Transsexual Gabrielle Ludwig returns to college court
Eric Prisbell, USA TODAY Sports
2012-12-04
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2012/12/04/college-basketball-transgender-player-gabrielle-ludwig-robert-ludwig-mission-college/1744703/Ludwig nervously runs her hand over the sock approaching the tattoo on her leg. She has long been eager yet apprehensive about this moment. Can she still play? What will she hear from adults in the stands? What will her opponents on the court whisper? And can she keep her emotions in check? Glancing up from the dirty rug, she says she is calm. She didn't know if this day could ever arrive: Tonight, before spectators who will cheer and curse her, she hits the reset button on her life.
"Your name will be called," Cafferata assures her about playing time. "Your name will be called."
Few outside this room know it all comes back to that name. They don't know she is 50 and last played a college basketball game in 1980 – as a man. They don't know the odyssey: one failed suicide attempt, two failed marriages; one 19-year-old daughter who insists on calling her dad, two girls who insist on calling her Momma Gabbi.
