{"id":643842,"date":"2026-05-15T02:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T02:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/643842\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T02:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T02:29:10","slug":"billie-jean-king-to-graduate-from-college-at-82-years-old-six-decades-after-leaving-for-tennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/643842\/","title":{"rendered":"Billie Jean King to graduate from college at 82 years old, six decades after leaving for tennis"},"content":{"rendered":"

It took six-and-a-half decades, but Billie Jean King is about to be a college graduate. In her defense, she\u2019s been pretty busy.<\/p>\n

The 12-time Grand Slam singles champion and women\u2019s sports pioneer is set to get her college degree from Cal State LA on Monday, May 18, at the age of 82, according to USA Today\u2019s Cydney Henderson<\/a>. She had originally enrolled in the school from 1961-64 before leaving to focus on her tennis career.<\/p>\n

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King will reportedly be the first member of her immediate family to graduate from college and described the feat as \u201cup there\u201d on her list of most meaningful accomplishments, which include a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her one regret is her family won\u2019t be there to see her commencement speech:<\/p>\n

“That’s my one regret. They’re not alive, but, boy, would they be happy,” King said. “My parents, oh my God, would be over the moon because they’re big on education. They told [my brother] Randy we have to get our education.”<\/p>\n

Randy Moffitt, a former pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, died last year at the age of 76<\/a>.<\/p>\n

King\u2019s degree is reportedly in history and she had apparently been mulling the idea of returning to college for a while, but thought she needed two more years to earn her degree. However, that outlook changed when Marjori Gantman, managing director of her BJK Enterprises firm, reviewed her transcripts:<\/p>\n

“I was just talking out loud and [Gantman] goes, ‘Well, let me check.’ So she checks and she goes, ‘Billie, you have three years [completed]. I went, ‘Three years? Oh, I’m going back for sure,'” King recalled.<\/p>\n

What helped the process is the introduction of remote learning to higher education. King has to frequently travel, but was able to take classes online. Her coursework reportedly included LGBT Political History in the United States to Historiography, the History of Latin American Women and Gender, and Historical Research & Writing.<\/p>\n

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Of course, King is no small figure in the history of gender in America, founding the Women\u2019s Tennis Association and fighting for equal pay and recognition for years. The success of that effort can be judged by the fact that 10 of the 15 highest-paid female athletes last year were tennis players<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She was still only a student in a class, though, which is how she reportedly ended up having to write an essay on Title IX, which she helped get passed in 1972. Imagine being the professor grading that paper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It took six-and-a-half decades, but Billie Jean King is about to be a college graduate. In her defense,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[5367,18634,211792,277967,277966,2329,99,428],"class_list":["post-643842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-billie-jean-king","tag-college-degree","tag-college-graduate","tag-cydney-henderson","tag-randy-moffitt","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}