Books

Randy Boyd, Outsports contributor, agreed to a Q & A with Carol de Blazer regarding his new novel, Walt Loves the Bearcat, his newly released fourth book that chronicles the story of America's first superstar athlete, in football no less, to declare his love for another man.

CdeB: Up until the “coming out” speech, the novel is essentially a narrative; the events may not have happened in this version of the world but nothing is outside the physical laws of the universe. After the “coming out” speech, the narrative takes a back seat to philosophical discussion, magic, science fiction complete with flying stadiums – Harry Potter meets Sports Illustrated, if you will. I find it easy to imagine a prominent male athlete living closeted and going to great lengths to hide it. I can even imagine a prominent male athlete coming out. But is what happens after a lot harder to imagine? Or did the “coming out” release magic in the world?

RB: Walt Loves the Bearcat is meant to resemble an amusement park ride that starts with familiar modes of transport (airplanes, cars, golf carts). Eventually, during the ride, the transport gets faster, the journey blurrier, the wheels come off and next thing you know, we’ve taken off from the rollercoaster tracks and are soaring through space, beyond our wildest imagination, which is exactly where the sports world needs to go in order to accept all athletes, regardless of who they fall in love with.

Structure-wise, the book is two separate dreams by two separate dreamers. Essentially, the first dream is represented by the first, more narrative half of the book. The second dream is represented by the more fantastical adventures of the book’s second half. What “releases the magic” is the Hit @ the PITT, aka the Comet of the Pittsburgh Stealers, aka the unidentified flying object that comes from the cheap seats at Three Rivers Stadium. That changes everything.

CdeB: There are really two taboos broken: same sex and interracial. The issue of race is discussed, but following the “coming out speech” the reactions are to Walter loving a man, not Walter loving an African-American man. Sadly, in this society even a close non-sexual interracial friendship would raise some eyebrows, to say the least. Do you think athletes may be more accepting about interracial friendship/relationship than the general public because of the attitude that “if you are on my team I don’t care what color you are (as long as it isn’t lavender)?”

RB: After the pro quarterback and his buddy go public, they purposely “cocoon” themselves in their own world to shield out negative energy. Like they state on national TV: “There are no sides to our relationship, so there are no sides to take.”

Amongst themselves, Walt and the Bearcat deal with sex and race, mostly through humor. Otherwise, for the most part, they’re not interested in the world’s opinions.

That said, with all the mixed marriages in the sports, one could argue the sports world is more open-minded and open-hearted than the world at large when it comes to matters of interracial relationships and racial sensitivity, hard as that might be to imagine.

CdeB: Walter and Bear do not like to define themselves with the word “gay” as they feel it puts them into a boxed category. They prefer to just call themselves sexual. But the two ex-cheerleaders are repeatedly referred to as lesbians, or “lesbos”. Why is the word lesbian OK but the word gay too confining?

RB: Walter and Bear object to being labeled, but, like all complex individuals, Walter and Bear are not immune to labeling and stereotyping others, for better or worse. Call it the author’s attempt to make his characters fallible human beings of their time.

CdeB: Bear has had some of his writings, like Rocket Brothers, altered to fit “perceptions”. Is this also your experience? Care to amplify?

RB: Hollywood is full of stories about movies starting out as one thing, then ending up as something else due to the madness of the business. One of my favorite examples, true or not, I don’t know, was that My Stepmother is An Alien was originally a tender story dealing with child abuse, but morphed into the spacey “hilarious” comedy with Kim Basinger. Rocket Brothers starts as the story of two intelligent black scientists, and becomes Rocket Bruthas, the story of two urban fools at space camp. Then there’s Rocket Bruthas 2: Homies in Space. All part of screenwriter Bear’s turn on the Hollywood Insanity ride at the amusement park.

CdeB: Any reason why the particular cities – Seattle and Chicago – were chosen? And why football was chosen rather than another sport?

RB: Of the major sports, football players most represent the ultimate male gladiators, what with the physical nature of the game. Plus, I’ve always loved the old Martin & Lewis comedy, That’s My Boy, where Dean is the college football stud and Jerry is his typical wacky self. I wanted my boys to have that kind of fun in Walt Loves the Bearcat.

As far as Seattle and Chicago, all the locations in the novel were chosen for storytelling purposes. To make a long, complicated story short, the physical paths in the book represent the way the loops and twists and turns appear on the roller coaster in the author’s mind.

CdeB: I had to laugh when I first “met” the character Reggie Snowman, since the name seemed an obvious spoof on Reggie White, although the two individuals are hardly identical. Truth or dare, Randy, were you having a bit of fun there?

RB: Actually, no. Reggie Snowman in Walt Loves the Bearcat is of no relation to the late, real life Reggie White. I didn’t have any one person in mind when creating the hip-hop DB turned rapper turned movie star turned urban clothes designer. Isn’t that every aspiring hip-hop athletes’ dream? LOL.

CdeB: In previous interviews, you stated: “There’s a line in the book: At some point, 110 % of the population will question your sexuality because you once were and always will be: a male cheerleader.” Does that apply to Bush?

RB: I do believe Leno et al. have used President Bush’s cheerleader past as a punch line to jokes, jokes that are meant to be funny, if you think of male cheerleaders as being weak and/or worth less than other kinds of men.

CdeB: Does Hail Larry’s Wife have a name?

RB: Absolutely. She has a first and a last name. That’s one of the fun word games the little boy inside me is playing with his blocks (or as we adults call it, the keyboard).

CdeB: Which Yeager/Coleman pair is the dream? And which is reality?

RB: Tell me about it! And if you can’t, dream of it!

CdeB: Anything you care to add?

RB: Welcome to the Bearcat Universe. Enjoy your stay.

CdeB: Thanks, Randy, and remember to dream a better dream.

RB: Rightbackatcha.

Related: Read an excerpt from "Walt Loves the Bearcat"