NEWS
The Golden Era of Gay Sports
Photo Credit: Emery Reiff; GLBTHS collection
In a history-making moment in the early seventies, Jack McGowan, a sports editor of the "San Francisco Sentinel," was in the Twin Peaks gay bar at Castro in San Francisco with a then-closeted news reporter whose paper was doing a lot of stories about gays being arrested for cruising in parks and bars.
"Why are you always doing negative stories about gays?" McGowan asked him.
"Well, why don't you do something good? I'll do a story on it," the reported replied.
This prompted McGowan to organize a gay baseball team and to challenge the police league (who had their own team) to a game. The first two years, the gay team lost miserably. But in 1974, they beat the cops 9-4. This victory launched a huge new trend of gay and lesbian baseball teams.
"Why are you always doing negative stories about gays?" McGowan asked him.
"Well, why don't you do something good? I'll do a story on it," the reported replied.
This prompted McGowan to organize a gay baseball team and to challenge the police league (who had their own team) to a game. The first two years, the gay team lost miserably. But in 1974, they beat the cops 9-4. This victory launched a huge new trend of gay and lesbian baseball teams.
Graffix wrote:
This farse is getting plenty of attention. You straight f*ck heads running this site don't know what the hell you're doing.
Nov 29 4:18 AM
Graffix wrote:
What a load of crap!
Nov 25 4:57 AM