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Local high school girls, even athletes, may not know her name. But they have her to thank for their opportunities -- ostensibly equal -- to play ball, swim or run in college, just like the boys, LaDoris Cordell told a crowd that filled the floor of Stanford University's Maples Pavilion and spilled into the risers Saturday night.

But clearly most attendees were familiar with Billie Jean King, heralding her with an enthusiastic ovation.

King won 20 Wimbledon titles; launched a women's tennis league, pioneering a profession for women athletes; and, perhaps most famously, bested the self-described "male chauvinist pig" Bobby Riggs in a 1973 tennis match.

Cordell, a Palo Alto City Councilwoman and a special counselor to the president at Stanford, interviewed tennis phenom and women's rights pioneer King to cap a day-long conference on Title IX, the groundbreaking 1972 legislation that prohibited discrimination based on gender in education programs receiving federal funding.

It's been years since King was featured on a tennis court, but the 63-year-old with the trademark glasses hasn't slowed down much.

"We're still so far behind," King said, noting that millions, even billions, of dollars more are spent on men's sports than on women's.

And, the law isn't a favorite of President George W. Bush's administration, which gave schools a loophole to comply with Title IX, without actually providing equal opportunities, Cordell said.

Title IX has also earned the wrath of some male athletes, who say men's programs are being gutted to support less-popular women's sports.

But King, even when offered an opportunity by Cordell, didn't bash Bush or men.

"I can't stress enough that men and women need to be allies in this," King said. Feminism is not about dominating, rather it is about sharing equitably, she said.

In a wide-ranging interview -- which began with Cordell sharing photos of both women sporting 1970s Afros -- King discussed the major events of her life, her struggles, victories and current efforts.

King was born in Long Beach, Calif., to a fireman and his wife and struggled to make a living from her sport. Although she was nationally ranked, she had trouble getting to East Coast tournaments and had to work her way through college.

She supported the first women's professional tennis tour and presided over the Women's Tennis Association, which advocated for players' rights.

Busy promoting equality in sports, King said she turned down Riggs repeatedly when he tried to challenge her.

The first woman to play Riggs had lost, and, perhaps even worse, King said, she curtsied.

"I didn't have a choice," King said of agreeing to the match. She feared the women's tour would be lost.

"More importantly, I was thinking about Title IX. I wanted Title IX to succeed so badly," King said. "I thought it was vital that I win. ... It was about social change. It was not about tennis."

King said didn't like the match's name -- "The Battle of the Sexes." She was playing for equality, not supremacy.

And, before a television audience of 90 million, King was carried into the Houston Astrodome on an Egyptian litter.

In a game marked by long rallies, according to some accounts, King won handily 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.

"I won, yeah baby," she exclaimed. King said she still has nightmares the big game hasn't been played yet.

"I think that what you did was truly a courageous act," Cordell said.

Two public betrayals of King also forced her to conger up courage.

King's former husband, Larry (not the talk show host), told the world, without her permission, about her abortion in 1971. And her first female lover told the world about the affair a decade later.

Cordell didn't shy away the touchy topics.

The public's knowledge of her personal life doesn't trouble her anymore, King said.

But the news she was a lesbian in 1981 lost her millions of dollars in potential endorsements, she said.

"Overnight, I lost all of it."

King has also struggled with binge eating and was hospitalized for the condition about 12 years ago, she said.

King has now retired from her position as a commissioner with World Team Tennis and lives in New York with her partner, Ilana Kloss, also a tennis standout.

She's stumping for Hillary Clinton, who asked for her endorsement, King said.

"I think she's earned it," King said, while noting the scrutiny on top politicians makes it nearly impossible to "stay dedicated to your truth."

She urged everyone to vote, and to vote for "people who care about Title IX. It's not just about sports. It's about everything."