Olympian. Pioneer. Catalyst forGreater Understanding.
By Marty Dobrow
AS THEY READIED FOR THEIR REUNION—as the walls came tumbling down—members of the Springfield College Class of 1959 couldn’t help but smile. On February 9, it was Michael Sam, an All-American
defensive end at the University of Missouri. “I just want to make sure I could tell my story the way I want to tell it,” Sam said in a New York Times piece that announced to the world he was gay. “I just want to own my truth.” Two weeks later, on February
23, Jason Collins played for the New Jersey Nets against the Los Angeles Lakers, the first openly gay player in the NBA. At a press conference he offered calm advice to young gay athletes: “Never be afraid or ashamed or have any fear to be your true, authentic self.” Then on April 9, at the
University of Massachusetts, Derrick Gordon came out as the first openly gay male player in Div. 1 college basketball. A starting guard, Gordon practi- cally glowed with joy, even on Twitter, where he declared, “This is the happiest I have ever been in my 22 Years of living…No more HIDING!!!” For some members of the
In just 49 years of life—before he succumbed to AIDS in
1987—Tom Waddell built a considerable and mind- boggingly diverse legacy. For one thing, he was a superior athlete. Many consider
him to be the single finest all-around athlete this athleti- cally-minded college has ever produced. He was a standout in a most unlikely trio of sports. In football, his dazzling touch- down catch in an upset of the University of Connecticut is the stuff of legend. He was an exceptional gymnast. And in track and field, Waddell was such a multifaceted talent that, nine years after he graduated, he competed in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. In the decathlon, widely consid- ered the Olympics’ toughest test, he placed sixth among 33 competitors, the second American behind gold medalist Bill Toomey. Waddell also was a physi-
cian. He specialized, ironically, in infectious diseases. He did a great deal of overseas medical service in Africa and Asia, and for years in Saudi Arabia. He was an artist, a dancer,
Springfield Class of ’59, men and women in their 70s, this struck a familiar chord. As what had once seemed unimaginable now seemed well on its way to being normalized, the ’59ers couldn’t help thinking of their friend and classmate, Tom Waddell. “He was way ahead of his time,” said Jack Savoia. “Fifty-
five years ahead of his time.” “We had a treasure in our midst,” marveled Ann Briley.
“And we never really knew it.” **
TRIANGLE 1 Vol . 85, No. 2
A poster from the first Gay Games. The word “Olympic” was later blacked out after the U.S. Olympic Committee filed suit.
a paratrooper in the Army, an outspoken foe of the war in Vietnam. He was handsome.
He was charming. He was charismatic. And he was gay. No, he would not have admitted that back in his student
days. The closets back in the 1950s were dead-bolted shut. But in the days that followed—way before it was (in some places) safe, and long, long before Sam and Collins and Gordon, there was Tom Waddell breaking the tape, leaping over hurdles, hurling the javelin into the sky on an arc heading right for that dead bolt.
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