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David Kopay: Still giving
Ex-football star pledges $1 million to
gay students
By
Jim Buzinski
Outsports.com
David Kopay
remembers the feelings of isolation, paranoia and loneliness
in college, when he stayed deep in the closet. A star on the
football team in the early 1960s, he was not about to come
out.
Now nearing
retirement, Kopay is giving back so that future gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students will have
resources to have an easier time on their own coming out
journeys.
Kopay, the
first NFL player to come out and author of the seminal 1977
autobiography "The David Kopay Story," has made a $1 million
testamentary pledge to the University of Washington, his
beloved alma mater. Kopay hopes the pledge, to be used for
at-need LGBT students, will spur others to donate to the
David Kopay Endowment. He will be honored at a special
dinner Friday, along with others who have pledged at least
$1 million.
"I never
thought I'd ever be in a position to make a pledge of a
million dollars," said Kopay, 65, who is retiring this year
from his family's flooring business in Los Angeles. "It
humbles me. … The impetus, I think, was getting older, the
idea about retiring and wanting to make a difference in this
world."
He got the
idea for giving back more than a year ago after
conversations with George Zeno, the executive director for
scholarships and student programs at the school and himself gay. Zeno told
Kopay about some of the difficulties that confront gay and
lesbian students, who often face ostracism from families
that make staying in school difficult ("stories that gay
people have heard all the time," he says).
"There are
more demands on the universities in our country to showcase
how their alumni are making a difference in this world and
Dave is an incredible testament to what our alumni are
doing," Zeno said. "We hope this will continue to
demonstrate that the University of Washington is a learning
place for all of our citizens of this state and that this is
a welcoming and nurturing environment to receive a world
class education regardless of self-identification."
Kopay sees
the endowment as a way to help these at-risk students. "The fact
that I can be part of a support system for kids is important
for me," Kopay told Outsports. A 1964 graduate, Kopay was in the
closet during his years when he was a co-captain of the
football team. Despite being a big man on campus, he still
more than 40 years later remembers "being so lonely with no
place to go."
As part of
the start of the endowment celebration, Kopay will give
welcoming remarks to incoming
LGBT
students. "It's a chance to let them know they are
welcome and have a place to go and have a support system,"
he said about the Sept. 28 event at the gay and lesbian
center on campus. A longtime public speaker, with numerous
TV appearances, Kopay said speaking at the event "scares me
and empowers me at the same time."
"Public
speaking always scares me to death," says Kopay, who
addressed the American Bar Assn. at its convention shortly
after coming out in 1975 and urged the lawyers to end legal
discrimination against gay people. "I feel much more common
than uncommon."
But for the
thousands of people who have written Kopay the past 30 years
about how inspired they were by his courage to come out and
tell the world, Kopay is anything but common. At a screening
in Los Angeles last year for an HBO documentary on Billie
Jean King, Kopay waited nervously to try and say a few words
to the tennis legend he had never met but long admired. As
he approached her and started to introduce himself, King
broke out into a big smile, reached out to hug him and said,
"I know who you are!" She proceeded to tell Kopay how much
his book helped her come to grips with her sexuality; Kopay
was momentarily speechless and humbled.
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These photos of
Kopay at the University of Washington were taken
by
Bob Peterson. Kopay did not see these until
this year.
Click image for larger view |
A
Husky Legend
Separate
from his activism, Kopay is also getting his due once again
in the athletic arena.
On
Saturday, at halftime of the Huskies' home opener against
Boise State, Kopay will be inducted as a Washington sports
legend. Just thinking about walking out to midfield of Husky
Stadium before 72,000 purple-clad fans causes Kopay to choke
up and take a moment to compose his thoughts.
"It gets me
emotional, it makes me cry," he said. "I just get this
feeling -- I'm no different than anyone else. But people
have to be able to see who we are and see that we're
everywhere."
Despite the
inner turmoil of wrestling with his sexuality, Kopay has
many fond memories of his football days, especially his 1964
senior season when he led the Huskies to the Rose Bowl. "The
fans in Washington were always so incredibly supportive of
me." This continued nearly 40 years later when Kopay was
selected a captain for an alumni game.
About his
Saturday induction as a legend, Kopay jokes that "if it was
homecoming, I would ask to be escorted by the homecoming
king." After two hip replacements, plus a knee and a
shoulder replacement, Kopay is pain free for the first time
in years. He has lost 25 pounds in the past few months and
is now at his collegiate playing weight of 215 pounds at a
height of 6-1. He reached his goal of being able to fit into
his letterman's jacket and possibly wear it on the field.
In addition
to the festivities at Washington, Kopay is also being
honored in the upcoming 40th anniversary edition
of the Advocate as one of the 40 gay and lesbian heroes of
that time. "That really makes me feel validated in a way,"
he says, referring to times early in the gay movement when
some activists criticized him for being too outspoken.
If his
Husky days was one chapter and his coming out another, Kopay
eagerly awaits the next after he retires. He is considering
a long-term move to Seattle and continued involvement with
his endowment.
"People
told me how much my coming out has meant to them over the
years," he says. His pledge ensures that David Kopay will
long mean something to future generations.
David Kopay can be
reached via e-mail
Sept. 4,
2007 |
