Tennis Greats Segura, Kramer Recall Riggs Fondly at Funeral

Old friends recalled fond memories of Bobby Riggs at a memorial service for the late tennis champion Monday at Encinitas.

Pancho Segura remembered learning poker and gin rummy from Riggs, then losing all his money to his mentor.

Jack Kramer remembered pitching pennies with Riggs to see who would buy lunch on a Sunday afternoon in Christchurch, New Zealand, “and we almost get put in jail for gambling.”

To Ted Schroeder, one word summed up Riggs’ life--action.

The three tennis legends provided levity at the service, drawing chuckles as they recalled the faster side of Riggs’ life.

Riggs died of prostate cancer Wednesday night at 77 at his home in nearby Leucadia.

His contemporaries also remembered Riggs the tennis player.

Riggs gained his greatest fame in 1973, when, at 55, he lost to 29-year-old Billie Jean King in the nationally televised “Battle of the Sexes.”

Thirty-four years before that, however, Riggs was a Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion. The year of his Wimbledon title, 1939, he not only won the men’s singles but also shared the championships in men’s and mixed doubles. He won U.S. Open titles in 1939 and ’41.

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Fifteen-year-old Venus Williams, using her ferocious serve to handcuff an opponent more than twice her age, won 6-2, 6-1, over Rosalyn Nideffer, 34, in the first round of the Bank of the West Classic in Oakland.

Basketball

The Washington Bullets, attempting to fill the void left by the injured Mark Price, obtained point guard Robert Pack from the Denver Nuggets for forward Don MacLean and guard Doug Overton.

The Nuggets also gave the Bullets “future considerations.”

Price, obtained from the Cleveland Cavaliers last month, was supposed to handle the Bullets’ offense this season. But he suffered a foot injury in training camp and is expected to be out several weeks.

New Mexico basketball recruit Kenny Thomas struck out again with the NCAA, which has declared the freshman ineligible. The NCAA Council’s subcommittee on initial eligibility waivers reconsidered Thomas’ case and stood by its decision that Thomas is ineligible because a ninth-grade science course he took was not one of 13 core courses required by the NCAA.

Clemson forward Iker Iturbe, who was expected to start this season, is out indefinitely because of a blood clot in his shoulder.

Jurisprudence

The insurance-fraud trial of boxing promoter Don King is winding down. U.S. District Judge Lawrence McKenna told the jury that the government might rest its case today and that the defense case might be completed as early as next week.

King is charged with nine counts of mail fraud and if convicted, could face up to five years in prison on each of the nine counts.

The government has argued that King amended his contract with boxer Julio Cesar Chavez to fool Lloyd’s of London into believing he had paid Chavez $350,000 in nonrefundable training expenses for a 1991 bout.

The fight between Chavez and Harold Brazier was canceled after Chavez cut his nose.

Philadelphia 76er guard Vernon Maxwell pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor marijuana charge, stemming from an incident over the summer when police stopped his car in Houston. Maxwell could face up to a $2,000 fine and 180 days in jail.

Miscellany

South Africa’s light-heavyweight boxing champion, Ginger Tshabalala, was shot and killed by suspected car hijackers at a Johannesburg taxi stand.

U.S. shotputter Gregg Tafralis, ninth in the 1988 Summer Olympics and ranked fifth in the world in 1994, has been suspended for four years after testing positive for an anabolic steroid.