Lauding Out Sports Figures

Although there are many closeted professional sports players, both retired or still active, there are still many brave souls who did finally come out at some point. They deserve to be lauded.

Here's a brief, though not complete, history of gays coming out in the professional and competitive sports world.

1920 - Openly gay Bill Tilden wins the men's singles title at Wimbledon, going on to win two more Wimbledon titles, seven U.S. championships, and leads U.S. teams to seven Davis Cup victories.

1968 - Tom Waddell, a 30-year-old Army physician, places sixth in the Olympic decathlon.

1975 - David Kopay, the NFL running back who played for five teams (San Francisco, Detroit, Washington, New Orleans, Green Bay) between 1964-72, becomes the first professional team-sport athlete to come out three years after retiring.

1981 - Billie Jean King is "outed" when ex-lover Marilyn Barnett sues her for "galimony" while she is married to Larry King.

1981 - Martina Navratilova publicly reveals that she is a lesbian.

1982 - The first Gay Olympic Games takes place in San Francisco.

1983 - Bob Paris wins the Mr. America and Mr. Universe bodybuilding titles. In 1989, he reveals his homosexuality to the bodybuilding community during an interview with Ironman magazine.

1987 - Jerry Smith, a tight end with the Washington Redskins from 1965-77, dies of AIDS complications. Smith never acknowledged that he was gay, but in David Kopay's autobiography, Smith was described as his first love.

1988 - Bruce Hayes, an Olympic swimmer who won a gold medal in 1984 as a member of the 800-meter freestyle relay, comes out publicly at the Gay Games and wins seven gold medals in competition.

Martina Navratilova's announcement that she is a lesbian cost her endorsement dollars but won her respect from other players.

1992 - Matthew Hall, a figure skater on the Canadian National Team, comes out.

Roy Simmons, an offensive guard for the New York Giants and later Washington Redskins, reveals he is gay during an appearance on The Phil Donahue Show.

1993 - David Slattery, general manager of the Washington Redskins in the early 1970's, comes out.

Glenn Burke, former outfielder with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Oakland A's, comes out publicly during an interview. During the same interview in which he admits his homosexuality, Burke says he believes he was traded from the Dodgers because management suspected his was gay.

1994 - Greg Louganis, four-time Olympic gold medalist in diving who becomes HIV-positive, comes out in public at the Gay Games.

Missy Giove, an openly lesbian mountain biker, wins her first world title. Considered the Michael Jordan of her sport, she subsequently wins back-to-back world titles in 1996 and '97.

1995 - Ian Roberts, whose picture you see at the top of this post, is one of Australia's most popular rugby players, poses nude for a gay magazine. In the same issue, Roberts speaks about being "part of a different group ... an outsider." He becomes the first major sports figure in Australia to come out.

1996 - Muffin Spencer-Devlin, an 18-year LPGA veteran, speaks about being a lesbian in the March 18 issue of Sports Illustrated.

Rudy Galindo, the national men's skating champion, discusses being a gay man in the book Inside Edge: A Revealing Journey Into the Secret World of Figure Skating. Doug Mattis, another professional skater, comes out not long afterward.

David Pichler and Patrick Jeffrey, two openly gay U.S. divers, compete in the Atlanta Olympics.

1998 - Michael Muska, a former track-and-field coach at Auburn and Northwestern, is named athletic director at Oberlin College. Muska is the first openly gay man to hold such a position in college sports.

Openly gay Greg Louganis, in a special Goodwill Games edition of New York 1 News' nightly sports program, says that several athletes in professional team sports have asked him for advice about going public with their homosexuality.

2002 -Esera Tuaolo, having retired from sports, announced publicly that he is gay, and lives with his partner, Mitchell Wherley, and their children.

2007 - Former NBA player John Amaechi comes out on ESPN's Outside the Lines program.

(Information courtesy The Advocate and ESPN)