Match-up set the stage for infamous Billie Jean King-Bobby Riggs "Battle of the sexes"

By Richard Muscio

I just returned from the Ramona suburb of San Vicente on Mother’s Day 2013, where I spent the weekend to see what festivities or activities might be going on to commemorate the 40th anniversary of one of the most historic tennis matches in our country’s history. Sadly, I found nothing there, beyond the beautiful scenery.

On Mother’s Day 1973 (May 13, 1973 to be exact), the first “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match took place there, as a sales gimmick put on by the legendary real estate developer Ray Watt.  Aimed at drawing the Hollywood crowd 120 miles south to the still-remote San Diego Country Estates, developer Watt hoped to bring attention to the 3,000 vacant lots he had for sale there, in hopes that actors and actresses and other luminaries would buy his vacant lots and construct glorious vacation homes thereupon.