Clark U Hosts Talk by Michael Sam

From Clark University:

WORCESTER, MA — Clark University will host “From Hitchcock High to the NFL: I am Michael Sam,” a lecture by the first openly gay player to be drafted in the NFL, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 29, in the Jefferson Academic Center, Room 320. The event is free and open to the public.

Sam is a professional football player; he is a defensive end and a free agent. He was a consensus All-American and the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Defensive Player of the Year as a senior at the University of Missouri. After completing his college football career, Sam publicly came out as gay.

Sam was picked in the seventh round of the 2014 NFL draft by the St. Louis Rams; he was the first publicly gay player to be drafted in the NFL. The team released him at the end of training camp. Sam also spent time on the Dallas Cowboys' practice squad before being waived. He signed with the Montreal Alouettes before the 2015 season, and became the first publicly gay player to play in the Canadian Football League (CFL).

Sam was recognized with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2014 ESPY Awards. He was named one of GQ's Men of the Year in 2014, and was a finalist for Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year.

During his talk, Sam will chronicle his journey from serving as a water boy for Hitchcock High’s varsity team, to his time at the University of Michigan where he was awarded a scholarship and named a first-team All American, to his start in the NFL.

This talk is a part of the Clark University’s Speaker’s Forum, a student-run initiative that brings prominent guest speakers to campus throughout the year. For more information, call 508-793-7549.
Founded in 1887 in Worcester, Massachusetts, Clark University is a liberal arts-based research university addressing social and human imperatives on a global scale. Nationally renowned as a college that changes lives, Clark is emerging as a transformative force in higher education today. LEEP (Liberal Education and Effective Practice) is Clark’s pioneering model of education that combines a robust liberal arts curriculum with life-changing world and workplace experiences. Clark’s faculty and students work across boundaries to develop solutions to complex challenges in the natural sciences, psychology, geography, management, urban education, Holocaust and genocide studies, environmental studies, and international development and social change. The Clark educational experience embodies the University’s motto: Challenge convention. Change our world.

Photo via Clark University.