Day-long celebration to include a silent auction, Community Tennis
Clinic with Billie Jean King, and 2nd annual World Team
Tennis Collegiate Tournament
Pasadena, CA –
Hundreds of guests, including local dignitaries, world-renowned
athletes, and student athletes, will be on hand Oct. 27 to honor
Olympic gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee with the Joe
Shapiro Humanitarian Award during
Cal State L.A.’s 15th annual Billie
Jean King and Friends gala.
The
fundraiser
will take place at the Langham Huntington Hotel & Spa in Pasadena
from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. and will include a silent auction, dinner and
program to ensure the continued support of athletics at Cal State L.A. (CSULA).
“We are delighted that Jackie Joyner-Kersee will be on hand at this
year’s Billie Jean King and Friends Event to accept the 2012 Joe Shapiro
Humanitarian Award,” said Dan Bridges, director of Intercollegiate
Athletics at CSULA. “Jackie is a most deserving recipient because she
has worked tirelessly over the last 15 years to enhance her community
and provide life-changing opportunities for the children in her hometown
of East St. Louis, Illinois, and beyond.”
In the morning, before the fundraiser begins, Cal State L.A. Athletics
will host
on campus
a tennis clinic, as well as the second annual Billie Jean King World
Team Tennis Collegiate Tournament. The clinic will begin at 8 a.m. on
the tennis courts in the Billie Jean King Sports Complex and the
tournament will begin at 10 a.m. King will interact with participants
throughout the morning.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
As an Olympian, Joyner-Kersee won three gold, one silver and two bronze
medals. She took silver in the heptathlon at the 1984 Olympic Games in
Los Angeles, a gold medal in the heptathlon and gold in the long jump at
the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea, and in 1992 in Barcelona, Spain,
Joyner-Kersee captured another gold medal in the heptathlon and a bronze
in the long jump. Her final medal came at the 1996 Atlanta Games where
she took the bronze medal in the long jump.
Joyner-Kersee is recognized as one of the top female athletes of all
time. Sports Illustrated for Women magazine named her the
Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th Century and she was
inducted into the U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2004.
Joyner-Kersee is known worldwide for her philanthropic efforts. She
established the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation, which provides youth,
adults and families with athletic lessons and the resources to improve
their quality of life. To date the foundation has raised more than $12
million.
About the Billie Jean
King and Friends gala
Through King’s direct involvement with the annual fundraiser, to date
the Billie Jean King and Friends event has generated more than
$2.6 million for CSULA’s Athletics Scholarship Program and
Women’s Tennis Team.
King, who is among
CSULA’s most famous alumni, attended CSULA from 1961 to 1964 and played
on Coach Joan Johnson’s team, the first women’s tennis coach at the
University. King was named to the University’s Athletics Hall of Fame in
1986. In 1997, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the California
State University system.
During her career, King
won a total 39 Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in doubles and 11 in
mixed doubles. She won 20 of those at Wimbledon: six singles
championships, 10 doubles titles and four mixed doubles crowns.
King has also been
instrumental in raising awareness for social justice, change and
equality. She spearheaded the fight for equality in women’s tennis in
the 1970s and made a strong statement for women when she defeated Bobby
Riggs in the infamous “Battle of the Sexes” match in 1973 before a
record 50 million viewers on ABC’s Wide World of Sports.
King established the
Women’s Tennis Association, Women’s Sports Foundation and championed
Title IX (the equal opportunity in education act based on gender) in
1972. She was also one of the founders of World Team Tennis in 1974.
In 2009, King was awarded
the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom, at the White
House by President Barack Obama. She also has received the NCAA
President Gerald R. Ford Award for her contributions to education and
intercollegiate athletics. Life Magazine named King one of the
“100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century.”
# # #
Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 225,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six
Colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to
the Honors College for high-achieving students.
Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu
Six-time Olympic medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee
to be honored during Cal
State L.A.’s
15th annual Billie Jean King and Friends
fundraiser
Back to: News site | Services for Journalists | Public Affairs | Cal State L.A.