If Kopay, 64, seems reconciled to these contradictions, it may be because they are nothing compared to the one he lived for so long. Because in 1975, David Kopay, a running back who'd played on five different teams before retiring, announced in an interview in "The Washington Star" that he was gay, making him the first former NFL player or any of America's four major sports to come out. In the 33 years since Kopay announced his homosexuality, not one active professional football player has followed suit. Hed had several false starts in business and no luck finding a coaching job. And, on the other, he describes being increasingly anxious about his burgeoning sexuality. Subject/Title: David Kopay. David Kopay is a 80 year old American Football (American) Player born on 28th June, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois. NUMBER OF PEOPLE PEOPLE COMPOSITION. Quantity 0.37 cubic feet (1 box) . I grew to really appreciate the thousands of letters people sent me telling their own stories, but sometimes even that wasnt enough.. Photo Notre Dame High School. Thats when he saw reporter Lynn Rosellinis article in The Washington Star titled Homosexuals in Sports: Why Gay Athletes Have Everything to Lose.. And I did date women at the time. Rebecca Lobo emerged as one of the biggest stars of the fledgling Women's National Basketball Association (WN, Sanders, Deion 1967 Since Kopay, six additional former NFL players have come out as gay, Roy Simmons in 1992, Esera Tuaolo in 2002, Wade Davis in 2012, Kwame Harris in 2013, Ryan O'Callaghan in 2017, and Colton Underwood in 2021. Photo George Valentine Dureau "To know is to understand. Their relationship is on solid ground. Now I thought I had found a real relationship. He hid the book in his bedroom from his parents and read it late at night, its words showing him there was a different world out there. 28 June 1942), athlete. He was named an All-American and led the Huskies to the 1964 Rose Bowl. You likely have never heard of Ray Libman, who quietly broke ground in sports in the early 2000s. Kopays admission killed any chance of him coaching, yet that never deterred him from speaking out. He earned his place on each roster through a combination of gritty determination and physical courage. It would take more than a decade for him to begin confronting his sexuality. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). Although he'd played three seasons with the 49ers, he'd been deeply conflicted about his sexuality then. The book has inspired and comforted gays and lesbians for 34 years (Billie Jean King told Kopay how much the book helped her). He knew how much better his life could have been if hed had positive role models. 2023 . Kopay played professional football from 1964 to 1972, often on special teams. Kopay's public disclosure also initially strained several family relationships (since mended). ." Kopay and Nassib. During his college years he also discovered sex, first with a woman and later with a fellow male athlete. He was smitten by a fraternity brother whom he calls Ted Robinson in his book. Kopay muses, "I don't know why [other athletes] haven't come out. It felt good just being with him.. This is a man who, while an All-American running back at the University of Washington in the early 1960s, was known for his hard-nosed playing style, and who carved out nine seasons in the National Football League on grit and moxie. In an interview with the Philadelphia Gay News shortly after the book's release, Kopay said he drew inspiration from Air Force Sergeant Leonard Matlovich and writer Merle Miller, who also had very public coming out experiences. . It may not have been the football career he originally wanted, but it enabled him to give back to the LGBT community. It took me a long time, too long, to accept myself as I really was.. Their marriage was unhappy; he recalls frequent arguments that sometimes turned physical.During that time, sports offered him an outlet. "Dave Kopay Interview." To have knowledge is to tolerate, and to tolerate is to have peace." TRQ: David Kopay, Born June 28, 1942 National Football League running back David Kopay, one of America's first openly gay professional athletes, was born on June 18, 1942. He knew how much better his life could have been if hed had positive role models. Kopay stayed with the family business until retiring. KOPAY, David (b. He'd had several false starts in business and no luck finding a coaching job. Hed had several false starts in business and no luck finding a coaching job. ), The two men became close and eventually spent an evening together. Dave Kopay: As for being a womanizer, at a young age you're full of excitement and energy. It is the blood, sweat, and tears accumulation of . 2 references. [6], Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Op-ed: What Happened When I Met Dave Kopay", "Raiders' Carl Nassib becomes first active NFL player to come out as gay", "Football Player Who Came Out in 70s Scores Film Role", "Dave Kopay, Pioneer Gay Athlete, Joins Cast of Film TRU LOVED", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=David_Kopay&oldid=1146278894, This page was last edited on 23 March 2023, at 21:58. It should have been a joyous time for Kopay, but he continued to feel burdened by the weight of the secret he was keeping. [CDATA[ Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved by Seattle Gay News. He was even roommates with the novelist Armistead Maupin, the author of Tales of the City. 12 Apr. Your comments - big and little - are . The more he acknowledged his attraction to other men, the more he worried about losing his job. Rosellinis article drew a firestorm of criticism. For Kopay, the endowment was no small gesture. And instead, all the guys did was hit on him. A couple years ago, I invited him over for Christmas, and weve been on good terms since. It was a night of drinking and, boom, it happened.. Publication date. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. . All month long weve looked back at the athletes, coaches and events that made LGBTQ sports history. Three months later, he left Southern California and the life he had spent three decades building and returned to Seattle, to be closer to a university from which he has at times felt quite distant. I got very, very few hate mails. Kopay, 69, told me last week about reaction to the Star story, when I told him he was Outsports No 1 gay sports moment. We conclude our series with the NFL player who remains the most significant out gay athlete of our lifetime: Dave Kopay. However, with Perry Deane Young, Kopay wrote his autobiography; published in 1977, it became a New York Times best-seller for over two months, a first for any sports-oriented book. imported from Wikimedia project. Carson Gates says he came out to show that queer people belong in hockey. His coming out, however, alienated his family. Type Of Print: Fine Duotone Photo Engraving. He was named an All-American and got an offer to try out for the San Francisco 49ers. In 1977, he and author Perry Deane Young, who was also gay, published The David Kopay Story: An Extraordinary Self-Revelation. The book is both a thoughtful meditation on masculinity, sexuality, and sports, and a candid tell-all. Through his actions, his book and his story, Buzinski explained how Kopay has made a difference to an enormous amount of people across the world. An immense sense of guilt, the product of his strict Catholic upbringing, drove him to enter a junior seminary in his early teens, in the hopes of becoming a priest and, in his words, curing himself. Advocate, 10 March 1976, pp. In 1975, Kopay became the first NFL player to declare publicly he was gay, but his . Kopay joined Lombardi's Redskins for the 1969 season after having his knee checked out personally by the legendary coach. (Bill was later revealed to be Jerry Smith, who died from AIDS in 1986. According to Kopay, after telling his mother, she said, "I created you, and I can destroy you." After reading a series in the now-defunct Washington Star on gay athletes, the hypocrisy simply became too much for him. Although hed played three seasons with the 49ers, hed been deeply conflicted about his sexuality then. Because of my homosexuality I cant get a job as a coach, he explained in his memoir. He entered the University of Washington in 1961. He knew how much better his life could have been if he'd had positive role models. It was after this night of drinking. Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History in America, 1st Edition. 28 June 1942. I was never thinking I was a gay man, because I just wasnt like one of them, Kopay says. Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved April 12, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/kopay-david. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. Now, heres a man willing to speak up and take a stand. The thought frightened and repulsed him. Not once do I remember them exchanging any kind of love words. More importantly, he knew that he could make a difference by talking to her on the record. Despite that, the book ends on a hopeful note. 0 references. Kopay was the second of four children born in a working-class household to devoutly Catholic parents. Sadly, Kopay paid a steep price for his admission. Therefore, its best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the style against your school or publications requirements and the most-recent information available at these sites: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. Kopay had also struggled to come to terms with his romantic and physical attraction to other men. Slowly but surely, Kopay begins to live openly as a gay man. Kopay's comments about homophobic language and Roberts' about coming out as gay are at the forefront of two studies published Wednesday by Melbourne's Monash University. His coming out, however, alienated his family. Kopay (left) horses around with Coach Jim Owens and a teammate at a 1962 game in Husky Stadium. He contacted Rosellini, and with her story on 11 December 1975 became the first openly gay professional athlete. . In my conversations with him, he told me of his struggles with his identity while at the UW as a football player and in a macho fraternity. Kopay was eager to help as soon as he could, and last year he wrote out a $10,000 scholarship check to the center, Zeno says. 3132). 3035, 82, 86. In 1975, following Kopay's football retirement, Washington Star reporter Lynn Rosellini wrote several articles about homosexuality in sports. Many complained that shed given too much weight to anonymous sources. Void in ONT. Beneath Teds horseplay and all our silliness, of course, there were deeper feelings, Kopay wrote. 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