Word: racket
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...that you would not jump out of the car and turn a quick somersault. Hole up in a hotel room with him and he will invent a betting game that involves tossing tennis balls over a curtain rod. Ask him to play golf with a tennis racket and he will not only oblige but win. Show up at one of his tennis matches and he may line you up for a side bet. Want to play him yourself? What kind of handicap do you want? A wet Bulgarian bear riding on his shoulders? A felled yak strapped to his side...
When he was twelve and swinging a racket on a court for the first time (barefoot, as he recalls, since he owned no tennis shoes) Bobby was spotted by Dr. Esther Bartosh, a university anatomy instructor and the third ranking woman player in Los Angeles. Yes, Virginia Slimmers, Bobby Riggs got his start in tennis from a woman. In fact, two women: his later instruction was taken up by Eleanor Tennant, who developed Alice Marble...
...hadn't taken to climbing out on the fire-escape and then in other people's windows so that he could try out their bathtubs too. Eventually he tried out the bathtub of the person down the hall, a character who had borrowed my roommate's tennis racket a week or so before. When my roommate gave him the racket, he looked at it disdainfully...
...Haven't you got a metal racket?" he said incredulously...
...days later he accused someone three rooms down of stealing his bar of soap. Pennypacker is one of the few freshman dormitories with bathrooms in each suite, so stealing the bar of soap would have entailed breaking and entering first. Since this is how my roommate ultimately got his racket back, however, maybe it wasn't as far-fetched as it sounds...