Hall of Fame
Simply put, Billie Jean Moffitt King is one of the greatest players in tennis history.
She won a record 20 Wimbledon championships, including singles titles in 1966, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1975. She also was the first woman to win U.S. singles championships on all four surfaces: grass, clay, hardcourt and indoor and she and Rosie Casals were the first doubles team to do so.
King was the Associated Press’ Female Athlete of the Year in 1967 and 1973 and she was Sports Illustrated’s Sportswoman of the Year in 1972. In 1973, she defeated Bobby Riggs in the infamous “Battle of the Sexes” in the Houston Astrodome before a record crowd of 50 million viewers on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. King was also responsible for establishing the Women’s Tennis Association, Women’s Sports Foundation and championing Title IX in 1972. She was also one of the founders of World TeamTennis in 1974.
Life Magazine named King as one of the “100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century. She was awarded the Medal of Freedom at the White House in 2009 and, earlier that year, was received the NCAA President Gerald R. Ford Award for her contributions to education and intercollegiate athletics.
In 2010, the trustees of the California State University voted to name all the athletic facilities at Cal State L.A. in her honor.
While her collegiate career was interrupted repeatedly by national and international competition, she won the Ojai Tennis Tournament intercollegiate singles title while playing for Cal State L.A.
