Billie Jean King crossed the Shrine Auditorium stage Monday, 65 years after enrolling at Los Angeles State College. The tennis legend, who left school in 1964 without a degree, returned to earn her bachelor’s degree in history from Cal State Los Angeles as the
When Billie Jean King walked across the Shrine Auditorium stage on Monday, it wasn’t just another graduation photo. It was the final line of a sentence she’d been carrying for decades.
King, 82, received her bachelor’s degree in history from the same school she attended more than 60 years earlier, now called Cal State Los Angeles. She joined the rest of the Class of 2026 at the ceremony, more than 65 years after enrolling at what was then Los Angeles State College.
Long before the honors and the headlines. King was a young student with a rising tennis career that demanded more time than school could spare. Three years after enrolling, in 1964, she left without a degree to devote full attention to tennis. Failing to earn it bothered her, and she would correct anyone who suggested she had graduated.
“I said, ‘Don’t ever say ‘graduated.’ I haven’t earned it — yet,’” she told those who later repeated the story. “Yet” became reality on Monday.
Standing before roughly 6,000 fellow graduates as a commencement speaker, King framed her return as both a personal milestone and a message for others who may have felt too late to try again. “It is a privilege for me to be here,” she told the crowd.
Then she brought the room down to something more familiar—her trademark mix of celebration and insistence. “Yeah, baby, only 61 years!”
King said “like many of you,” no one in her immediate family had graduated from college. And she connected the road she walked to the larger fight that shaped her life, describing how her lifelong push for equality began when she was 12 and realized 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.”
The choice to enroll in Los Angeles State wasn’t accidental, either. Then known as Billie Jean Moffitt. King said she chose the school because tennis coach Scotty Deeds trained men and women together. Her talent moved quickly. She soon became an international star, winning a Wimbledon doubles championship at 18 with Karen Hantze, who was only 17.
Her life beyond tennis followed its own turns. King married her college sweetheart Larry King in 1965 and they divorced in 1987. Afterward. King and Ilana Kloss—an accomplished tennis player in her own right—were a couple for decades before marrying in 2018 in a secret ceremony in the apartment of former New York City Mayor David Dinkins.
King later described the shift in her own life in a statement to People magazine at the time. “You’re finding your truth, and it doesn’t have to stay the same,” she said. “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.”.
Over the years, King became a trailblazer for LGBTQ+ and women’s civil rights. In 2009, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in part for her advocacy for equality. King and Kloss also co-founded the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative to promote inclusive workplaces and gender equality.
Her influence moved into professional sports business, too. Shortly after her marriage to Kloss in 2018. they became part owners of the Dodgers and the Sparks. acquiring undisclosed minority stakes in the franchises through an invitation from controlling owner Mark Walter. Walter said at the time. “We believe all professions. and professional sports. need to be more inclusive and equitable. ’’ and added. “It’s going to be wonderful to have a role model like her in both clubhouses from time to time.’’.
The degree wasn’t only a homecoming—it was also a return to engagement with students in unusual circumstances. King returned to Cal State L.A. in the 2025 spring semester and earned course credit for her interaction with fellow students enrolled through the university’s Prison Graduation Initiative. She said. “They have made a commitment to improving their lives through education. ” and that “getting their degree will be life-changing for them.”.
On Monday, she wore a gold stole embroidered with a multicolored tennis racket and the letters G.O.A.T — greatest of all time. When she spoke to reporters after the ceremony, King said, “It means a lot more to me than I thought,” and “I am so glad I did it.”
“My hope is that one other person will go back to school,” she said.
Then she left the message clear and personal, grounded in her own timeline and her own long-delayed “yet.” “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.
Billie Jean King Cal State Los Angeles graduation history degree Los Angeles State College Shrine Auditorium Class of 2026 Presidential Medal of Freedom