The San Francisco Track and Field Club — founded by gay decathlete Tom Waddell 40 years ago — still meets regularly. 

In 1981 Waddell created the Gay Olympics and began recruiting people to play. After a lawsuit from the U.S. Olympic Committee, the name of the event was changed to The Gay Games, and after a successful first year the games still occur every 4 years in Waddell’s honor.

This week on Out In The Bay, meet Rick Thoman, a track and field athlete who shares 40 years of memories with the San Francisco Track and Field Club. Plus, Alice Smith joins us to preview the 14th Annual Pride Meet, taking place June 18th at San Francisco State University.

We also hear from reporter Lusen Mendel on how and why the “singular they” went from fringe to forefront in less than a decade.

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The Executive Producer of Out In The Bay is Eric Jansen. This edition of Out in the Bay was produced by Christopher Beale, Lusen Mendel and Andrew Sturner.