“Three years? I’m going back for sure”: Billie Jean King completes college journey at 82

Billie Jean King is set to formally complete a bachelor’s degree in history at California State University, Los Angeles, more than six decades after she first enrolled. The 82-year-old former world No. 1 will take part in Monday’s commencement ceremony, closing an academic path that began in 1961 and was cut short as her tennis career accelerated.

King returned to Cal State LA in early 2025 to finish the remaining requirements she had left unfinished when she left the university in 1964. At that time, she stepped away to focus on professional tennis, as results on court began to escalate rapidly.

During her first spell at the university, King and her doubles partner Karen Hantze became the youngest pair to win a Wimbledon doubles title. King was 17, Hantze 18. The record stood for decades before being broken in 1996 by Martina Hingis and Helena Suková.

More than 60 years later, King has described the degree as an achievement she places alongside her tennis record, which includes 39 Grand Slam titles across singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.

King’s return to higher education was not initially driven by a structured plan, but by revisiting academic records and discovering she was closer to graduation than previously believed. The process ultimately revealed that she had only one year remaining to complete her bachelor’s degree, prompting her decision to return in 2025 and finalise her studies.

The milestone also carried personal meaning for King, who is the first person in her immediate family to graduate from college. “I’m the first one in my immediate family (to graduate college), which is important to me," she said to USA Today Sports.

The decision was finalised after a routine check of her transcript. “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.

The return to Cal State LA also placed her back in the academic environment during a period when her legacy in tennis was already firmly established, adding an unusual postscript to a career largely defined by early achievement and long-term impact.

King has said the completion of her degree has carried an emotional weight she did not anticipate, particularly because of the reaction it generated across different generations. “Graduating, it’s just thrilling. Really,” King told USA Today’s Studio IX. “I’m thrilled because of the way the other people have responded to this.

“I thought, OK, I’m going to get my degree, but I had no idea people would be so connected and feeling this,” she added, “in every age group. It’s like, ‘Oh my God,’ now I’m excited. Because they are.”

King is set to deliver the commencement speech at her graduation ceremony on Monday, May 18. As she prepares for the occasion, she said her family will be very present in her thoughts when she moves her tassel from right to left, marking the completion of her degree.

“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.”

King’s career away from academia has long been defined by advocacy as much as results. She spent nearly 25 years on tour and became one of the central figures in the push for gender equality in tennis.

In 1973, she founded the Women’s Tennis Association, aiming to formalise representation for female players and create a unified structure within the women’s game. Later that year, she led the push for equal prize money at the US Open, which became the first Grand Slam to award equal compensation to men and women.

Her sporting legacy also includes the 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” victory over Bobby Riggs, a match that became a reference point in wider discussions around gender equality in sport and later inspired the 2017 film Battle of the Sexes.