On Wednesday morning, January 1st, Billie Jean King and her wife Ilana Kloss will climb into a 1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III and take a ride like no other.

As 50 million people around the world tune in, she will take a 5.5-mile slow ride down Colorado Boulevard, waving to the thousands of people gathered to watch the 136th Tournament of Roses Parade.

At a time when many yearn for long-lost heroes who fought the battles that changed society for the better, millions will have the chance to see one – alive, smiling, happy, in this old classic car on Wednesday still pushing the boundaries for more fair world: pioneer in sports and civil rights. Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses.

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Of course, it’s nothing new for Billie Jean King to have millions of people tuning in to watch her do something special. Think of Wimbledon or her numerous other tennis Grand Slam titles. Think of “Battle of the Sexes” in 1973, when she proved in a giant battle that women’s football was somehow inferior to men’s football. Consider the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor.

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

That was back in Long Beach, long before the successes and awards. Billie Jean Moffitt was born there, the daughter of a firefighter and a housewife.

It was in the 1940s, during World War II, in America, united by war, that one could see the first signs of change in a society whose power structures were still dominated by men. Women were needed in the workplace to replace men who went to war.

It was a foretaste of the larger change—and the forces that opposed that change—that would provide the context for King’s groundbreaking life.

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

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

“My parents raised two elite athletes, and yet they didn’t care whether we won or lost,” she told Southern California News Group columnist Rich Archbold in 2023. “Instead, they encouraged us to always do our best.”

But there was something else. As talented and hard-working as King was, the unequal standards for women versus men when playing didn’t sit well with King as she tried to advance in professional sports.

At the beginning of the 1950s, she was denied access to a group photo of young tennis players at a tournament at the Los Angeles Tennis Club. Why? Because she was wearing the tennis shorts her mother made for her and not the traditional tennis dress that the players wore.

It was another glimpse of what would await her on her journey.

Even as a young teenager, she was driven by injustice. From Long Beach to her college years at Cal State Los Angeles (1961 to 1964) to Wimbledon, her career became one of breaking social barriers even as she won tennis matches.

The highlights of my career are undeniably breathtaking.

At just 17 years old, she won her first women’s doubles title at Wimbledon. In her career she won 39 Grand Slam titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles.

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

And what year was 1972: The US Open, French Open and Wimbledon – three Grand Slams in one year.

She was the top-ranked tennis player in the world for six years.

But all along, tennis was a stage for something bigger.

She pushed for equal prize money in the men’s and women’s games. His online biography states that she competed on the women’s Virginia Slims Tour in 1970 and became the first female athlete to earn over $100,000 in prize money in 1971. However, when she won the US Open in 1972, King received $15,000 less than then-men’s champion Ilie Năstase.

She was instrumental in the campaign 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 athletic programs and prohibits gender discrimination in schools and colleges.

Her legendary 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” victory over Bobby Riggs, a former men’s world number one, was watched by more than 90 million viewers worldwide.

The result: 6:4, 6:3, 6:3 and a victory on the way to equality in sport.

At her best that year, she led the founding of the Women’s Tennis Association and became its first president. Inclusive World Team Team Tennis would follow, as would the Women’s Sports Foundation with a mission to promote girls’ access to sport.

The barriers would continue to rise and King would continue to confront them. In 1981 she was outed as a lesbian and lost her advertising contracts. But in 1987 she was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and in 2006 the USTA National Tennis Center in New York was renamed the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

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

Fast forward to today.

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

“I decided I wanted to help everyone,” she said, “all people.”

In addition to her work in sports and advocacy, King is also a lover of books and her hometown’s public libraries — making her the perfect namesake for downtown Long Beach’s Billie Jean King Main Library, named in honor of the legend in 2019 became.

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

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

“As a Long Beach native and growing up in Southern California, I have fond memories of watching the parade with my family and it is a great honor to be named Grand Marshal of the 2025 Rose Parade,” King said on March 7. October. “This parade is a wonderful celebration full of joy and community, and it is truly the “Best Day Ever” for everyone who attends or watches.”

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

Tournament of Roses President Ed Morales elected King grand marshal.

“Her groundbreaking work has promoted women in sport and inspired countless great days for athletes and fans around the world,” he said.

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

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As she looked at a list of previous grand marshals – including Pasadena’s Jackie Robinson – she said she would do her best to represent the city and its New Year’s tradition.

Ultimately, it comes down to a few basic things, she said, referring to the motto of the 2025 Rose Parade: “Best day ever!”

“I have a whole new saying now,” King said of the topic. “It reminds us of the importance of living in the present every day and making time for the people you love. I can’t wait for January 1st, the best day ever.”