At 82, Billie Jean King scores most meaningful win — a college diploma

Six decades after leaving Cal State LA to pursue a professional tennis career and become the No. 1 player in the world, King is set to graduate Monday after completing her bachelor’s degree in history. Like a true champion, she likened her return to college to a game of tennis.

"It's like a match. You're shaking hands at net, you know that feeling that it's done. You did your best win or lose," King told USA Today's Studio IX on Wednesday. "I'd like to finish. ... That's where I started. I should finish there."

The California native attended Cal State LA from 1961 through 1964 and even won her first Wimbledon doubles title while attending the university. King ultimately decided to leave to take tennis to another level. Thirty-nine major championships and a Presidential Medal of Freedom later, King said earning her degree may be her most meaningful accomplishment yet.

"This is right up there," King said of the accomplishment. "I'm the first one in my immediate family (to graduate college), which is important to me."

King has made a living paving the way for others through her lifelong crusade for gender equality and equal pay, and she's pushing yet another door open by showing it's "never too late" to pursue education, she said.

Billie Jean King transforms airplanes to classrooms

King said she'd been mulling the idea of returning to college for some time, thinking she needed two more years to earn her history degree. After BJK Enterprises managing director Marjorie Gantman looked into her transcripts, King was surprised to learn she was a year away.

"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.

King's frequent trips across the globe for events and appearances soon transformed airplanes into classrooms as she completed remote courses, a far cry from her days on campus in the 1960s, when smartphones and laptops didn't exist. Now, you "talk to (your professor) directly online," she marveled.

King took classes ranging from LGBT Political History in United States to Historiography, the History of Latin American Women and Gender and Historical Research & Writing. King said she even had to write an essay on Title IX, a law King played a pivotal role in getting passed.

Choosing to return to school seemed like the right thing to do. Her parents always preached education, but King said didn't fully understand the gravity of her choice until the responses poured in. People shared stories, notes and messages of how King's quest motivated them. For example, Instagram user @JodyBriskin wrote, "You inspired me. I’m enrolled in Santa Monica College at 75 years old!"

"Graduating, it's just thrilling. Really. I'm thrilled because of the way the other people have responded to this," King said. "I thought, OK, I'm going to get my degree, but I had no idea people would be so connected and feeling this ... in every age group. It's like, 'Oh my God, now I'm excited. Because they are."

'That changed my life'

History has long appealed to King, who was an avid reader that loved to learn about the inner workings of things. King credit her curiosity and unquenchable thirst for knowledge with changing the world.

"Leaders don't choose followers. Followers choose leaders. They just do. And they pushed me and pushed me to lead," King said. "So finally I embraced it. But the reason I was able to lead is because I knew the history of our sport.

"And that made a huge difference. ... That's what helps you envision things differently."

King continues to shape the future through philanthropy, among other endeavors. King said one of her favorite parts of her senior year of college was meeting with incarcerated students enrolled in Cal State LA’s Prison Graduation Initiative. King earned credits for her participation, but the classes were as life-changing for King as it was the women.

Cal State LA is "one of the few schools a few schools have (the program) for incarcerated people," said King, who gave a commencement speech for the first graduating class at the California Institution for Women in October. "I talked to a women's prison and I talked to two men's (prisons)... That changed my life. I mean, all these things happened that I never would've been able to do if I'd gone back to school."

King is set to give a commencement speech at her graduation this Monday. King said her family will be on her mind as she moves her tassel on her graduation cap from the right to the left side.

"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."