Excerpt from Dave Kopay's Autobiography

This is from The Dave Kopay Story by David Kopay and Perry Young published by Bantam Books, 1977, pages 77-79. The action described took place at University of Washington in the early 1960's. Kopay played for the NFL and was one of the first prominent athletes to come out as being gay.

I was on the receiving end of the paddles during my initiation into the Big W Club after I had earned a letter playing football my sophomore year. It was assumed all lettermen would join the Big W Club, which had no meetings, no functions except the initiation dinner at one of the bigger fraternity houses. There were rumors about how rough the initiation was. At the Theta Chi house I had managed to get around the paddling. Sometimes a brother with a particular grudge would get an athlete to paddle somebody who was named for punishment. Or there would be an auction for the privilege of paddling somebody who wasn't liked.

Here I had been a hot-shot athlete from the time I arrived and now I was about to get mine. Only a few of the athletes in my class had earned letters and here were some of the toughest guys on campus walking up to the Big W initiation full of nervous apprehension about what was to happen.

After an ordinary sit-down fraternity dinner the president announced that the initiation would be carried out in the living room. I was feeling a chill sickness in my stomach as I watched them form chairs and couches (backs outward) into a tight circle. We lined up behind them and waited. I whispered to my buddies that we should get the hell out while there was time. But there was no way to leave, even though none of this made any sense except that it was what everybody else was doing. They told us to take off our sweaters, take everything out of our pockets. Anybody wearing double shorts or padding would get hit twice as much. Paddles were passed out to the sixty members, those with the most letters having the honor of going first. Each member was allowed one swat for every letter he had earned.

It got to be incredibly brutal, and it seemed that the ones you knew best were the ones who beat you the hardest. There were some cracks about this one or that one somebody didn't like, but generally they kept their remarks on a joking level as they were beating us; they could get away with the vicious paddling as part of the initiation but they would have to answer for their words outside.

The outline of my shorts had been beaten into my skin and I felt like I was on fire as I made my way back to the fraternity house, went upstairs to the head, pulled my pants down and looked in the mirror. My ass was black and blue, covered with blood blisters. It was two full weeks before I could sit down without a painful reminder of the Big W Club initiation.

I thought I was nuts to have done something like that, yet the next year, and the next, I was there to get my turn behind the paddle. Of course the ones I was paddling were not the ones who had paddled me. But it seemed to indicate your status if you took part, hit hard, and let them know you could do it.

Wikipedia Entry for Kopay

David Marquette Kopay (born June 28, 1942) is a former American football running back in the National Football League who in 1975 became one of the first professional athletes to come out as gay.

Kopay attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California. He entered the University of Washington in 1961. He was on the West roster as a halfback at the All-America East vs. West Football Game in 1964. He was signed by the San Francisco 49ers. He played professional football from 1964 to 1972. After he retired from the NFL, he was considered a top contender for coaching positions, but he believes he was snubbed by professional and college teams because of his sexual orientation. He went to work as a salesman/purchaser in his uncle's floorcovering business in Hollywood. He is also a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Athletics Foundation.

His 1977 biography, The David Kopay Story, written with Perry Deane Young, became a best-seller. In 1986, Kopay revealed his brief affair with Jerry Smith (without naming him), who played for the Washington Redskins from 1965 to 1977 and who died of AIDS without ever having publicly come out of the closet.

Since Kopay, only four additional former NFL Players have come out as gay, Roy Simmons in 1992, Esera Tuaolo in 2002, Wade Davis in 2012 and Kwame Harris in 2013. Kopay has been credited with inspiring these athletes to be more open about their sexual orientation.

Kopay appears as himself in a small but pivotal role in the film Tru Loved (2008). His scene features young actor Matthew Thompson and Alexandra Paul.

Kopay became a Gay Games Ambassador for the Federation of Gay Games. He came to Gay Games VII in Chicago in July 2006 and was a featured announcer in the opening ceremonies.

Kopay announced in September 2007 that he will be leaving $1 million as an endowment to the University of Washington Q Center.