Editing Billie Jean King (section)

==Early life==
Billie Jean Moffitt was born in [[Long Beach, California]], into a conservative [[Methodist]] family, the daughter of Betty (née Jerman), a housewife, and Bill Moffitt, a firefighter.<ref name="Official Wimbledon profile of BJK">{{cite web | url=https://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/about/history/billiejean_king.html | title=Official Wimbledon profile of Billie Jean King | access-date=February 15, 2007 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070225034336/http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/about/history/billiejean_king.html | archive-date=February 25, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia | url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-2591304957/king-billie-jean-1943.html | title=King, Billie Jean (1943—) – Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia | encyclopedia=Encyclopedia.com | access-date=June 29, 2014}}</ref> Her family was athletic; her mother excelled at swimming, and her father played basketball and baseball and ran track.<ref name="Higdon, Hal, Plays Tennis Like a Man">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/magazine/plays-tennis-like-a-man-speaks-out-like-billie-jean-king.html|title=Plays Tennis Like a Man, Speaks Out Like – Billie Jean King |last=Higdon |first=Hal |date=August 23, 2013|work=The New York Times|access-date=September 16, 2017|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Her younger brother, [[Randy Moffitt]], became a Major League Baseball pitcher, pitching for 12 years in the major leagues for the [[San Francisco Giants]], [[Houston Astros]], and [[Toronto Blue Jays]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/m/moffira01.shtml|title=Randy Moffitt Statistics|access-date=February 15, 2007}}</ref> She also excelled at baseball and softball as a child, playing shortstop at 10 years old on a team with girls 4–5 years older than she.<ref name="Higdon, Hal, Plays Tennis Like a Man" /> The team went on to win the Long Beach softball championship.<ref name="Higdon, Hal, Plays Tennis Like a Man" />

She switched from softball to tennis at the age of 11,<ref name=":1">{{cite news|url=https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/billie-jean-king/|title=King, Billie Jean – National Women's Hall of Fame|work=National Women's Hall of Fame|access-date=September 15, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191001122619/https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/billie-jean-king/|archive-date=October 1, 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref> because her parents suggested she should find a more 'ladylike' sport.<ref name="Higdon, Hal, Plays Tennis Like a Man" /> She saved her own money, $8 ($92.40 in 2024<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1956?amount=1|title=$1 in 1956 → 2024 &#124; Inflation Calculator|website=www.in2013dollars.com}}</ref> terms), to buy her first racket.<ref name="Higdon, Hal, Plays Tennis Like a Man" /> She went with a school friend to take her first tennis lesson on the many free public courts in Long Beach, taking advantage of the free lessons offered by professional Clyde Walker, who worked for the City of Long Beach.<ref name="Higdon, Hal, Plays Tennis Like a Man" /> One of the city's tennis facilities has subsequently been named the Billie Jean Moffitt King Tennis Center.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.longbeach.gov/park/park-and-facilities/directory/billie-jean-king-tennis-center/ |title=Billie Jean King Moffitt Tennis Center |access-date=August 26, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170829212231/http://www.longbeach.gov/park/park-and-facilities/directory/billie-jean-king-tennis-center/ |archive-date=August 29, 2017 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all}}</ref> As a kid playing in her first tennis tournaments, she was often hindered by her aggressive playing style.<ref name="Higdon, Hal, Plays Tennis Like a Man" /> One of King's first conflicts with the tennis establishments and status-quo came in her youth, when she was forbidden from being in a group picture at a tournament because she was wearing tennis shorts (sewn by her mother) instead of the usual white tennis dress.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ware |first=Susan |title=Game, Set, Match: Billie Jean King and the Revolution in Women's Sports |publisher=The University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina |year=2012|pages=20}}</ref>

King's family in Long Beach attended the [[Church of the Brethren]], where the minister was former athlete and two-time Olympic pole-vaulting champion [[Bob Richards]]. One day, when King was 13 or 14, Richards asked her, "What are you going to do with your life?" She said: "Reverend, I'm going to be the best tennis player in the world."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://vault.si.com/vault/1975/05/19/mrs-billie-jean-king|title=MRS. BILLIE JEAN KING!|work=Sports Illustrated Vault}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/30/sports/a-fan-at-the-game-john-leonard.html|title=A FAN AT THE GAME/John Leonard (Published 1982)|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 30, 1982}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Cope |first=Myron |title=They Cheer When the Parson Is Pitching |url=https://vault.si.com/vault/1968/05/27/they-cheer-when-the-parson-is-pitching |website=Sports Illustrated Vault |access-date=31 August 2020 }}</ref>

King attended [[Long Beach Polytechnic High School]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.kingsschools.org/pr_si-article.asp|title=Press Release – King's Schools|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061224233102/http://kingsschools.org/pr_si-article.asp|archive-date=December 24, 2006|access-date=February 15, 2007}}</ref> After graduating in 1961, she attended Los Angeles State College, now [[California State University, Los Angeles]] (Cal State LA).<ref name=":1" /> She did not graduate, leaving school in 1964 to focus on tennis.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.questia.com/read/121600472/game-set-match-billie-jean-king-and-the-revolution|title=Game, Set, Match: Billie Jean King and the Revolution in Women's Sports|last=Ware|first=Susuan|date=2011|website=|access-date=|page=25|archive-date=October 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171001074933/https://www.questia.com/read/121600472/game-set-match-billie-jean-king-and-the-revolution|url-status=dead}}</ref> While attending Cal State, she met [[Larry King (tennis)|Larry King]] in a library in 1963.<ref name="Higdon, Hal, Plays Tennis Like a Man" /> The pair became engaged while still in school when Billie Jean was 20 and Larry 19 years old and married on September 17, 1965, in Long Beach.<ref name=":4">{{cite news|url=http://www.phillymag.com/articles/billie-jean-king-racquet-revolutionary/4/|title=Billie Jean King: Racquet Revolutionary|page=4|last=Hingston|first=Sandy|date=June 17, 2011|work=Philadelphia Magazine|access-date=September 30, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170930101842/http://www.phillymag.com/articles/billie-jean-king-racquet-revolutionary/4/|archive-date=September 30, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>