Tennis legend Billie Jean King has been honored by Boston University with an honorary degree for her contributions to society. King’s resume could fill this blog, but this sums up her importance: Life magazine named her one of the 100 most important Americans of the 20th century.
King is also an out lesbian and is on the boards of the Women’s Sports Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation. In 2007 she launched GreenSlam, an environmental initiative and issued a challenge to the sports industry to become more proactive about going green. –Jim Buzinski
Hat tip to James at Gay.com
on May 6th, 2008 at 7:40 PM
Hi Billie! Congratulations. I am a loyal fan. In 1970, at the Western Tennis Tournament in Cincinnati, I served you a ham sandwich. I didn’t know who you were then, much less anything about tennis. But I came around a couple of years later, having not missed a Grand Slam on TV in over 30 years. Thank you for annihilating ‘Booby’ Riggs in 1973. That began my life as a Gay person, and an avid Tennis fan. Say ‘hi’ to my ole friend Bumpy Fraiser if you see him around.
Tom