Michael Sam, the first openly gay football player to be drafted by the NFL, will speak in the Standing In Your Truth lecture series at Missouri Western State University next week.

The event is scheduled at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13 in the Kemper Recital Hall, Spratt Hall room 101. The event is free and open to the public.

Sam was an All-American football player at the University of Missouri and was named the Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Year as a senior.

Before the 2014 NFL Draft, he publicly came out as gay. He was drafted by the St. Louis Rams in the seventh round. Sam was cut by the Rams after the team’s training camp, and was briefly on the Dallas Cowboys practice squad.

He signed with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League in 2015, and became the first openly gay player to play in the CFL on Aug. 7 of that year.