Tennis great Billie Jean King graduates from Cal State L.A. 65 years after enrolling

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Long before Billie Jean King won dozens of Grand Slam tennis titles, founded the Women’s Tennis Association, became part owner 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 devote full attention to her burgeoning tennis career.

Failing to earn the degree bothered her, and King would correct anyone who said she had graduated.“I said, ‘Don’t ever say ‘graduated.’ I haven’t earned it — yet,’” she said.“Yet” became a reality Monday when King, 82, received her bachelor’s degree in history from the same school she attended more than 60 years ago — now called Cal State Los Angeles — walking across the Shrine Auditorium stage with the rest of the Class of 2026.Billie Jean King’s resume is missing one thing — a college degree — so, at 81, she’s back in the school where she started: Cal State L.A.King also served as a commencement speaker, telling the roughly 6,000 fellow graduates, “It is a privilege for me to be here.“Yeah, baby, only 61 years!”King mentioned that “like many of you,” no one in her immediate family had graduated from college.She noted that her lifelong fight against discrimination began when she realized at age 12 that nearly everyone at tennis clubs 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.” Sports When she wasn’t playing tennis, she was dreaming of Dodgers.

Known then as Billie Jean Moffitt, she chose Los Angeles State because tennis coach Scotty Deeds trained men and women together.She ...