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LOS GATOS — All that mattered was being there.
J McKnight, a transgender man who was a girls’ star four decades ago, provided a memorable moment at the Los Gatos High School Athletics Hall of Fame induction ceremony over the weekend by representing something greater than the splashy statistical achievements recited throughout the evening.
McKnight’s presence gave the audience of 200 people a chance to reflect on touchstone events that showcase society’s shifting attitudes within the world of sports and beyond.
And when saying his final thank you after speaking for 10 minutes, 8 seconds, McKnight received the only standing ovation Saturday at La Rinconada Country Club in Los Gatos.
“When they stood up at the end it felt like my heart was full,” he said. “I really felt like I was embraced and being recognized not only for the athletic achievement but for showing up.”
McKnight, 58, was part of the 15th Hall of Fame class from the close-knit hillside South Bay town. A 10-member selection committee inducted athletes ranging from Steve Lepurin of the class of 1932 to Carlos Alonso, who graduated in 2006.
Other inductees were Gary Bersano, Amy White Hockenbrock, Mitch Mandich, Derek Reichstein, Jay Slivkoff, Chuck Stewart and Anita Reyes Wierima.
Then known as Jennie McKnight while competing in basketball, softball and volleyball in the 1970s, McKnight told a rapt audience how grateful he was that the “flow of history” gave girls a chance to experience the “pure joy of competition” after the passage of the anti-discrimination law Title IX.
“I also have deep gratitude for the flow of history for my being able to show up here as I am, 40 years after I played my last game,” McKnight said.
“To hear that speech was emotional, impressive and it showed how our society continues to change and evolve and accept people who have a different persuasion in life — and actually embrace that,” said Mandich, a football, basketball and track star from the 1960s.
The former Apple executive saw McKnight’s induction as representative of how quickly attitudes in some areas of the country have changed.
“Ten years ago this might not have been able to happen,” Mandich said. “We felt great for J,” but “we all felt great for ourselves. We’ve come this far to a point where we care because it was such a hard journey for J but then we don’t care anymore because it is part of life.”
McKnight, who started identifying as a transgender man four years ago, originally wasn’t going to appear at the annual event that helps raise funds for Wildcats sports programs. He
wanted to avoid the awkwardness of no longer being addressed as a woman.
It was a similar feeling he had as a kid, McKnight told the audience.
“I still carried the shame and fear around the feeling like there was something essentially wrong about me,” he said.
But McKnight softened his stance because of attention from a Bay Area News Group profile on his life and award. He synthesized his life’s arc through a sports analogy, saying athletes never know how it will unfold until a game begins.
“The game will call you into those moments, and life will too,” said McKnight, a psychotherapist in upstate New York.
His wife Rhonda Morton, mother Nancy Avoy, stepfather Don Avoy, brother Tom McKnight, half-brother Kevin Avoy and longtime friend Leslee Hamilton were in attendance. It was difficult to get the entire blended family together at the same time with seven half- or step- brothers and sisters.
“With that kind of rooting section whatever the fears I had don’t matter so much,” McKnight said.
McKnight’s accolades came to the attention of the Los Gatos Athletics Association selection committee through his half-sister Katie Avoy and Hamilton, who was a teammate in basketball and softball.
Hamilton, Guadalupe River Park Conservancy executive director, recounted her friend’s fierceness as a freshman wanting to play in the Girls Athletic Association.
“The GAA excluded freshmen,” she said. “J challenged it. She wanted the right to play.”
McKnight started all four years, including the final two seasons when Los Gatos fielded varsity girls sports in the aftermath of Title IX.
Former Wildcats football coach Butch Cattolico, a selection committee member, said McKnight is the Hall’s first Title IX inductee.
As a multipurpose player, McKnight led the Wildcats’ basketball team to second place in the first Central Coast Section playoffs in 1978. Los Gatos reached the Northern California Tournament of Champions in Oakland where girls’ team competed for the first time. McKnight scored 17 points as the team then known as the “Orange Crush” fell in the first round to Fremont 58-43.
“Pretty impressive to start your career in the small gym playing in your PE uniform and finish up playing at the Oakland Coliseum,” Cattolico said.
McKnight, who was a pitcher and shortstop in softball and setter in volleyball, wore No. 24 on the basketball court. But the athlete didn’t pick the number to pay tribute to his favorite Warriors player at the time –Rick Barry.
McKnight wore it to honor his favorite sports icon, Giants center fielder Willie Mays.
McKnight’s wife didn’t know her spouse was a former basketball star. But Morton knew about his softball playing days because he has remained a devoted Bay Area baseball fan.
“I have learned to watch the Giants,” said Morton, who met her future partner at an improvisational singing event five years ago at Asilomar State Beach.
They met when McKnight, who has been a musician and editor of a gay community newspaper in Boston, identified as a lesbian. Morton identifies as a heterosexual woman with grown children.
“You fall in love with someone,” she said before the ceremony. “You don’t fall in love with labels.”
Morton also didn’t plan to attend the ceremony. But a week ago in Portland, Maine, she had a change of heart.
“Maybe I should be there,” Morton thought.
Like McKnight, she showed up.
