Sports
Expanding horizons
Night OUT series moves into college basketball
Last year’s BB&T Classic at the Verizon Center. (Photo courtesy BB&T Classic)
Recently added to Team D.C.’s Night OUT series is the Night OUT at the BB&T Classic Basketball Tournament to be held at the Verizon Center Dec. 8 at 1 p.m. The event marks the Night OUT series’ first venture into collegiate sports.
“We think the tournament will offer members of the LGBT community a chance to have a different kind of experience other than a happy hour at a bar,” says Brent Minor, executive director of Team D.C. “College basketball games have a completely different vibe than professional basketball games.”
The BB&T Classic has been held annually since 1995 and has served over the years to showcase some of the best college basketball programs in the D.C. metro area. This year’s event will be a double header and will feature three local colleges and the Oklahoma Sooners.
Rookie Atlantic 10 Conference members, George Mason University will take on Big 12 Conference powerhouse, Oklahoma, which made its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2009 last season at March Madness 2013.
In the other game at the Verizon Center, future Big 10 members, the University of Maryland will clash with Atlantic 10 Conference team, George Washington University. The Maryland Terrapins last made it to the season ending NCAA Tournament in 2010.
The BB&T Classic is a fundraiser for the Children’s Charities Foundation and came to fruition after Former U.S. Ambassador Peter Teeley and a group of Washington-area business and professional leaders founded the Children’s Charities Foundation in 1994.
The Children’s Charities Foundation has distributed nearly $9 million to charities in the Washington metropolitan area including the District, Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties in Maryland; Fairfax and Arlington Counties in Virginia and in the city of Alexandria.
In an effort to beef up the spectator numbers of the BB&T Classic, which saw attendance of 10,200 in 2012, the Tournament has applied for “exempt” status within the NCAA. That is, NCAA Bylaw 17.3.5.1.1, also known as the “qualifying regular-season multi-team event.”
An adjustment to the rule governing “exempt” tournaments was created in 2006 allowing up to four games played under the funding of a single multi-team event to count as just one against the NCAA-prescribed maximum of 28 regular-season games. Teams not participating in a multi-team event can play a total of 29 regular season contests.
Teeley is confident that an “exempt” D.C. tournament can draw teams away from exotic locales such as Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico.
“The rich history that Washington, D.C. has to offer is a big draw for college-age kids,” Teeley says. “I am confident that the exempt status will enable us to draw good teams to the area.”
Another popular notion of the multi-team event format is that teams get to play on neutral courts and prepares them for the kind of atmosphere they can expect in the postseason.
The “tip-off” event for the 19th annual BB&T Classic Tournament is the black-tie 2013 BasketBALL Gala, to be held at the Washington Hilton Dec. 7 at 6:30 p.m.
As a special bonus to all Night OUT attendees who buy a ticket through Team D.C., media sponsor the Washington Blade and Ciroc will host a private party between the two games on Dec. 8 in the Acela Lounge at the Verizon Center. Ciroc will provide the first 100 people with a free drink and the party will remain open through the second game.
Tickets for the doubleheader are $30 and can be purchased at teamdc.org.
Children’s Charities Foundation is online at ccfdc.org.
The Baltimore Orioles will take on the Washington Nationals on Friday, June 26 at 7 p.m. for Pride Night at Oriole Park.
The first 15,000 fans will receive an exclusive Pride Night Orioles jersey. The Washington Blade is a media sponsor of this event.
To purchase tickets, visit Orioles.com/Tickets.
Sports
Minor league team in York, Pa., forfeits Pride Night game after some players refuse to wear special jersey
City is roughly 20 miles north of Md. border
An independent minor league baseball team says it is forfeiting a game because some of its players refused to wear a special Pride Night jersey.
The Atlantic League Pro Baseball’s York Revolution were planning to hold their 11th annual Pride Night event Thursday for a game against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs.
But the Revolution announced the day of the game that it wouldn’t be played. York is about 20 miles north of the Maryland line. The Blue Crabs play in Waldorf.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Sports
Jason Collins dies at 47
First openly gay man to actively play for major sports team battled brain cancer
Jason Collins, the first openly gay man to actively play for a major professional sports team, died on Tuesday after a battle with brain cancer. He was 47.
The California native had briefly played for the Washington Wizards in 2013 before coming out in a Sports Illustrated op-ed.
Collins in 2014 became the first openly gay man to play in a game for a major American professional sports league when he played 11 minutes during a Brooklyn Nets game. He wore jersey number 98 in honor of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student murdered outside of Laramie, Wyo., in 1998.
Collins told the Washington Blade in 2014 that his life was “exponentially better” since he came out. Collins the same year retired from the National Basketball Association after 13 seasons.
Collins married his husband, Brunson Green, in May 2025.
The NBA last September announced Collins had begun treatment for a brain tumor. Collins on Dec. 11, 2025, announced he had Stage 4 glioblastoma.
“We are heartbroken to share that Jason Collins, our beloved husband, son, brother and uncle, has died after a valiant fight with glioblastoma,” said Collins’s family in a statement the NBA released. “Jason changed lives in unexpected ways and was an inspiration to all who knew him and to those who admired him from afar. We are grateful for the outpouring of love and prayers over the past eight months and for the exceptional medical care Jason received from his doctors and nurses. Our family will miss him dearly.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Collins’s “impact and influence extended far beyond basketball as he helped make the NBA, WNBA, and larger sports community more inclusive and welcoming for future generations.”
“He exemplified outstanding leadership and professionalism throughout his 13-year NBA career and in his dedicated work as an NBA Cares Ambassador,” said Silver. “Jason will be remembered not only for breaking barriers, but also for the kindness and humanity that defined his life and touched so many others.”
“To call Jason Collins a groundbreaking figure for our community is simply inadequate. We truly lost a giant today,” added Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson in a statement. “He came out as gay — while still playing — at a time when men’s athletes simply did not do that. But as he powerfully demonstrated in his final years in the league and his post-NBA career, stepping forward as he did boldly changed the conversation.”
“He was and will always be a legend for the LGBTQ+ community, and we are heartbroken to hear of his passing at the young age of 47,” she said. “Our hearts go out to his family and loved ones. We will keep fighting on in his honor until the day everyone can be who they are on their terms.”
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