Long Beach Poly unveiled a new mural on the historic campus last Friday afternoon, honoring all-time great alum Billie Jean King (class of 1961). The mural, by Mike Sullivan, depicts King in her athletic prime during a career that saw her win 39 Grand Slam titles, earning six No. 1 world rankings.
King has been honored many times over in her hometown not just for her record-setting sports career, but for her life of service as an advocate for gender equality. But while she’s had the city’s main library named after her as well as its best tennis facility, this is the first time King has been honored in a permanent way by her alma mater (the school does have a racket and other memorabilia honoring her career on display).
For King, the connection to Poly is just as strong as the connection with her hometown.
“You have no idea how this school and this town is so important to me and play a critical role in my life and career,” she said. “I loved coming to school. I loved looking up and seeing ‘Home of Scholars and Champions.’ It’s perfect. And ‘Enter to learn, go forth to serve.’ That tells you everything you should do with your life–it motivated me every day I came to school.”
King, like many Poly alums, was a multi-generational Jackrabbit whose mom, dad, uncles, aunts, cousins, and younger brother (MLB pitcher Randy Moffitt) all attended the school. Her father was standing across Atlantic during the 1933 earthquake that leveled the school.
“I am so Poly Poly Poly it’s a joke,” she said. “Can you imagine the whole family? And we all love Poly High School.”
After shouting out the fact that Poly has the most MLB and NFL alums of any high school in the country, she praised the school’s academic programs.
“We really have smart people, it used to make me sick,” she said. “‘Oh where are you going, I’m going to Stanford.’”
For all of her Jackrabbit pride, King did miss her graduation–but for a pretty good reason. She was at Wimbledon winning the doubles title as the youngest woman to ever do so, a record that still stands.
King said she was proud of the diversity that Poly embodied in the 1950s and 60s, and continues to embody to this day.
“I was so proud that I was at a school with different cultures, different colors, different languages, we were the only school in Long Beach,” she said. “Everybody else was white white white.”
Thanks in part to King’s advocacy at the federal level with Title IX, students today have girls’ sports–something that didn’t exist when she was in high school. Poly has won more girls’ CIF-SS and CIF State championships than any other school in California, as current Jackrabbits continue to reap the benefit of work done by trailblazers like King.
“I know this sounds like ancient history, I get it, but history is important,” said King. “The more you know about history, the most you know about yourself, and the more it helps you shape the future. The only way I was able to change things is because I knew the history. I’m so glad that I’ve lived this long to see where women’s sports is just now at a tipping point…but I’ve waited my whole life and worked my whole life.”
The ceremony was attended by dignitaries as well as the Poly tennis teams, marching band, cheerleaders, and student government. King took time to talk with each one of the students and waited until hours after the ceremony to make sure they all got time with her before departing, giving special thanks to Poly vice principal Julie Sparks, who organized the event, as well as Poly Brandon Anderson-Brown, who held up the cover over the mural before its unveiling after wind had begun to blow it off.
King concluded the ceremony with an enthusiastic message.
“Really absorb it–the Home of Scholars and Champions. Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve. And: Once a Jackrabbit, Always a Jackrabbit. Go green and gold!”
