cutting through the air with precision. The ball rockets over the net and slams into the opposite corner. King raises her racket skyward, a tired but triumphant smile breaking across her face. In that moment, she's more than a champion. She's a symbol, a force that shatters years of entrenched stereotypes and announces to millions watching around the world that women belong on every stage where greatness is made. As the dust settles, Bobby Rigg leaps over the net, a smile on his face. He reaches out to shake King's hand, a silent acknowledgement of her dominance. The gesture is simple but profound, a surrender to undeniable truth. The image of the handshake becomes iconic, a skeptic conceding defeat to the power of women's sports. King's legacy is cemented, inspiring a new generation of women and girls to pick up tennis rackets and challenge the status quo.

SPEAKER_04 3:55

Welcome to Unstoppable, the podcast where passion meets purpose. I'm your host, Lori Lewis, and I'm excited to share stories of nostalgia, inspiration, and determination. Join me as we explore the power of perseverance and celebrate the unstoppable spirit that drives us to keep going no matter what. I have a great privilege today in talking to Ray Scott, Who is considered one of the top 30 Detroit Pistons of all time. Look at the statistics. He had a career double-double. And he was NBA Coach of the Year in 1974. He happened to be the first African-American to garner that distinction. And I called on you, of course, we're going to talk about women in sports and some of the history. And of course, at the opening, we heard the story about Billie Jean King. And in some ways, we've come a long way since that battle of the sexes, they called it. And in some ways, we haven't.

SPEAKER_02 5:03

Well, I think I'm so proud of the women of today, my daughters being among them, who have participated in this change in our society where women's sports have now clearly become spectator sports. I marvel. I look at the WNBA. I look at track and field. I look at swimming. I mean, we have legitimate physical swimming stars. We just watched the French Open. And we watched our American kid, Coco Gauff, become the champion. And remember that. When people were winning the French years ago, if they happened to be American, we never even heard about it. Now they're celebrated, and these kids are wonderful. So I'm, as a person that loves sports and loves the observation of sports, I think these women have lifted us to another level, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_04 6:10

These women athletes are amazing. When I was a little girl... You know my story that I wanted to play third base for the Chicago Cubs. That's correct. With a good arm,

SPEAKER_02 6:22

by the way.

SPEAKER_04 6:23

I had a good arm. Ask my brother Lou. But I was under 5'5". I was not, you know, a big... And I look at these women now, and they're extraordinary athletes. And just, I mean, I couldn't have competed in today's world, and I marvel at these women today.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Oh, I think you would have competed in any world. I'm sorry. I know you well, and I know your competitive nature. And no, you did quite well. You led that parade out of those classrooms of girls that sat there and wanted to do something. A bunch of little girls like yourself in fifth and sixth grade, when you were playing basketball and you were practicing your Kareem Abdul-Jabbar skyhook, when you were doing all that. all these things. You led the little girls out of the classroom. That meant something. Because we didn't know As a people, the feelings that little girls had, we didn't care that little girls were competitive and wanted to throw a ball or bounce a ball or they wanted to run track. We didn't treat that kindly. We just kind of brushed you guys aside as little tomboys. But she's not an athlete. Well, Laura, you were an athlete. But what I admire about you and what your brother Lou admires about you is that you stuck to who you were. You never, ever, ever changed who you were. You wanted to be a baseball player. You had that desire. I mean, growing up, you were competitive. That was your nature. And I think that it transcends Those eras that we come through, and people say, remember Laurie, or remember Babe Didrikson Zaharias, or remember Wilma Rudolph, or remember Willie White, the long jumper, or remember Edith, the runner, you know, out of Detroit. I mean, they're just like women that felt the same as you. But you know what you guys did? You came out of the classroom. It never beats you down. The isms in this country never beat you down. You guys knocked down walls. You didn't just find barriers and run up to them and kind of figure out how to get around the barrier. You guys knocked down walls, and that was tough.

SPEAKER_04 8:56

So in the background, historically, what was going on when I was a little girl was Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, the battle of the sexes that we mentioned. Tell me the... impact of that in the culture and now that you were, you know, in the heyday of your NBA career.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

Yes. What happened in 1960 when John Fitzgerald Kennedy opened up a lot of roads by his pronouncements about knocking down, well, President Reagan knocked down the walls, but in foreign things, but in the domestic side, I give that credit to John Fitzgerald Kennedy, because in 1960, we had three African-Americans on the Olympic team in basketball, three. One before that was Bill Russell, one African-American. 1960, John Fitzgerald Kennedy said, we wanna bring our African-American brethren or our Negro brethren into into the equality of the American dream. We want that dream shared with them. When he made that pronouncement, in my opinion, and I'm a 22-year-old and it's my first time voting, when he made that pronouncement, I was like, whoa, this guy is something special. And the next thing I know, I'm in the NBA. one of three players on a team, the NBA becomes quite proficient in going out and getting African-American basketball players. Because people say to you, they'll say, Laurie, let's talk about basketball players. Laurie has so many great basketball players. It's impossible to put them on a, they tried 50 players. They're up to 75 great players. And there's another 75 great players outside of that 75 great players. So that's knocking down walls to me. The lesson there, and I'm an old dude, so I know the lesson. The lesson there is this was accomplished by Dr. Martin Luther King, by Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, and people of that stature It was accomplished through the civil rights of our time, the integration of our time. People will say, oh, we don't want integration, and we didn't want it. And they don't understand. That integration has spawned millionaires, millionaires. This has spawned kids dominating in baseball at the time that they did back with Ernie and Gene Baker and Willie Mays and Monte Irvin and Jackie Robinson and Don Newcomb, you know, when those players, they were kind of just a small group of players, but with civil rights being active in the sixties and these courageous men that went out, all of a sudden, look at us now. We got men, we got women, we got people from overseas flourishing. Sports are flourishing. They used to give you sports on a channel in 15 minutes. When you were a little girl in Chicago, you used to watch sports for 15 minutes. Heck, you go home now to your nice home out there in California, you can watch sports all day. They have sports channel. So that's how Our lives changed, in my opinion, around us. And it makes me, like I said, as an old guy, it makes me like, wow, we knocked that wall down. Because I understood barriers. We fought that. We did that. We stuck together. But to knock down walls, man, you come up to, they say, no, you're not coming in here. No, you can't ride on this bus. No, you can't eat in this restaurant. No, you can't stay at this hotel. And America said, America said, bullshite. We're working towards equality. And they're doing exactly what Dr. King intended and what John Fitzgerald Kennedy referred to.

SPEAKER_04 13:26

So in your perspective, your kind of bird's eye view of it, that opened the door for women and Title IX and that to open

SPEAKER_02 13:37

up. Yes. That was very important that you had the legislature. See, that's part of knocking down the wall. We didn't just get an agreement and say, oh, let them play. We went to the halls of Congress and got Title IX signed. And Title IX changed the whole world for women. For women like yourself, you won. You won. And you won because the young ladies like you didn't just sit in the classroom and moan about it. You went out and played. And that's so important. That's so important. And it means so much to the little girls of today. But like I said, right there in Chicago, you had Olympic athletes. And you had the great Willie White, who won gold medals in the Olympics, right alongside Wilma Rudolph.

SPEAKER_04 14:33

What do you remember about Billie Jean King? Was she as great of a player as I thought?

SPEAKER_02 14:40

Oh, no. She was better. She was better than you could think. Because Billie Jean was a competitor that said, not only is this not enough... It's not right. And how do we get enough? But how do we make it right? Billie Jean King won on two fronts. When the open was won, again, by our esteemed and lovely Coco Gauff, she reached across and shook Billie Jean King's hands when she got her check. In one hand, she's got her check. In her other hand, she's got Billie Jean King's hand saying, thank you, Mrs. King. See, that's the visual I just can't let go because I know how difficult it was, but I know how much it meant to the winners of today because you always bless the bridge that carries you across. I know how much today that means. to these kids. These kids are getting, they're wealthy. Coco gets back yesterday and she's in New York. She's celebrated in New York at a basketball game, on Good Morning America, on the ESPN. They're traveling her around celebrating her. That does not happen without a Billie Jean kick. So

SPEAKER_04 16:13

we have come a ways for women in sports. But there are still barriers. There are still walls in the sense of, I think mostly people's attitudes, some are changing, but I'm still hearing some of the comments that I heard as a little girl that, you know, oh, the women are too masculine or, you know, some disparaging thing. Do you think that we can change that attitude?

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Well, you know, it's very difficult to treat a brain that's made out of mush. And what gets your brain out of the mush area is education. So we have to continue with education. And in my opinion, the educational processes of this country does not work towards hardening the brain. It works towards keeping the brain mush. And that's why we have these people. Obviously, how could you think you're right about something like that? it puts you on a path of us saying, my Lord, you're part of being a village idiot. And you don't want to be. Who wants to be a village idiot? You want to be a person that's in the know. You want to be able to process and have deference and support people and learn statistics and learn about standing and talent. When you talk about Billie Jean and my inspiration... I remember I always loved in the town, the time of Billie Jean, they brought a young lady out of Australia and she was from the Bush. And her name was Yvonne Gouligan. And she was one of the top players in the world. Yvonne Gouligan. This is during the Billie Jean King era. But Billie Jean King warmly, warmly welcomed her to America. That's how women stuck together. But that's the history of their game. Their game grew because they kept getting great players and great people. And I love that. That's just beautiful to see.

SPEAKER_04 18:39

this is really exciting and of course a lot of people are familiar with billie jean king's story but as we go along in this podcast we're going to introduce you to stories perhaps you don't know about and i'm going to call on coach scott from time to time to help us out because it's a blast to talk sports with you but before we go You had an opportunity after your NBA career to also coach women's basketball. Tell us where that was and tell us about that. Well,

SPEAKER_02 19:13

it actually wasn't women's basketball. It was a little girl's basketball. Oh, really? I coached for five years after my NBA career and my college career, my abbreviated college career. But I coached five years at my girls' middle school. I coached Allison and I coached Devin. And it gave me a joy to leave my office at three o'clock in the afternoon for my girls' practice and get to practice. I love that so much because the little girls thirst to learn. was incredible to teach little girls to play basketball about picking roles and layups and rebounding and free throw shooting because they wanted to learn from A to Z. They didn't want to come in and say, oh, let's start at, let me see. I'm a good shooter. I'm a good runner. I'm a good. And so I know all this stuff. No, it was just the opposite. Coach Scott, will you teach us? And they taught me things. And one of the things I wish I had learned to do with my male players is what the girls have done. My girls insisted on a team meeting every day before every practice. We would have a team meeting. And that just made us so tight and it helped the improvement of the girls so much that it was something, it was a theory that I fell in love with. I said, boy, theoretically, I would just love having team meetings like this with the guys like I've had with these little girls. That part of it I loved. I loved coaching the games, of course, the strategies and matchups and all that. But what I had just a strong affection for is to see the growth of the girls. My girls are still friends with me to this day. That's wonderful. That means a lot to me. And men, you know, they, you know, and they remembered rules, they will repeat them to me. You know, attack a box press in the middle, point press down the side. They say things like to me all the time, geez, coach, they weren't doing that or they should have done that. And I just, that, it warms my heart.

SPEAKER_04 21:50

Another thing I want to mention is that Coach Scott wrote a book, and we're going to put the link, of course, under the podcast information. Tell us about the book, Coach. It's been out for a couple years now.

SPEAKER_02 22:05

Yeah, it came out in 2022. The principal thing of the book is I wanted it to have historic value. I wanted people to be able to look back in 1947 when they began discussing the NBA and 1949 and 50 when they brought in the NBA. That was the first year in the NBA's first year, although it was an all-white league in the beginning in 49-50. In April of 1950, they drafted two players. one from an HBCU, or what they call a black school, which was Earl Lloyd. And they drafted Chuck Cooper, who was an all-American, African-American, at Duquesne. Good player. The Boston Celtics drafted him. And the Washington Capitals drafted Earl Lloyd. And the New York Knicks signed Sweetwater Clifton, who was a great player with the Harlem Globetrotters. That was 1950. And so our landscape changed with that view of ourselves as basketball players. Take a basketball today and you saying you got three new black players coming into the league and that's it. That certainly doesn't happen today. The book kind of points those stories out surrounded in that time of the 50s and to the 60s. But the great run of the NBA, in my opinion, of course, I was there. And the reason I think it was great is not because I was doing great things or accomplishing great things, but it was because I was seeing great things. And that was from 1960 until 1980. And that was the Magic, Bird, Julius Irving, Wilt Chamberlain. Bill Russell, Bob Cousy. Those are the players that Elgin Baylor, Oscar Robinson, I can go on and on and on. And that 20 year period encapsulated the growth of the NBA.

SPEAKER_04 24:25

So if someone is an NBA fan, of course, they will enjoy the book. But also you give some, you know, just great overview of American history.

SPEAKER_02 24:35

Thank you. What I was attempting to do there in the book was to say, I'm playing in the NBA. These things are occurring on a basketball floor and in a basketball locker room, but they're occurring as we are peering out at what's going on in the rest of the world. And I have the opportunity To observe the rest of the world, not as the poor kid from South Philly with no money, no car, no place to live. I observed it with a couple of bucks in my pocket. And you see the world, and as everyone knows, because that's what we strive for, you see the world so much differently when you got a couple of bucks in your pocket.

SPEAKER_04 25:23

It don't hurt.

SPEAKER_02 25:24

Don't hurt. There you go. And that's where I was.

SPEAKER_04 25:29

Yeah. Again, I'll give the information for you to follow a link. You can easily get his book on Amazon and there are other outlets as well. But one of the people who truly inspires me and that I look up to and admire coach Ray Scott. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

Thank you, Laurie. Let's do this again.

SPEAKER_04 25:49

As we wrap up this conversation with the legendary coach Ray Scott, who, by the way, is one of my best friends in the world, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for his willingness to share his insights and experiences. As one of the top 30 Detroit Pistons of all time and NBA Coach of the Year in 1974, Ray's contributions to sports are undeniable. Again, give you my heartfelt gratitude and thanks. Thanks, Coach.

SPEAKER_03 26:20

Thanks

SPEAKER_01 26:38

for listening to unstoppable. We appreciate your support and would love for you to join our community. Please subscribe to our podcast and follow us on social media. We'd love to hear from you. A huge thank you to Don Conrad for bringing these inspiring stories to life and to our guests for sharing their experiences. And finally, to our host and interviewer, Lori Lewis, for making it all happen. Unstoppable is mixed and produced by Terry Mack. For links and more information on this episode, visit unstoppablepodcast.net. That's a wrap for this episode. Until next time, stay unstoppable.

SPEAKER_03 28:47

Your rhythm in his every call The coach who gave his heart