Billie Jean King enrolled at Los Angeles State College and left in 1964 without a degree to focus on her tennis career. She later insisted she had not “graduated,” saying she had not earned the degree “yet.” On Monday, at age 82, she received her bachelor’s degree in history from the same school, now Cal State Los Angeles, during the Class of 2026 ceremony. She served as a commencement speaker to about 6,000 graduates, remarking on the long delay and the privilege of being present. She connected her commitment to equality and inclusion to early experiences of discrimination at tennis clubs and emphasized that inclusion requires understanding exclusion.
"Failing to earn the degree bothered hert, 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."
"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.""
"Known then as Billie Jean Moffitt, she chose Los Angeles State because tennis coach Scotty Deeds trained men and women together. She soon became an international star, winning 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."
Read at Los Angeles Times
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