Bobby Riggs – Aspen Hustle – Part Four

After the world found Aspen and its top four ski areas in the 1970s, the Aspen area and the surrounding communities of Snowmass, Carbondale, Woody Creek and Basalt exploded with second homes for the rich and famous. By 2007, the permanent population of 3,000 in the 1970s grew to 6,000, but property values ​​skyrocketed. Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia recently listed his Aspen property, a 56,000 square foot villa for $135,000,000! Yes, $135 million! Aspen is probably one of the highest real estate markets per square foot in the world. Celebrities with homes in the Aspen area include Kevin Costner, Michael Douglas, Michael Eisner, Robert Wagner, Jill St. John, etc. Our project, the Aspen Club, has been sold multiple times and is now The Aspen Club and Spa, a very elegant private facility serving health-oriented clients from around the world.

In 1985, even at the ripe age of 67 and still an active promoter and personal con man of tennis, Riggs gave the spotlight another shot by challenging the best women’s doubles team of Pam Shriver and Martina Navratilova to another “Battle of los Sexes”, playing with former champion Vitas Gerulitis. Once again, the women triumphed, on points, but who really knows who made the big bucks. Even legendary tennis great Don Budge, who with Riggs, Jack Kramer, Pancho Gonzales and Fred Perry formed the first professional circuit and toured together in the 1940s, always suspected that with odds of 8 to 5 to beat Billie Jean King, of somehow Bobby had to have bet a lot of money on it to win. But no one will ever know.

Then in 1988, at the age of 70 and out of the tennis spotlight for a long time, Bobby Riggs was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Realizing that the world knew little about this disease, Riggs decided to go public with his diagnosis and share it with the world and spoke out wherever he could get an audience. In 1994 he created the Bobby Riggs Museum Foundation to promote and fund prostate cancer awareness. He would spend the last year of his life educating men and women about the disease.

Washington Post, October 27, 1995 – “Bobby Riggs, 77, former Wimbledon and US Open tennis champion who helped make women’s tennis a major spectator and money sport by losing a widely touted 1973 match before Billie Jean King, died of prostate cancer at his home in Leucadia, Calif. He was married and divorced twice and is survived by five children.” Now maybe you can understand how I came to the conclusion that Bobby Riggs was the greatest tennis player of all time. Hopefully Federer will one day make that kind of difference! “And that’s the story of my Bobby Riggs.” Not to be left without the last word, Jay Smith informs me that one of his closest friends was one of the last people to speak to Riggs just before his death. He asked her about the match with Billie Jean, if he had thrown it or not. Bobby smiled and said, “I won!” and he left

I have come to regard Bobby Riggs as even greater than great. I now believe that he never lost a game unless he wanted to. I take my hat off to him.