October 22, 1990: The British tabloid newspaper The Sun publishes a story with the headline, "£1m Football Star: I AM GAY." The player is Justin Fashanu, then with East London-based Leyton Orient, but had been one of the 1st soccer players in Britain sold for £1 million, in 1981, going from Norfolk-based Norwich City to the East Midlands' Nottingham Forest.
The forward, the son of a Nigerian lawyer and a Guyanese nurse, was long past his best by this point, and probably needed the money. It's the only viable excuse to go to the most hated newspaper in Britain, known for its scurrilous lies.
Fashanu was telling the truth about being gay. What is not known is whether the most sensational part of the story was true: That he met a married Member of Parliament, of the Conservative Party no less, presumably white (Fashanu was black), in a London gay bar, and that they went home together and began an affair. The MP has never been identified.
Most of Fashanu's teammates were supportive. Most of English football fans were not. It was still hard enough to be a black footballer in England, but to be a gay one was too much for the typically parochial English footie fan to handle, and he was relentlessly abused in the stands.
In 1995, he came to America, to play for the Atlanta Ruckus, a team in the A-League, the top American soccer league before MLS began play the next year. In 1998, while coaching a minor-league team in the Baltimore area, the Maryland Mania, he was accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old boy. He fled to London, and on May 3, 1998, he hanged himself, claiming in his suicide note that "I realised that I had already been presumed guilty. I do not want to give any more embarrassment to my friends and family." He was just 37 years old.
"Fash" was the 1st man in British football to come out of the closet, A few have in other countries, including Robbie Rogers in America, and it's no big deal when a female soccer player does it. But for a male player, especially in English "lad culture"? It took until May 17, 2022, for Jake Daniels to become the 2nd. At age 17, the forward for Blackpool F.C. wasn't even born yet when Fashanu died.
It should also be noted that Blackpool is currently in The Championship, England's 2nd division, not the Premier League, the top flight. There still hasn't been an openly gay player who has played in the PL since its founding in 1992. Fashanu's last top-flight team was Newcastle United, in 1991. He did, however, play in the Scottish top flight after that, with Edinburgh team Heart of Midlothian in the 1993-94 season.
Amal Fashanu, Justin's niece, who runs a charitable foundation in his name, said, "If my Uncle Justin were alive, I know he would have been one of the first people to have contacted Jake to offer his support and best wishes. Justin's wish was to create a society where people could simply be kinder to one another, and where bigotry doesn't exist."
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October 22, 1990 was a Monday. Jonathan Lipnicki, best known as a child actor, was born.
Baseball season had ended 2 days earlier, with the Cincinnati Reds sweeping the Oakland Athletics in the World Series. On ABC Monday Night Football, the Cincinnati Bengals beat the Cleveland Browns, 34-13 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
The NBA season began 13 days later. Only 1 game was played in the NHL, and it was an "Original Six" matchup: The New York Rangers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-1 at Madison Square Garden. The Broadway Blueshirts got goals from 5 different players: John Ogrodnick, Kevin Miller, Paul Broten, Darren Turcotte and Randy Moller.
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