Billie Jean King — winner of 39 Grand Slam titles, 20 Wimbledon titles, and critically, the title of victor in the “Battle of the Sexes” — enrolled at Los Angeles State College in 1961, but left three years later without completing her degree in order to pursue her tennis career. I think we can all agree she made the right call. King not only went on to become one of the greatest and most consequential tennis players, she always used her platform to champion equality. Even when she was a young athlete, and even though she was going against the mainstream misogyny of society, King knew what she was fighting for was right. May we all be guided so well by our convictions. But with all she’s achieved in her life, King still didn’t like the incomplete degree on her resume! Well, it’s incomplete no more, because 82-year-old Billie Jean just earned her Bachelor of Arts in History some 65 years after first enrolling at LASC, which is now Cal State LA. Not only did King proudly attend the commencement ceremony on Monday, she served (tennis pun!) as class speaker. Get it, GOAT!
“More than 60 years have passed before I returned to the classroom to complete my degree in history,” King said while addressing her fellow graduates. “Talk about delayed gratification, and I came back with a purpose. I had unfinished business, and it is important to me to finish what I started. I like completing things. It’s like shaking hands at the net after a match.”
King also shared a photo of herself in her graduation gown on Instagram with the caption, “It is never, ever, too late to finish what you have started. #Classof2026.”
The sports star celebrated her accomplishment by “volleying signed tennis balls to her fellow graduates seated in the lower bowl of the Shrine Auditorium,” the release added.
“I am the first member from my immediate family to graduate from college, like many of you,” she said at the podium, per a post on Instagram.
Two years ago, the veteran athlete announced she would be completing her degree at the university, which features a bronze statue of her outside the physical education department, per the Associated Press.
“Being a student-athlete didn’t mean I had a scholarship,” King told the audience in the auditorium, per the outlet. “Financial support wasn’t available to women in 1961, even though my friends Arthur Ashe and Stan Smith were both scholarship students on the men’s teams at UCLA and USC.”
She added, “We can never understand inclusion unless we’ve been excluded.”
After a baby was heard crying in the auditorium, King joked about her speech, asking, “Is it that bad?” causing the audience to laugh, per the AP.
She then said, “Si se puede!” which means “Yes you can!” in Spanish, prompting the school, whose students are majority-Hispanic and Latino, to cheer and clap.
King enrolled for her studies the same year she achieved one of her 20 Wimbledon titles.
“Things were different then,” she told the crowd. “Winning a Wimbledon doubles title today is worth close to half a million dollars. In 1961, I think we won a $45 gift voucher to a local store.”
After leaving college to fully pursue her tennis career, King won 39 major championships in total and beat Bobby Riggs in the 1973 “Battle of the Sexes.”
King also advocated for larger prize money and opportunities for women in tennis.
While King achieved incredible things during her tennis career, she always felt that she wanted to complete her degree and would correct anyone who thought she had graduated.
“I said, ‘Don’t ever say graduated, I haven’t earned it yet,’” she said, per the AP. “I was thinking today coming over here for the first time actually thay can say I graduated now.”
What this superlative woman has done for all women, my word. Scholarships, sponsorships, equal prize money! And yet she still felt she had to finish “earning” the title of graduate. May we all be spurred on so insistently by intellectual curiosity. Cal State’s press release included even more of King’s speech where she described just how much the degree means to her: “I just don’t think I understood the impact, the positive impact. Sometimes you think I’ll try something and it’ll be nice. This isn’t nice, this is magnificent. My hope is that [I inspire even] one person to go back.” Hear hear! Another touching moment was her noting that she’s the first person in her immediate family to earn a degree. I’d love to see a conversation with her and Jessica Chastain, who’s also talked about being the first (woman) in her family to graduate from college, and Jessica recently went back to school to get a Master’s. I feel like they’d have a lot to discuss, about what’s been achieved and all that still remains to be done.
Lastly, I have to highlight what King had embroidered on her gown-adorning sash: one side said “G.O.A.T. Athlete” followed by a tennis racquet, while the other read “BJK, B.A. History, Student, 1961-2026.” Own it, GOAT!
It is never, ever, too late to finish what you have started. #Classof2026 pic.twitter.com/8eHTcevc9W
— Billie Jean King (@BillieJeanKing) May 18, 2026
Photos credit: MediaPunch/Backgrid and via Instagram and Twitter