Billie Jean King graduates from college at age 82 after leaving for tennis: ‘Yeah baby, only 61 years!’ | US news
When Billie Jean King left college in 1964, she had a purpose. Within a few years he became the best tennis professional in the world. During his groundbreaking career, he won 39 championships, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the congressional Medal of Honor; And all this while publicly pushing for gender and pay equality.
He finally returned last year to complete his history studies, which he began more than sixty years ago. He graduated on Monday at the age of 82.
“It is a privilege to be here as a member of your graduating class,” King said at the graduation ceremony. “Yes baby, I’m only 61!”
King recalled growing up in a working-class family, the daughter of a firefighter father and a homemaker mother.
“Like many of my fellow graduates, I, like many of you, am the first member of my immediate family to graduate from college,” King said.
He chose Cal State Los Angeles, then known as Los Angeles State College, because tennis coach Scotty Deeds trained men and women together. He said this will help give him the level of competition he needs to be successful.
King, Deeds and women’s coach Dr. “Their approach to winning in tennis at the time was revolutionary,” Joan said of Johnson. “Even today, on most college D-1 and D-2 tennis teams, men and women do not practice together. Scotty and Dr. Johnson were right and they went the extra step for their student-athletes.”
King stood out as a tennis champion in college, completing the Wimbledon double while enrolled. King was 18 and his partner Karen Hantze was 17. youngest team to win In that case.
But King told the crowd that his true motivation since childhood was to fight discrimination; He recalled that he first felt this calling at the age of 12, when he noticed that almost everyone at the tennis clubs where he trained was white.
“I asked myself, where is everyone else?” said the king. “From that day on, I dedicated my life to equality and inclusion for all. Tennis is a global sport and became my platform, but equality was my dream; to make the world a better place.”
He added: “We can never understand inclusion unless we are excluded.”
King, one of the first openly gay professional athletes, founded the Women’s Tennis Association in 1973 and successfully campaigned for equal pay at the US Open. In the same year, he defeated Bobby Riggs in a historic match This achievement, referred to as “The Battle of the Sexes”, was later dramatized in a Hollywood film starring Emma Stone and Steve Carell.
King concluded his speech by giving advice to his fellow graduates.
“Have fun,” King said. “Be fearless and make history.”
