Fiend at Court Unplugged
Perry T. Jones was known as the czar of tennis in Southern California in the 1930s and 1940s. He is widely credited for the Southern California tennis factory that produced the likes of Ellsworth Vines, Don Budge, Jack Kramer, Pancho Gonzales, and Tony Trabert. He is enshrined in the International Tennis Hall of Fame for his contributions to tennis. His early encounters with both Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs presents an unlikely common linkage between the two players who went on to meet in the “Battle of the Sexes” match. In fact, Jones discouraged both players in the early stages of their playing careers.
The story of how Billie Jean King was pulled from a photo of the players at a tournament is a ubiquitous part of her history. Most of those sources don’t name the official involved, but “The Rivals: Chris Evert vs Martina Navratilova” is one exception. Perry T Jones was the official who subjected Billie Jean to this indignity. Her offense is that she was wearing white shorts instead of a skirt. Jones was not going to allow her to sully his perfect picture with… heaven forbid… shorts.
It is one of those points in time in which history could have taken a sharply different course. Billie Jean and her parents were mortified by the event, but ultimately shrugged if off and continued in tennis. Alternatively she could have decided that tennis wasn’t for her and quit the sport all together. Perry T Jones very nearly robbed tennis of one of the future legends of the game.
Throughout both of his autobiographies, Riggs details his ongoing battles and conflicts with Jones. After receiving nothing but discouragement from the tennis promotor, Riggs was always surprised to later see himself listed among the successful products of the Jones factory. From the earliest days in his junior career, Jones routinely withheld support from Riggs to play in National level events and pretty much did everything he could to prevent Riggs from competing at that level.
Riggs was certainly not the clean cut tennis playing kid that Jones regarded as the ideal representation of the sport. However, most of his negative attitude toward Riggs was attributed to his retrieving style of game. Jones simply did not believe that Riggs was big enough to play the sport properly and did not respect his tactics. Jones wanted the men to play the “more elegant” serve and volley tennis.
Riggs did credit the environment that Jones created with the production of so many top-notch players including himself. While his results were outstanding, even his International Tennis Hall of fame profile includes the phrase “those in the tennis community viewed Jones as a tyrant.” He ruled Southern California tennis with an iron fist.
So who was Perry T Jones? A complex man who ruthlessly and successfully promoted tennis. In the process, he arguably almost curtailed the careers of both Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. In short, he almost prevented the “Battle of the Sexes” match from occurring at all.
- Perry Jones, International Tennis Hall of Fame Profile, viewed 23 April 2021.
