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Transgender Woman First College Athlete to Play on Men’s and Women’s Teams

Posted by on Dec 17, 2012 in Sports | 2 comments

How about a round of applause for Gabrielle Ludwig?

In the days leading up to the game, people had plenty to say about 6-foot-6-inch, 220-pound Gabrielle Ludwig, who joined the Lady Saints as a mid-season walk-on and became, according to advocates, the first transsexual to play college hoops as both a man and a woman.

Coach Corey Cafferata worried the outside noise was getting to his players, particularly the 50-year-old Ludwig.

A pair of ESPN radio hosts had laughed at her looks, referring to her as “it.” (Listen to the radio hosts’ comments here). And online threats and anonymous calls prompted the two-year college to assign the Navy veteran of Operation Desert Storm a safer parking space next to the gym and two police guards.

Ludwig gave in to the cacophony of naysayers leading up to her first game and asked her teammates on Mission College’s women’s basketball team the opportunity to ask her to quit the team. To her surprise and delight, the team told her if she didn’t play, they wouldn’t either.

Go read the entire account of Ludwig’s first night on the court, and how not a single person heckled her, ESPN radio hosts aside.