Logo's "Real Momentum: Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer"

The legacy of Billie Jean King is so complete, so far reaching, that it is almost impossible for younger athletes today to comprehend what an influential person she has been. For those viewers, Logo TV's "Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer" will be a revelation. For those of us from an older generation, it is a chance to reflect on the events we saw as they unfolded ... and gain new insight into the backstory.

Drawing on a rich bank of archival video footage, the show portrays Billie Jean's rise from a precocious chubby spectacled tennis wannabe to the athletic embodiment of the feminist movement of the '60s, the founder of major women's sports organizations in the '70s and then abruptly outed lesbian icon of the gay sports movement in the '80s.

Along the way the complexities of her loving marriage to her husband Jack, her growing awareness of her sexual orientation and the public and private manner in which their convergence played out are shown in matter-of-fact but heart-tugging detail.

The one thing Billie Jean has never been willing to be is victim. Think of her as you would Muhammad Ali: both were portrayed as overly headstrong and 'uppity' early in their careers; both, by staying constant to their natures, have come in time to be loved and revered.

In "Portrait of a Champion" we get a chance to see her singing backup to Elton John, talking with David Frost about her abortion, making lifelong friends with Bobby Riggs after outsmarting and outplaying him on the national stage, and eating hotdogs at Costco with her parents. What emerges is a portrait of the girl-next-door who ended up doing everything she never imagined she would and which nobody had done before.

"Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer" premieres Saturday at 8 p.m. on Logo television and LOGOonline.com.