Billie Jean King is a social rights warrior and Corridor of Fame champion.
Now, King is a monumental determine on campus.
Cal State LA honored beloved alumna Billie Jean King with the disclosing of a statue on the grassy space outdoors of the Bodily Training Constructing on the Billie Jean King Sports activities Complicated final week.
One of many best tennis gamers of all time, King’s affect prolonged past athletics as she bravely used her voice to advocate for gender equality, LGBTQIA+ rights, and different social justice points. King, her spouse Ilana Kloss, and their good good friend and fellow former professional Rosie Casals are among the many most ardent supporters of Golden Eagles athletics.
“I’m so honored,” King mentioned. “This statue on our campus will join us ceaselessly. It jogs my memory that our legacy will not be what’s essential. Your legacy is what different individuals say about you, however our contributions to our communities is what’s going to outline us ceaselessly.”
The bronze statue by famend sculptor Brian Hanlon honors King’s quite a few contributions to Cal State LA and serves as inspiration to the campus neighborhood. It was made doable by beneficiant donations by Kloss, George and Kathy Hicker, and John Chapple.
The occasion drew a crowd of about 500, which included California State College Chancellor Mildred García, CSU Board of Trustees Chair Jack B. Clarke Jr., CSU Trustee Wenda Fong, and Assemblywoman and Cal State LA alumna Wendy Carrillo.
King ended her tackle to the group with private information that drew a few of the occasion’s loudest cheers.
“After I left this campus in 1964 to change into the No. 1 tennis participant on the earth, I used to be not capable of full my diploma,” she mentioned. “I’m comfortable to announce that I shall be re-enrolling in Cal State LA to complete my diploma. It’s by no means too late!”
King attended Cal State LA from 1961 to ’64 however left to focus on her tennis profession. She received her first Wimbledon girls’s double titles whereas nonetheless a pupil on the college. King’s profession highlights embody 12 Grand Slam singles championships (together with 5 Wimbledon and 4 U.S. titles), 16 girls’s doubles and 11 in combined doubles. King was ranked No. 1 in six of 10 year-end polls from 1966 by 1975.
“The worth of a superb schooling has all the time been essential to me, and I discovered a terrific deal whereas I used to be on this campus,” King mentioned. “At the moment, my focus was actually to be the best participant on the earth, No. 1 on the earth, and to vary our sport—from beginner to skilled. We used to get $14 a day. That needed to finish. So, I left Cal State LA and went on a journey to make my sport higher, to make a distinction within the lifetime of others. Tennis was my platform.”
She then turned towards the student-athletes and mentioned, “That’s one other factor—you may have a platform that only a few individuals have. So, use it to make this world a greater place.”
King used her standing as one of the acknowledged athletes of the Nineteen Sixties and ’70s to marketing campaign tirelessly for parity for girls in sports activities, and in 1972 testified in entrance of Congress on behalf of Title IX previous to its passage.
In 1973, King scored a victory for girls’s equality when she outdueled Bobby Riggs within the “Battle of the Sexes” exhibition, which was watched reside by 50 million TV viewers. In retelling the story to Cal State LA student-athletes previous to the statue unveiling, King mentioned her defeat of Riggs went past sports activities, and that followers—each ladies and men—have frequently informed her that it impressed them to realize their targets.
“Billie Jean King is the embodiment of our traditions of success and activism,” mentioned Cal State LA President Berenecea Johnson Eanes.
“We should always all be so fortunate,” mentioned CSU Chancellor García, “to be thought-about a hero, a shero, and a champion, even when solely in a small approach to only one different human being. Think about how exceedingly uncommon it’s to be this hero/shero and a champion to tens of millions throughout a number of domains. That’s Billie Jean King.”
Throughout the college’s fiftieth anniversary celebration in 1997, Cal State LA and the CSU bestowed King an honorary diploma of Physician of Humane Letters in recognition of her athletic achievements and the excellence these accomplishments dropped at her alma mater.
King can also be the recipient of the US’ two highest civilian awards. In 2009, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and simply final week she turned the primary particular person feminine athlete to obtain the Congressional Gold Medal.
King has hosted for 20 years the Billie Jean King & Associates occasion at Cal State LA, which has raised greater than $4.5 million for athletic scholarships.
“She embodies so lots of Cal State LA’s and the CSU’s core values,” Garcia mentioned, “and he or she splendidly demonstrates the braveness to face boldly for these values—even within the face of criticism and adversity. What’s extra, she has opened the door of alternative for a lot of, serving to to boost tens of millions of {dollars} in scholarships right here at this nice establishment, Cal State LA, her alma mater.
