Tennis legend Billie Jean King has finally graduated from college at the age of 82, more than six decades after she left to pursue a trailblazing professional tennis career. King received her bachelor's degree in history from California State University, Los Angeles, during a commencement ceremony on Monday.
A Long-Awaited Milestone
King, who originally enrolled at the university in the early 1960s, left in 1964 to focus on tennis. She went on to become the world's top-ranked player, winning 39 Grand Slam titles, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a congressional Medal of Honor. She also became a prominent advocate for gender and pay equality in sports.
"It is a privilege for me to be here as a member of your graduating class," King told the audience. "Yeah baby, only 61 years!"
Family and Early Influences
King recalled growing up in a working-class family, with a firefighter father and a homemaker mother. "Like so many of my fellow graduates, I am the first member of my immediate family to graduate college, like many of you," she said.
She chose Cal State LA (then Los Angeles State College) because the tennis coach, Scotty Deeds, trained men and women together. King said this approach provided the level of competition she needed to excel. "Their approach to winning in tennis was revolutionary at the time," she said, referring to Deeds and women's coach Dr. Joan Johnson. "Even today most collegiate D-1 and D-2 tennis teams do not have the women and men practice together. Scotty and Dr. Johnson had it right."
College Success and Historic Career
While still a student, King distinguished herself as a tennis champion, winning Wimbledon doubles in 1961 at age 18 with partner Karen Hantze, then 17. They were the youngest team to win the title at that time.
King told the crowd that her true motivation since childhood had been to fight discrimination, a calling she first felt at age 12 when she noticed that nearly all tennis club members were white. "I asked myself, where is everybody else?" King said. "From that day forward, I committed my life to equality and inclusion for all. Tennis is a global sport and it became my platform, but equality was my dream – to make the world a better place." She added, "We can never understand inclusion unless we've been excluded."
Advocacy and Legacy
King, one of the first openly gay professional athletes, founded the Women's Tennis Association in 1973 and successfully campaigned for equal prize money at the US Open. That same year, she defeated Bobby Riggs in the historic "Battle of the Sexes" match, later dramatized in a Hollywood film starring Emma Stone and Steve Carell.
King ended her speech with advice for fellow graduates: "Have fun. Be fearless. And make history."
