An ESPN documentary alleged that Bobby Riggs threw the 'Battle of the Sexes'

Billie Jean King's victory at the 'Battle of the Sexes' drew over 90 million viewers

After Bobby Riggs trounced No. 2-ranked Margaret Court in the first Battle of the Sexes, he challenged superstar Billie Jean King to a match. King beat Bobby Riggs in a match at the Astrodome, which drew 90 million viewers worldwide, leading to the WTA's first TV deal in 1975. Using historic photos, this Sports Illustrated story dives into the spectacle surrounding the event, why King agreed this time, and the impact the match had on King, as well as the future of women's tennis as a whole.

The Pete Rose scandal was exposed by Sports Illustrated

In the spring of 1984, a reporter at Sports Illustrated answered a call on the newsroom tip line claiming player/manager Pete Rose was gambling on baseball games. That March, the magazine published the bombshell report that led Major League Baseball to investigate and then ban Rose for life.

NBA referee Tim Donaghy was paid roughly $300K to fix games

Donaghy said he struggled with a gambling addiction, causing him to risk so much. In this interview, he explains the story of his scandal, and how the mob led to his eventual arrest.

The forgotten Larry Bird punch that almost changed everything

Larry Bird biographer Keith O'Brien argues March Madness as we know it today began in 1979, with an electric, raucous game that's largely been forgotten. Thankfully, he's dredged up the details (and the footage) to help us relive it.

The quiz show scandals eroded trust in the media

Many viewers were attracted to the shows because they were filled with real people winning real money. After it was exposed that “Dotto,” “Twenty-One,” “The $64,000 Question,” and others had been fixed, the genre struggled to regain viewers’ trust. The government intervened, too: President Eisenhower called the shows’ deception “a terrible thing to do to the American people” and Congress amended the Communications Act in 1960, explicitly outlawing fraudulent game shows.

The host of ‘The Dating Game’ claimed it was a CIA front

In his 1984 autobiography, “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” “Dating Game” host Chuck Barris claimed the show was a front concealing his true job as a contract assassin for the CIA. Despite skeptical responses and a lack of evidence, Barris continued to say the story was true. In 2002, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman adapted the book for the screen.

Relive Bobby Fischer’s Cold War victory with 'Drunk History'

Comedy Central’s "Drunk History" retells Bobby Fischer’s 1972 win over Boris Spassky with irreverent humor. The sketch hilariously highlights how a chess match became a Cold War spectacle, turning Fischer into an unlikely American celebrity.

The story behind the PGA's civil war

In the 1960s, there was a war brewing within the PGA between the golf pros and the touring pros. Eventually, tensions boiled over into courtrooms, leading to the creation of a new league. This Golf.com article provides a deep history of the war, with in-depth interviews with key players in the negotiations.

IBM’s supercomputer Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in 1997

After defeating IBM’s Deep Blue in 1996, world champion Garry Kasparov lost their 1997 rematch 3½–2½. The match was a milestone in artificial intelligence, marking the first time a computer beat a reigning world champion.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

How Seabiscuit's DNA made him a winner

Seabiscuit's sudden success in the sport has been framed as a classic against-the-odds sports story. One Binghamton University molecular physiologist wanted to go a bit deeper, though, to see how much genetics played a role in the horse's legendary career. Using the horse's silvered hooves, his research team discovered that Seabiscuit's genotype was typically associated with late bloomers, a finding confirmed by the horse's track record.

Vince McMahon played a villain in the ring—and was accused of abuse outside it

During his reign, Vince McMahon integrated himself into the organization’s fictional universe as the ultimate "heel," or villain. By the 2020s, sexual assault and sex trafficking allegations suggested McMahon's persona wasn’t all that different from reality.

Some opponents of Title IX wanted exemptions for revenue-producing sports

One of the main arguments against Title IX was that it would unfairly punish revenue-generating sports like football and men’s basketball. Senator John Tower (R-TX) proposed exempting those sports from Title IX’s reach. His amendment failed, but the push for a similar modification to the law continued through the decades.

Axelle Berthoumieu bit Ireland's Aoife Wafer during the Women’s Rugby World Cup quarter‑final in 2025

Biting, waxing pool balls, and modifying ski suits are just a few of the various instances of bad sportsmanship in 2025. It appears that cheating is much harder to get away with in the era of smartphones.

The origin of the sport's name is disputed

How pickleball got its name has been a point of contention for decades. The McCallums claim the family dog, Pickles, used to snatch the balls as they played and named it for him. Joan Pritchard, though, says Pickles didn’t join the family until after the game was invented.

See the legendary live feud between Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn over Herbalife

In 2013, the two fought on live television in what may be one of the most-watched business television segments of all time. At one point, Icahn called Ackman a "liar" and a "crybaby," while Ackman told Icahn he was a dishonest guy.

In 2021, Peloton instructor Cody Rigsby came in third place in 'Dancing With The Stars'

Rigsby has the largest social media following of any Peloton instructor as of this writing and is reportedly one of the highest-paid instructors. When he competed on the show in 2021, some fans felt like his cult-like following from Peloton kept him on the show, despite not being the strongest dancer.

How the government caught Billie Holiday

Louis McKay—who was Holiday's manager and abusive husband—worked with the Federal Bureau of Narcotics to ensure Holiday was caught with drugs. She was eventually put on trial and sentenced to a year in prison, where she briefly got sober.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

Watch one of country music's most infamous performances

Jerry Lee Lewis started in the 50s as a supercharged rock ‘n’ roll star. His career imploded when it was revealed he’d married his teenaged cousin. By the time he was invited to the Grand Ole Opry, he’d reinvented himself as a country troubadour and promised to play by the venue’s strict rules. But as this infamous performance shows, Lewis couldn’t help bringing some of his past to the stage, much to the audience’s delight.

Watson's book was described as misleading when detailing Franklin's role in DNA

Despite working together to win the Nobel Prize for their discovery of the structure of DNA, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins objected to the publication of James Watson's account of DNA's discovery. Those involved describe how he villainized Rosalind Franklin and downplayed her work.

A 1986 Supreme Court ruling prohibited race-based jury strikes, but racial imbalance in jury selection persists

Batson v. Kentucky banned prosecutors from excluding jurors on the basis of race, but critics say it backfired. Prosecutors often use race-neutral pretexts to remove potential jurors that judges rarely reject, and some courts have never found a violation of the ruling.

Contrary to popular belief, Netflix didn't kill Blockbuster

Blockbuster was definitely the loser in its years-long battle with Netflix, but the conventional wisdom that the streaming giant killed the established video store chain is incorrect. Blockbuster’s large debt load—and an activist shareholder who didn’t fully appreciate the threat Netflix posed—led the chain to squander its advantages.

Exploring one the rivalry between Affirmed and Alydar, one of the Triple Crown's best matchups

The rivalry between Affirmed and Alydar began when they were just two-year-olds in 1977, with Alydar winning four of the first five meetings. But Affirmed found another gear in 1978, and he won the next five races–including the Triple Crown. This Horse Racing Legends video shows all 10 races in the rivalry, including the three Triple Crown races.

In 1980, a woman cheated her way to a Boston Marathon win

Rosie Ruiz, an unknown runner, finished first in the Boston Marathon, cutting her qualifying New York time by over 20 minutes. The world would soon learn, though, that Ruiz hadn't run the entirety of either race, something that her first interviewer seems to piece together by her strange answers to basic questions.

A biker from Hell's Angels said Hunter S. Thompson's book about the group was mostly 'cheap trash'

Thompson's popular coverage of the motorcycle gang was not necessarily popular with the gang members themselves. In a bizarre and amusing TV interview from 1967, a biker is given the opportunity to confront Thompson about using the gang for profit, misrepresenting them, and failing to buy beer he promised them.

The unsolved murder case of Martha Moxley and the overturned conviction of a Kennedy cousin

Moxley was murdered in 1975, and the case went cold for a quarter of a century until Michael Skakel—a young relative of the Kennedy clan—was convicted of the murder. Eleven years into his sentence, Skakel's conviction was overturned, prompting a new set of questions.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

Ebola infects and disables immune cells, triggering a cascade of events that leads to small blood clots throughout the body, weakening blood vessels and interrupting blood flow to key organs.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

Sears sold DIY house kits starting at $600 in its famous catalog from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in roughly 10,000 'Sears and Roebuck houses' being built.

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.