Tennis Aces Rally Bidders at Women’s Sports Benefit

The Scene

About 320 local tennis fans gathered at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach on Friday for cocktails and auction bidding to support the UC Irvine Athletic Foundation and the Women’s Sports Foundation. The $75-per-ticket, two-hour party raised $30,000 and concluded with a shuttle ride to the John Wayne Tennis Club, where the Dukes, a professional team from Orange County, played the L.A. Strings.

Focal Points

The Dukes and Strings are two of nine teams in a national league called Teamtennis, which was founded 10 years ago by guest of honor Billie Jean King. Looking businesslike in a turquoise blazer and black slacks, King arrived to the flash of photographers’ strobes, the craning of rubbernecks and the outstretched pens of autograph seekers. She obliged, looking a little pained by all the fuss. A few minutes later, a smiling, joking, stunningly svelte Martina Navratilova showed up, doubling the banquet hall buzz. The two tennis legends settled at a table near the door, where they ate and chatted with friends between interruptions. Among those seated with the queens of the court were former top-ranked player Rosie Casals and Deborah Anderson, executive director of the Women’s Sports Foundation.

Speeches

After guests had a chance to browse silent-auction tables and serve themselves pastas and other goodies from the buffet, Anderson stepped to the podium. The New York-based, nonprofit foundation she heads--another of King’s creations--was founded 17 years ago as “a collective voice for women in sports,” she said. Now 330,000 members strong, that voice is heard through educational programs, grants to athletes and coaches, and government lobbying. Anderson described a recent survey of high school students that ranked athletes equal or better than nonathletes in achievement tests and grades and indicated that athletes were more involved with community organizations and less likely to take drugs. “So the ‘dumb jock’ myth is just that--a myth,” she said. Next up was King, who garnered a standing ovation. “Very good,” she said, when the applause died down. “That was the seventh-inning stretch.” Saying she hadn’t known that she would be called on to speak, King kept it short and sweet--a few words about growing up in Long Beach, and a few more about the ongoing fight for equal opportunities for women. She asked parents to “encourage your girls to be active, not passive. We get a lot of messages to be so-o-o dependent and so-o-o stupid,” she said, singsonging for a big laugh. “Then we get out in life and we’re in trouble!”

Working The Room

Before regrouping court side, guests had a shot at a few items up for grabs in a live auction. Navratilova opened bidding on Rams quarterback Jim Everett’s jersey (taken home by Leslie Cancellieri of Huntington Beach, who paid $550 for the tent-size orange shirt), then sat back and listened while bids piled up for one of her own racquets. Actually, she only sat back until the bidding stalled at $700, when she took the microphone from the auctioneer. “This racquet has a built-in forehand,” Navratilova joked. King took over. “This is historic! She used this racquet at Wimbledon! (Last month, Navratilova became the only person ever to win nine singles titles at Wimbledon.) C’mon people! Let’s go!” (They went. The racquet--plus a rubber chicken, a Spuds McKenzie doll and 10 lottery tickets--sold for $1,500.)

Faces

Also attending were Fred Lieberman, owner of the Dukes; Greg Patton, the Dukes’ coach and men’s coach at UC Irvine; Tom Ford, UCI’s athletic director; Lynn Cox, the globe-trotting swimmer from Los Alamitos, and Dukes players Sophie Amiach, Marty Davis, Amy Frazier and Roger Smith.

SOCIAL CALENDAR, E4