October is LGBT History Month, celebrating notable events and people in the history of lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgendered people.
The Web site care2.com, as part of LGBT History Month, recently profiled Dave Kopay, the first pro football player to ever come out publicly. Attached is a recent video news profile of Kopay by KCTS in Seattle.
Kopay was born in 1942 and moved to North Hollywood when he was in grammar school. He attended in Sherman Oaks, where he was a star athlete, before attending the University of Washington and moving on to the NFL, where he played for eight seasons.
In 1975, a few years after retiring, he gave an interview to a Washington newspaper where he acknowledged publicly for the first time that he was gay. In 1977, he wrote a book, The David Kopay Story, which became a bestseller and made him a hero and icon in the LGBT community.
Although it was over 35 years ago, since then, only two other former NFL players have come out.
As it turned out, Kopay wouldn't be the only Notre Dame graduate during that era that would have a major impact on LGBT history. Mike Mullen, four years his junior, grew up to become the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where his testimony last year in front of a congressional subcommittee calling for an end to the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy toward homosexuals in the military was credited by many as being the crucial moment in overturning the policy. on Oct. 1.
