SOMETHIN'S A-BRUIN

WATCH: UCLA’s College Football Coach First To Say “You Can Play” To Gay Athletes

“At UCLA, we play with integrity and we honor diversity,” says head football coach Jim Mora in the school’s video for the You Can Play project. “We respect all athletes and coaches. If you can play, you can play. And if you can coach, you can coach.”

According to Yahoo! Sports, Mora is the first current college football coach to encourage gay athletes to play for his team, as it were. Former Ohio State coach Jim Tressell told Outlook Columbus magazine in 2010 that he’d welcome gay football players, and though Duke University also made a “You Can Play” video, coach David Cutcliffe was M.I.A.

The video premiered on Monday as part of a symposium attended by about a hundred UCLA coaches and 600 athletes to discuss combating homophobia in campus sports. Though there are no publicly out athletes at UCLA, when asked how many at one point had a gay teammate, half of the audience raised their hands.

Don't forget to share:

Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...

We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock Queerty articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated