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Nate Northington and the late Greg Page, the first black players in Kentucky history in 1967, were inducted into the UK Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday night.
But the school wasn’t done honoring the two friends. At the Hall of Fame dinner that night, Kentucky announced to Northington and Page’s family that the two players along with Wilbur Hackett and Houston Hogg — who came the next year and became the first black players to finish their careers at Kentucky – will be immortalized with statues outside Commonwealth Stadium.
“It’s the right thing to do. It’s four guys that changed the face of college athletics, especially in the South, and it’s a story of courage and a story of honor,” athletic director Mitch Barnhart told The Courier-Journal. “So to have an opportunity to let that be the face of our football program going forward is a remarkable thing.
Page died after sustaining an injury in practice and a grieving Northington left the school but not before pleading with Hackett and Hogg to finish what he and Page pioneered at Kentucky. At the dinner, Northington was “speechless” when he found out that the four will be immortalized by UK.
All four of the former players’ families attended Friday night’s dinner.
You can read the entire story here at The Courier-Journal’s website.
Born and raised in Gainesville, Talal joined SDS in 2015 after spending 2 years in Bristol as an ESPN researcher. Previously, Talal worked at The Gainesville Sun.
