Billie Jean King graduates from college 65 years

Long before Billie Jean King received dozens of Grand Slam tennis titles, based the Women’s Tennis Association, turned half proprietor of the Dodgers and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, she enrolled in what was then called Los Angeles State College.

Three years later in 1964, King left without a degree to dedicate full consideration to her burgeoning tennis profession.

Failing to earn the degree bothered her, and King would right anybody who said she had graduated.

“I said, ‘Don’t ever say ‘graduated.’ I haven’t earned it — yet,’” she said.

“Yet” turned a actuality Monday when King, 82, acquired her bachelor’s degree in historical past from the same faculty she attended more than 60 years in the past — now called Cal State Los Angeles — strolling across the Shrine Auditorium stage with the remainder of the Class of 2026.

King also served as a graduation speaker, telling the roughly 6,000 fellow graduates, “It is a privilege for me to be here.

“Yeah, baby, only 61 years!”

King talked about that “like many of you,” no one in her speedy household had graduated from college.

She famous that her lifelong combat against discrimination started when she realized at age 12 that almost everybody at tennis golf equipment 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.”

Known then as Billie Jean Moffitt, she selected Los Angeles State because tennis coach Scotty Deeds skilled males and girls together. She soon turned an worldwide star, profitable a Wimbledon doubles championship at 18 with Karen Hantze, who was only 17.

She married her college sweetheart Larry King in 1965 and they divorced in 1987. Afterward, King and Ilana Kloss, an achieved tennis participant in her own proper, had been a couple for many years before marrying in 2018 in a secret ceremony in the condominium of former New York City Mayor David Dinkins.

“You’re finding your truth, and it doesn’t have to stay the same,” King told People magazine at the time. “I only liked guys when I was young. I didn’t think about girls. And then all of a sudden I’m like, ‘Oh my God, what’s happening?’ My truth was changing over time. It took me forever.”

King turned a trailblazer for LGBTQ+ and girls’s civil rights and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 in half for her advocacy for equality. King and Kloss co-founded the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative to promote inclusive workplaces and gender equality.

Shortly after they married, King and Kloss turned half house owners of the Dodgers and the Sparks, buying undisclosed minority stakes in the franchises through an invitation from controlling proprietor Mark Walter.

“We believe all professions, and professional sports, need to be more inclusive and equitable,’’ Walter said at the time. “It’s going to be wonderful to have a role model like her in both clubhouses from time to time.’’

King returned to Cal State L.A. in the 2025 spring semester. She also earned course credit for her interaction with fellow students enrolled through the university’s Prison Graduation Initiative.

“They have made a commitment to improving their lives through education,” she said, and “getting their degree will be life-changing for them.”

King now is aware of the sensation firsthand. At the commencement ceremony on Monday, she wore a gold stole embroidered with a multicolored tennis racket and the letters G.O.A.T — biggest of all time.

“It means a lot more to me than I thought,” she told reporters. “I am so glad I did it. My hope is that one other person will go back to school.

“It’s never too late, whatever age you are, whatever your abilities are, go for it if you want it.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.