Tennis legend Billie Jean King is preparing to add a college degree to her already impressive resumé. In early 2025, the 82-year-old returned to California State University, Los Angeles, to finish her bachelor’s degree in history, which she had originally pursued from 1961 through 1964 before leaving to focus on her tennis career. Now, more than 60 years later, she will participate in Monday’s commencement as a graduate of the institution’s history department.
“Graduating, it’s just thrilling. Really,” King told USA Today’s Studio IX. “I’m thrilled because of the way the other people have responded to this. I thought, OK, I’m going to get my degree, but I had no idea people would be so connected and feeling this, in every age group. It’s like, ‘Oh my God,’ now I’m excited. Because they are.”
During her first year at Cal State LA, she and her tennis partner, Karen Hantze, became the youngest team to win a Wimbledon doubles title. King was 17 and Hantze was 18. They were later dethroned by Martina Hingis, who won at just 15 with Helena Suková in 1996.
King admitted that her upcoming collegiate honor “is right up there” with her historic 39 Grand Slam titles — 12 singles, 16 women’s doubles and 11 mixed doubles championships. “I’m the first one in my immediate family to graduate college,” she noted. “Which is important to me.”
Initially, King believed she had at least two more years to finish her degree. After looking through her transcripts, BJK Enterprises managing director Marjorie Gantman discovered she was only one year away. “I was just talking out loud and Gantman goes, ‘Well, let me check.’ So she checks and she goes, ‘Billie, you have three years completed. I went, ‘Three years? Oh, I’m going back for sure,’” King recalled.
King played tennis for nearly 25 years. Throughout her illustrious career, she became known for her activism for gender equality and was the first openly gay prominent female athlete. In 1973, she founded the Women’s Tennis Association with the sole intention of promoting equality in the sport. That same year, she successfully championed for equal pay, forcing the U.S. Open to become the first Grand Slam tournament to offer equal prize money to both men and women. Months later, she defeated Bobby Riggs in the landmark Battle of the Sexes exhibition match, a pivotal moment for gender equality in sports. Her victory served as inspiration for the acclaimed 2017 sports comedy Battle of the Sexes, starring Emma Stone as King, opposite Steve Carell as Riggs.
