“Why would anyone set arbitrary limits on another human being? Why were we being treated as unreasonable for asking reasonable questions? Why were we constantly told, you can't do this, don't do that, temper your ambition, lower your voice, stay in your place, act less confident than you are, do as you're told. Why weren't female striving in individual differences seen as life enriching, a source of pride, rather than a problem. If I felt that way, I wondered how the people of color around me felt,”— Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King
1943 - Present
Born November 22, 1943, Billie Jean Moffitt grew up in Long Beach, California to a lineage full of esteemed athletes. Throughout primary school, King played basketball and softball before trying tennis. Immediately after trying it, she knew it was the sport she was meant to play.
Billie Jean King started playing tennis professionally in 1959. She attended California State University where she continued to finetune her craft. At school she met her then-husband, Larry King and they married in 1965. Billie’s first career-defining moment was her win at Wimbledon in 1961. Billie and her partner Karen Hantze Susman became the youngest team to ever win the doubles tournament. Throughout the next two decades, Billie won 39 open tournaments and earned 12 singles Grand Slams. A grand Slam is earned when a player wins all of the open tournaments in one year- Wimbledon, U.S. Open, Australian Open, and French Open.
In addition to her success on the court, Billie also found great success off the court- highlighting gender discrimination in sports which eventually led her to form the Women’s Tennis Association in 1973. At the 1973 Battle of the Sexes tennis match series, male player Bobby Riggs hoped to prove that men were superior to women in sports by challenging King to play. Proving to be a more than worthy opponent, Billie shocked many when she beat Riggs in a televised match watched by more than 90 million people.
When Billie was publicly outed as gay in 1981, she lost every single endorsement and sponsorship she had. All choice of telling her story was taken away from her. However, this did not stop her from becoming one of the most outspoken and influential advocates for women and LGBTQ+ individuals around the world.
Today, Billie Jean King resides in New York City and Chicago with her spouse, Ilana Kloss. She continues to inspire others through the books she wrote, “All In” and “Pressure is a Privilege.”