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• Billie Jean King WTT Charities
• The Women's Sports Foundation
• HBO's Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer

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Tavis: I am pleased to welcome Billie Jean King to this program, a legend in her own time. A legend and women's sports pioneer named by 'Life' magazine as one of the 100 most important Americans of the entire twentieth century. That's heady stuff. Her remarkable 20 Wimbledon titles is a mark that may never - no - will never be surpassed. Her life and career is the subject of a new documentary on HBO premiering this week. Here now, a scene from 'Billie Jean King, Portrait of a Pioneer.'

Tavis: I knew she was beyond her prime. Was that a compliment from Martina?

Billie Jean King: Actually, it was. (Laugh) But Martina's the reason I did get that twentieth title, and actually, Martina tied it by winning in other mixed doubles. She's turning 50 this year, (laugh) and she's still playing the tour. On the Sony Ericsson WTA tour. It's like whatever, keep going. She loves it.

Tavis: Yeah. It's nice to meet you.

King: It's wonderful to meet you, I always wanted to be on your show, and I love your show.

Tavis: Well, we're delighted to have you here. You make it difficult for a brother, though, because you have accomplished so much in one lifetime, it's hard to know where to start the conversation. But let me start with the silliest thing. The glasses. Were you, like, the first person to, like, rock these glasses the way you did when you played?

King: Well that's interesting, because as a young person, when I first started to wear glasses, people started to tell me I could never be number one, because there'd never been a champion, a really great champion, that had worn glasses. I went whoa, and I started going through the history, 'cause I love history anyway.

And I was reading through the history, and I couldn't find one that really had made it big. But the reason I still wear glasses is for young people. Because a lot of young people have to wear glasses, and I always make a big fuss over it. Maybe they have an eye problem or something. And I go oh, I love your glasses, and they get all lit up like a light.

So I've kept them, they're part of my signature. I just love glasses, they're a great accessory. (Laugh) They're fun. I get different ones all the time, and it's fun. But I really, I feel it's important to keep them, just because young people really, a lot of times, have to wear them. And I always feel like you know what? You can do anything.

Tavis: Speaking of accessories, I have to tell this story, I hope you don't mind this. So, Billie Jean King walks out on the set just a few minutes ago before we start this conversation, and she walks out with a couple of different jackets. So she has a couple different colors. And I'm looking like, I've never seen this.

Why does she have, like, wardrobe possibilities on the set? And she said, 'I wanted to see what Tavis was wearing.' So she wanted to see what I was wearing; see what the colors on the set were like, so the jacket that she chose to put on over this black outfit is the jacket you see her wearing now. But is that, like, standard for you? Do you, like, always match your...

King: Well, I like to find out what the background is and what the ambiance is gonna be like. 'Cause you wanna fit enough, but I didn't really choose this. I held the two up, and then all of your people said, 'That one.' (Laugh) So I'm gonna have to give credit where credit's due.

Tavis: Yeah, well, they're always offering advice when they're not being asked. (Laugh)

King: And then Sheila, who's now nicknamed me Boo, she's the makeup artist, Sheila made me look so good. (Laugh) So it's all her fault, but I got a new nickname. She called me Boo, it just rolled right out of her mouth, and I went.

Tavis: That's Sheila, that's Sheila.

King: No, she's got a, I said, I'm gonna keep that.

Tavis: You're part of our family here now.

King: 'She's gotta call me Boo,' I said. I said I loved it.

Tavis: When people talk about these 20 titles and all that you have accomplished, how does that make you feel?

King: I get embarrassed, actually.

Tavis: You get embarrassed?

King: I do. I really care about what I've done off the court more than on the court. And as a child, when I was about 12 years old, I had only been in tennis one year, and you could already see the discrimination. And a lot of things were bubbling up in me. But at 12, I had this epiphany that I thought, if I could ever be number one, I wanted to be number one at 11.

My first tennis lesson, I decided I wanted to be the number one tennis player in the world. I found my destiny. And of course, my parents are going, oh yeah, right. (Laugh) So, I was a public park kid in Long Beach, California, and I just promised if I could ever be really great, and if people would listen.

Of course, I knew that people didn't listen to girls as much as men by then, even. I knew that already, at 12. And so if I could be number one, maybe people, maybe I could do some good works in this world before I'm out of here, and change things. I wanted to make tennis a team sport. I wanted to; I noticed there were no people of color.

Tavis: At 12, you realized all of this.

King: Yes. I was very clear on that.

Tavis: I'm particularly fascinated, Billie, at what happened at the age of 12 that allowed you to see so clearly then that women were not being respected in the way that men were in this genre.

King: Well, I grew up in team sports as a child. My younger brother, Randy Moffat, played for the San Francisco Giants most of his career as a relief pitcher, a righty. And basketball's my first love as a sport, and I love team sports. I prefer team sports over individual sports. I like collaboration; I like just helping each other.

Girls like relationships anyway. (Laugh) I went to a baseball game on Mother's Day when I was about nine with my younger brother and my mom and dad, and it was at Wrigley Field, triple A, a Pacific coast league. Hollywood stars, they used to wear Bermuda shorts. It was hysterical. (Laugh)

Anyway, it dawned on me that day that girls couldn't play baseball. And already, things were starting to build up. And then when I got into tennis, it was so obvious. You had to wear all white, which I thought was boring as heck, 'cause I grew up in other team sports. We kind of had color.

Or maybe just wear cut off shorts, just play. Just play, be hospitable. Arthur Ashe and I talked about this ad nauseum when we both worked for HBO together, when we used to do Wimbledon. And we used to always talk about what was missing in our sport, and we always said it's the hospitality. I wasn't allowed to be in a photo in my first sanctioned tournament.

That's how you start getting rankings? Because I had shorts on. Well, I'd never seen a tennis dress until that day. What's the big deal? The kids out here, the kids trying to play, let the children have fun. Make them believe in themselves, help them out. All I got was just negative comments. And I thought, this is not right.

So just little things. And then I got to see Althea Gibson when I was 13, the great African American tennis player. There wouldn't have been Arthur Ashe without Althea Gibson. And she was the first person of color to win Wimbledon and win the French Open. And they didn't allow people of color in a sanctioned tournament until 1950.

So these were the things, and I love history, so I read all the history of tennis. And I kept a scrapbook of all the great players and articles. I didn't keep a scrapbook on me; I kept a scrapbook, everybody goes, didn't you do it on yourself? I go no, no, no, no, no. I kept - it was men and women; I did both genders. It just, oh, it was great. So, then I, of course, got to meet Althea later, and she was such a shero (sic) of mine, such a hero of mine.

Tavis: What do you recall about, again, you can't do justice to your career in a 15 minute conversation, so I'm just trying to hit it as much as I can. What do you recall about being the first woman on the cover of Sports Illustrated?

King: That was a real honor. That was a huge breakthrough. I was with John Wooden, but the door was ajar. And it was such a privilege. Of course, I love John Wooden.

Tavis: Who doesn't, yeah.

King: How can you not love him? Everything he said; he loves poetry; he loves everything. And I thought it was such a great way. And I knew this was a nice way for them to do it, too. It would be hard for them just to put a woman on there by themselves, but it was such a privilege to be with him, I don't think they'd ever had two people on the cover, if my recollection is correct.

Tavis: For all the doors that you kicked down and walked through for women, on the court, off the court, do you think, I wanna phrase this the right way. Are you happy, content, with the progress?

King: Never. (Laugh)

Tavis: Yeah, okay.

King: No, I'm not...

Tavis: You cut that question off, go ahead.

King: I'm not content, because I always wanna do better.

Tavis: Go ahead.

King: But it's really about fighting for equal opportunity for boys and girls. But girls are so underserved, like, I started the Women's Sports Foundation in 1974 because we are so underserved. Women's organizations only get seven percent of charitable dollars. If you ask deeper questions, like if you say, I'm just gonna use this hypothetically.

Let's say it's a girls and boys club. But then you go one question deeper, do you have as many athletic programs or exercise or fitness, it's not just about sports. When I say sports, we have a Go Go Girl program, for instance, that we started in Atlanta and Chicago, and we're gonna be expanding to San Antonio and other cities.

We're really fighting obesity, self esteem, leadership for girls, all these things for them. But it's amazing how underserved we are. And the Go Go Girl program serves, 80 percent are girls of color, because we know we're underserved. We get seven percent of charitable dollars, girls and women's charitable organizations.

It used to be 10 to one charitable dollars would go to boys versus girls. And if we would ever get the gender card straightened out, we would get a lot of other cards, like the race card, all these other cards really helped. And I don't think people realize. It's just not in the brain yet how underserved women are in health, research, all, you just keep going.

So when we started this Women's Sports Foundation, it was really to change attitudes, but it's really about the health of a woman. Now, what I'd really like to start would have been a sports foundation. But until we're equal and have equal opportunities, it's gonna stay Women's Sports Foundation. But it's for girls, really, basically, and women. But it's amazing how people don't think about it enough.

Tavis: Let me shift gears again, I'm trying to cover as much as I can, 'cause you're such a fascinating person to talk to. Tell me about the Billies.

King: The Billies is something we wanted to do to honor people and programming that really portray women in sports and physical activity and exercise in a positive way. Whether it be through writing; whether it be through movies; anything to do with television. For instance, Ross Greenburg at HBO has done three things now on women's sports. He did 'Dare to Compete' was the first one.

It was really the history in different events. It was beautifully done, it won a Peabody Award, I think. Then Ross Greenburg gave the green light, 'cause he's the big daddy at HBO sports, for 'Dare to Dream,' which is about the women's soccer and winning the World Cup in 1999, when they had over 90,000 people at the Rose Bowl.

Everybody said there would be nobody there. And with Mia Hamm and Julie Fautie, and all the great ones. Scurry, oh, Brianna Scurry came out, oh yeah, Scurry's great, I had her come out and do a clinic, actually, (laugh) for a niece of mine. So, and she did a great job. She was so cute. But, so and then now he's doing the 'Portrait of a Pioneer' for me.

Because Ross has a daughter, and he's kind of an awakened man, because, like, when I played Bobby Riggs back in 1973, men in their forties and fifties would come up to me...

Tavis: Not when you played Bobby Riggs, when you beat Bobby Riggs.

King: Well, that's all right - I don't - that's not...

Tavis: Let the record show, when you beat Bobby Riggs. Go ahead, though.

King: It was about social change, it wasn't about a tennis match. It was about Title IX had just been passed in 1972, and I knew how important it was. I wanted to change the minds and hearts of people to match the legislation of Title IX, which means equal federal funding for both genders. And it wasn't about just sports, though.

It was about all classrooms. Everybody thinks it was sports. Sports was a last minute thought, actually. It was about, whether it be in the French class, chemistry class, any high school or college that would get federal funds should be giving both boys and girls equal opportunity in the classroom. Absolutely correct.

I want my tax dollars to go equally to both genders. I do. I don't know what other people think. We're, we probably need more, because we're underserved. But the point is, this was a new thing back in '73. You gotta remember, there was, we're just going into Touchstone (word?), you weren't even born yet, probably. So, were you barely?

Tavis: Yeah, I was around. (Laugh)

King: Oh, you're one of those you don't tell your age?

Tavis: No, I was, what, I don't know, '64? So I was nine, 10, something like that?

King: Well, I'm 62 years old now. (Laugh)

Tavis: (Laugh) Billie tells her age.

King: I don't care. Just, hey, when you play tennis, you gotta show your birth certificate.

Tavis: This is really unfair, to have so little time to talk to you about such a massive and impactful career, and I say this with all seriousness. You referenced this earlier, and I gotta get out of here, we're out of time. You referenced this earlier, about the work that you have done, and continue to do, not just for women, but for people of color and the like.

And I hope that you know that what you have accomplished has not been just for women, not even just for White women, but for all of humanity. Including people like me.

King: Well, I do world team tennis now. Thank you, darling. But world team tennis is men and women on the same team. We've even gone to the next - we got Pete Sampras to play this summer. We got him back.

Tavis: I've heard of that guy before.

King: You have?

Tavis: Yeah.

King: Well, he quit for a while. We got him back. He's gonna play for the Newport Beach (word?), 'cause we got Venus playing for Philadelphia Freedoms, and it's pretty exciting.

Tavis: I haven't scratched the surface with Billie Jean King, but I'm out of time. Tomorrow night on HBO will premiere the documentary about the life and times, the life and legacy, of this giant, Billie Jean King. Be sure to check it out, and what I love about HBO is they'll run it, and run it, and run it, and run it. (Laugh) So you will see it at some point on HBO. It's an honor to have you here.

King: It's an honor to be here, thank you, Tavis.

Tavis: Thank you, Billie Jean King. That's our show for tonight. Catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from L.A. Thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith.