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Those who followed sports in the era of disco will be excited to know that two of the bigger characters of that decade: Bruce Jenner and Billie Jean King, will be in Springfield during the next few months, one of them sooner than the other.

• Billie Jean King will be in attendance at tomorrow night's Springfield Lasers match against the St. Louis Aces. King, a 39-time Grand Slam title winner (in singles, doubles and mixed doubles), and a founder of World Team Tennis, will be on hand to help celebrate the offical renaming of the Cooper Stadium to Mediacom Stadium at Cooper Tennis Complex. Funny, we always had Billie Jean tabbed as a DirecTV type of girl. The match begins at 7:05 p.m; King will speak at halftime. Tickets are $10-$20. See the Lasers website for  more information.

• In October, Bruce Jenner—commonly regarded as "The World's Greatest Athlete"—will be part of the festivities for the annual Sunshine Run. He'll appear and give the keynote at a pasta dinner at Hammons Field, with food from Nicola Gilardi, the night before the run (October 10). The meal begins at 6 p.m., and is $12 per person. Click here to sign up. Jenner will also be on hand on October 11 to start all three Sunshine Run events: the walk, the 10K and the 5K. The 1976 Olympic Decathlon gold-medalist's message, Finding the Champion Within, will be a fine lesson for anyone, especially those who only know him as Kim Kardashian's stepdad (or Brody Jenner's father... shivers).

Matt Lemmon, web editor

Posted on Friday, July 18, 2008 | Permalink