I’m sure that our associate Big Jim Modlin will want to be one of the first people to comment on this article……(JM: hoops star for East Carolina back in the early 1970’s)
Greg Pingston was a star linebacker for Merritt Island High School’s unbeaten state championship team in 1972.
Gina Duncan, at her College Park home in Orlando recently, will undergo the final step to becoming a woman by having sexual-reassignment surgery next spring.
Greg Pingston was one of only 4 sophomores who made the Merritt Island varsity squad in 1970. The others were Dave Taylor, Jimmy Black and Waldo Williams. Pingston went on to play at East Carolina while Black and Williams played at Florida State.
They still talk about the tackle around Merritt Island. Greg Pingston, the baddest player on the baddest team in the state, zeroed in on his victim.
The kid was returning a kick up the sideline in front of the Mustangs’ bench. Pingston locked on to him with his tackling radar.
He angled in at full speed, plunged his helmet into the runner’s chest and drove upward. The runner’s entire body jolted into reverse.
“His chin just exploded with blood,” receiver Mike Garo recalls. “It was the perfect tackle they’d always taught us, but it went beyond that.
“All the guys went nuts. It was totally tribal.”
Pingston hopped up and walked away. After the game he showered, went home and hoped nobody would be around.
He went into his parents’ room and walked to the closet. Then he put on one of his mother’s dresses.
“I felt like I could breathe,” Pingston says.
He didn’t know why. He just knew a woman’s clothes felt as natural as any football jersey he’d ever worn.
Three decades later, it’s his old teammates who are gasping for air.
“Oh, my God, that’s Greg’s voice!”
“Can you believe that?”
Those reactions were left on the office voice mail. A couple of guys had heard the news and called to listen to the greeting. They didn’t hear the beep and realize their comments were being recorded.
It was a little much to process. The anchor of Merritt Island’s state-championship team, the homecoming king, the player everybody measured his manhood against had become . . .
A woman?
“What an ugly woman he’ll make.”
*****Credits to David Whitley of the Orlando Sentinel(Orlando,Florida), to find out more go to www.orlandosentinel.com……Football player becomes a woman……Would you say this qualifies as the most eye-opening story of the week*****