Billie Jean King, the tennis icon, has graduated from college at the age of 82. King returned to education last year to complete the history degree she began over 60 years ago. She left college in 1964 to pursue her tennis career.
A Champion On and Off the Court
King distinguished herself as a tennis champ at Cal State Los Angeles, winning Wimbledon doubles while enrolled. King and her partner, Karen Hantze, were the youngest team to win at the time, aged 18 and 17 respectively.
King won 39 championships, a Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Congressional Gold Medal during her career. She also pushed for gender and pay equality. “It is a privilege for me to be here as a member of your graduating class,” King said at her commencement. “Yeah baby, only 61 years!”
Fighting for Equality
King recalled growing up in a working-class family. She is the first member of her immediate family to graduate college. King chose Cal State Los Angeles because the tennis coach, Scotty Deeds, trained men and women together.
King said this approach gave her the level of competition she needed. “Their approach to winning in tennis was revolutionary at the time,” King said of Deeds and the 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 and they took the extra step for their student athletes.”
King said that her motivation since childhood had been to fight discrimination. She remembered feeling this calling at age 12, when she realised that virtually everyone at the tennis clubs where she trained was 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.”
“We can never understand inclusion unless we’ve been excluded,” she added.
Trailblazing Career
King founded the Women’s Tennis Association in 1973. She also successfully campaigned to get the US Open to pay equal purses. That same year, she defeated Bobby Riggs in a historic match billed “The Battle of the Sexes”. This feat was later dramatized in a Hollywood film.
King ended her speech with advice for her fellow graduates. “Have fun,” King said. “Be fearless. And make history.”