1975 WOMEN'S PRELIMINARY 2
Tennis superstar Billie Jean King was one of the founders of the Women's Sports Foundation in 1974 and the foundation began its multi-sport emphasis at the Women’s Superstars which was held at the Houston Astrodome. During the event, Olympic swimming champion Donna de Varona was present as an announcer for ABC became interested in the idea. With 23 female athletes from 18 different sports present between the two preliminaries, King had a wide representation of the top women athletes of the day. The competition in this preliminary boiled down to a duel between volleyball Olympian Mary Jo Peppler and basketball player Karen Logan. Logan won the first two events, tennis and the 352 yard run. The 352 yards was a one-fifth mile event, due to the fact that a 1/4 mile track could not fit in the Astrodome. Peppler came on to win four events, including a 207 foot, 6 and 1/2 inch toss in the softball throw, which was the most impressive performance of the event. With six spots in the final up for grabs, gymnast Cathy Rigby grabbed the sixth spot in the standings with a third place finish in the obstacle course. When qualified finalists Sheila Young and Billie Jean King could not participate, seventh place finisher Paula Sperber was added to the field of finalists. [Note: I do not have all the results, but I do have the standings after 3 events: Logan 20; King 17; Peppler 14; Sperber 7; O'Brien & Rigby 5; Soutar 4 1/2; Guthrie 4; Meyer 2; Ferrell, Lawler & Tyus 0.]
The Astrodome; Houston, Texas
Competition Dates: December 21-22, 1974
Air Date: January 19, 1975
Announcer: Keith Jackson and Donna de Varona.
PLC. NAME, SPORT |
TEN | 352y | BSKT | ROW | SWIM | BOWL | 60 | SOFT | BIKE | OC | TOTAL | MONEY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Mary Jo Peppler, Volleyball | 7 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
55 |
$15,500 |
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| 2. Karen Logan, Basketball | 10 |
10 |
x |
7 |
51 |
$9,100 |
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| 3. Wyomia Tyus, Sprinter | 0 |
x |
0 |
x |
10 |
29 |
$5,400 |
|||||
| 4. Barbara O'Brien, Football | 25 |
$2,500 |
||||||||||
| 5. Billie Jean King, Tennis | x |
7 |
10 |
N/A |
N/A |
|||||||
| 6. Cathy Rigby, Gymnastics | 4 |
4 |
N/A |
N/A |
||||||||
| 7. Paula Sperber, Bowling | N/A |
N/A |
||||||||||
| N/A. Judy Soutar, Bowling | x |
N/A |
N/A |
|||||||||
| N/A. Janet Guthrie, Auto Racing | N/A |
N/A |
||||||||||
| N/A. Debbie Meyer, Swimming | x |
N/A |
N/A |
|||||||||
| N/A. Barbara Ferrell, Sprinter | x |
x |
N/A |
N/A |
||||||||
| 12. Debbie Lawler, Motorcycling | 0 |
$1,000 |
INDIVIDUAL EVENT RESULTS
Limited results available
352 YARD RUN
| 1. Karen Logan | 49.7 |
| 2. Billie Jean King | N/A |
| 3. Cathy Rigby | N/A |
SOFTBALL THROW
| 1. Mary Jo Peppler | 207' 6.5" |
OBSTACLE COURSE
| 1. Wyomia Tyus | N/A |
N/A |
| 2. Barbara Ferrell | N/A |
N/A |
| 3. Cathy Rigby | N/A |
e = estimated time
r = Superstars record
N/A = result not available
dnf - did not finish
nm - no mark
LINK: Sports Illustrated Article