From Long Beach tennis courts to Pasadena Rose Parade: Billie Jean King’s path to grand marshal

On Wednesday morning, Jan. 1, Billie Jean King and her wife, Ilana Kloss, will step into a 1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III, for a ride like no other.

With 50 million people across the globe tuning in, she’ll take a 5.5-mile slow drive along Colorado Boulevard, waving to thousands in person gathered to watch the 136th Tournament of Roses Parade.

In an era when many yearn for long lost heroes who fought the battles that changed society for the good, on Wednesday in that old classic car, millions have the chance to see one — alive, smiling, happy, still pushing the boundaries for a more fair world: Sports and civil rights trailblazer. Tournament of Roses Grand Marshal.

Of course, for Billie Jean King, millions tuning in to watch her do something special is not a new thing. Think Wimbledon, or her multiple other tennis Grand Slam titles. Think “Battles of the Sexes” in 1973, when in one giant match, she proved a man wrong that the women’s game was somehow inferior to men’s. Think Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

“You have no idea how excited I am, this is like a dream come true,” King has said of the moment, remembering when as a young girl how she and her mother Betty made a big deal of watching the parade.

That was back in Long Beach, long before the accomplishments and the accolades. That’s where then Billie Jean Moffitt was born to a firefighter and a homemaker.

It was 1940s, World War II America, unified by the war, one where you could see early glimpses of change in what remained a society whose power structures were dominated by men. Women found themselves needed in the workplace to replace men who went to the war.

It foreshadowed the larger change — and the forces against that change — that would be the context for King’s trailblazing life.

It was a path forged with a tennis raquet on the public courts in Long Beach. A graduate of Poly High School whose roots in Long Beach run deep, she fell in love with tennis at 11, when she bought her first racket.

“I am going to be No. 1 in the world,” Billie Jean told her mother, Betty.

“My parents raised two highly competitive athletes and yet they never cared whether we won or lost,” she told Southern California News Group columnist Rich Archbold in 2023. “Instead, they encouraged us to do our best always.”

But there was something else. As talented and hardworking as King was, the unequal standards for women, in contrast to men, playing the game did not sit well with King as she attempted to climb the latter of professional sports.

There was the time early on in the 1950s, at a tournament at the Los Angeles Tennis Club, when she was barred from a group picture of junior tennis players. Why? Because she wore the tennis shorts her mom made for her instead of the traditional tennis dress that female players wore.

It was yet another glimpse at things to come on her journey.

Even as a young teen, the injustice fueled her. From Long Beach to her college years at Cal State Los Angeles (1961 to 1964) to Wimbledon, hers became a career of breaking social barriers, even as she won tennis matches.

The career highlights are undeniably stunning.

When she was only 17, she won her first women’s doubles title at Wimbledon. In her career, she won 39 Grand Slam singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles.

Between 1961 and 1979, she won a record 20 Wimbledon titles, 13 U.S. titles (including four singles), four French Open titles (one singles), and two Australian Open titles (one singles).

And what year 1972 was: The U.S. Open, French Open and Wimbledon – three Grand Slams in a year.

She spent six years as the top-ranked female tennis player in the world.

But all the while, tennis was a stage for something bigger.

She pushed for equal prize money in the men’s and women’s games. He online biography notes that in 1970 she joined the Virginia Slims Tour for women, and in 1971 became the first woman athlete to earn over $100,000 in prize money. Still, when she won the U.S. Open in 1972, King received $15,000 less than the then men’s champion, Ilie Năstase.

She was instrumental in campaigning for equal prize money for female tennis players and pushed for the passage of Title IX, a federal law that provides equal funding for men’s and women’s sports programs prohibits discrimination based on sex or gender in schools and colleges.

Her legendary “Battle of the Sexes” victory in 1973 against Bobby Riggs, a former men’s world No. 1 player, had more than 90 million people watching worldwide.

The result: 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 and a victory on the march toward sporting equity.

At the top of her game that year, she led the formation of the Women’s Tennis Association and became its first president. The inclusive World Team Team Tennis would follow, as well as the Women’s Sports Foundation, with a mission of promoting girls access to sports.

The barriers would keep coming, and King would keep facing them down. By 1981, she was outed as a lesbian, and lost her endorsement deals. But by 1987, she would be elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and in 2006, the USTA National Tennis Center in New York was re-christened as at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

She retired in 1990, a giant on the court and off.

Fast forward to today.

As she told Archbold in 2023, she still remembers when she decided years ago to make the world a better place.

“I decided that I wanted to help all people,” she said, “all human beings.”

Besides her work in sports and advocacy, King is also a lover of books and her hometown city’s public libraries – making her a perfect namesake for Long Beach’s Billie Jean King Main Library in downtown, which was named in the legend’s honor in 2019.

Aside from extolling her support for public parks (where she first learned to play tennis), and local schools she attended, King said she maintains ties to the City of Angels as part owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the women’s professional soccer team, Angel City FC.

King accepted the honor of being the 2025 Rose Parade grand marshal on Oct. 7 from the steps of the Tournament House in Pasadena, where she made a grand entrance to Elton John’s song, “Philadelphia Freedom,” a song John famously wrote in her honor in 1975.

“Being from Long Beach and growing up in Southern California I have fond memories of watching the parade with my family and I am deeply honored to be named Grand Marshal of the 2025 Rose Parade,” King said on Oct. 7. “This parade is a wonderful celebration of joy and community, and it truly represents the ‘Best Day Ever’ for all who attend or watch.”

Superlatives certainly apply to the Hall of Famer, named by Life magazine as one of the “100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century.” She was the first woman athlete to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 and became the first individual woman athlete to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award from the U.S. Congress.

Tournament of Roses President Ed Morales picked King as grand marshal.

“Her trailblazing work has elevated women in sports and inspired countless best days ever for athletes and fans around the globe,” he said.

She joins a roster of past grand marshals that include Frank Sinatra, Shirley Temple, Vin Scully, Walt Disney, Jane Goodall and Jackie Robinson. Last year’s honorary parade leader was Broadway star Audra McDonald.

Looking over a list of past grand marshals – including Pasadena’s own Jackie Robinson, said she will do her best to represent the city and its New Year’s Day tradition.

Ultimately, it comes down to some basic stuff, she said, referencing the 2025 Rose Parade theme, “Best Day Ever!”

“I have a whole new saying now,” King said of the theme. “It reminds us of the importance of living in the present every day and making time for the people you love. I cannot wait for Jan. 1, for the best day ever.”