ESPN names Billie Jean King as one of the top 40 women athletes of the 40 years since Title IX

From ESPN's profile of Gay Games Ambassador Billie Jean King, number 11 in the top 40 women athletes of the last forty years, the period during which Title IX has been in effect, ensuring equality in access to sport for young American athletes:

It was a disparity King wouldn't forget. In 1970, she was one of nine players who broke from the tennis establishment. Accepting symbolic $1 contracts from promoter Gladys Heldman, they boycotted a tournament in which the female winner was set to receive one-eighth the prize money of the male winner. Their rebellion led to the development of the Virginia Slims Tour and, later, the Women's Tennis Association. In 1971, King was the first female athlete to earn $100,000 in a year, justifying the Virginia Slims slogan, "You've come a long way, baby!"

"The '70s were the perfect time for Billie Jean's leadership," says Pam Shriver, a 21-time Grand Slam doubles champ and now an ESPN analyst. "She was a great on-court champion, and the opportunity to dovetail with the feminist movement was perfect. She had the ideal personality; she embraced the challenge of gaining equality for women. Eventually, someone could have done it, but no one else in her era was capable of it."

In 1974, King founded the Women's Sports Foundation to better the lives of women through sports. In 1990, Life magazine named her one of the 100 most important Americans of the 20th century. And she has continued her fight into the 21st century, still very much a visible presence at age 68.

"Billie Jean has been so influential in helping women earn more in terms of respect, prize money and other opportunities," Shriver says. "Think of Maria Sharapova or Li Na in China. Commercial opportunities are huge for women tennis players, but women in all sports can tip a cap to Billie Jean."

Women out of sports, too.

Read in full HERE.