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Kentucky honors the first black players in the SEC
Posted on 9/23/16 at 10:48 am
Posted on 9/23/16 at 10:48 am
quote:
LEXINGTON, Ky. – As former Kentucky football players Nate Northington, Wilbur Hackett and Houston Hogg were recognized Thursday for their role in integrating the Southeastern Conference, the memory of teammate Greg Page hung heavy over the ceremony. Page, who followed Northington as the second African-American player to sign a football scholarship in the SEC but died following a practice injury before making his UK debut, was honored alongside the trio with a statue unveiled outside UK’s new Football Training Center. “None of us will ever forget the tragic cost that Greg Page and his family paid to make this possible,” Northington said in his speech before a sizeable crowd for the statue unveiling. Near the end of his speech, Northington noted that, when asked on a questionnaire why he came to Kentucky, Page had responded that he wanted to play for UK and “help open the way for more negro athletes to play ball here.”
quote:
“This is not a day about the athletic department, it’s not a day about our football team,” Barnhart said. “It’s not a day even about this university as much as it’s a day about how four guys stood up and had incredible courage to do something that had never been done before.”
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Posted on 9/23/16 at 10:53 am to Dire Wolf
The only time uk will be relevant this season
Posted on 9/23/16 at 10:53 am to Dire Wolf
The only time uk will be relevant this season
Posted on 9/23/16 at 10:55 am to Dire Wolf
quote:
Kentucky honors the first black players in the SEC
By reminding them they played for Kentucky football?
Posted on 9/23/16 at 10:57 am to Dire Wolf
Kentucky
Posted on 9/23/16 at 10:59 am to Dire Wolf
Posted on 9/23/16 at 11:00 am to Fan of Football
shotcaller, Fan of Football = certified racists
Posted on 9/23/16 at 11:05 am to Eric Nies Grind Time
It was racist to make them play for Kentucky
Posted on 9/23/16 at 11:18 am to EKG
The Greg Page story is pretty sad. I had no idea. Glad that this is being honored. Great men that did something that took major balls.
Read more here: LINK
quote:
On Aug. 22, 1967, the Kentucky Wildcats were not practicing in full pads, were in shorts, shoulder pads and helmets. The "pursuit drill" in which Greg Page suffered the neck injury that first left him paralyzed and then led to his death was not supposed to involve contact.
Explaining what went so wrong, Dave Kindred wrote in the Sept. 30, 1967, edition of The Courier-Journal "the defensive line was to surround the quarterback, moving at half speed with no intentions of making a tackle. But Greg stumbled. Someone shoved the quarterback. They bumped together. And the instant Greg's neck was snapped back by the collision, he suffered a paralyzing injury to his spinal cord."
For 38 days, Page lay in intensive care at the University of Kentucky Medical Center unable to move. Northington was the only UK player allowed to see Page. "He was conscious, he was in traction with machines, a respirator," Northington said. "It was pretty devastating to see him there and (him) not be able to move."
At 11:25 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 29, Page died.
The next night, after Page's parents asked UK not to cancel its game, Northington made history against Ole Miss. He had hardly broken a sweat before he re-injured his shoulder, which he had initially hurt in a freshman game the season before.
"With my shoulder, I had to go to the hospital," he said. "With Greg (dying the night before), it was all too much to take. I broke down."
On a UK campus where almost no one looked like him, without the roommate he had come to rely on, Northington felt lost. After the accident, Northington went back every night to the dorm room he and Page had shared. All of Greg's stuff was still in the room.
"All of a sudden, to be by yourself, alone, isolated. That's what it seemed like, isolation," Northington said. "I was going to practices, practicing, going through the motions, then going back to the room. I guess I didn't go to a lot of the classes during that time."
Read more here: LINK
Posted on 9/23/16 at 11:31 am to Dire Wolf
Good for Kentucky. If this happened at Ole Miss, the national guard would have to be called in.
Posted on 9/23/16 at 11:34 am to Dire Wolf
I thought Bear Bryant integrated the SEC after the 1970 USC game? 
Posted on 9/23/16 at 11:43 am to Dire Wolf
quote:
The Greg Page story is pretty sad. I had no idea. Glad that this is being honored. Great men that did something that took major balls.
It really is an incredible story. Sad that we have some real pieces of shite on the Rant who have nothing better to do than to troll a thread like this.
Pretty proud that UK is honoring him and his teammates in this way.
Posted on 9/23/16 at 11:44 am to Dire Wolf
Very proud of UK for doing this. I think it shocks a lot of people that UK was the leader in this.
Posted on 9/23/16 at 11:45 am to Dire Wolf
Good show, UK
Posted on 9/23/16 at 11:46 am to BluegrassBelle
Sometimes people try to be funny instead of not being a trashy piece of shite. It's crazy.
Posted on 9/23/16 at 11:47 am to BluegrassBelle
There is an apartment complex of student housing in his name at UK too, near the stadium. Greg Page I mean.
This post was edited on 9/23/16 at 11:53 am
Posted on 9/23/16 at 11:56 am to kywildcatfanone
quote:
Very proud of UK for doing this. I think it shocks a lot of people that UK was the leader in this
I think a lot of people just want to forget Jim Crow happened. My dad is in his mid 60s and his south la high school integrated his junior year. Some crazy stories of his football team those years.
Posted on 9/23/16 at 12:48 pm to Dire Wolf
Technically it was Mizzou, but we weren't SEC yet
1958
1958
Posted on 9/23/16 at 12:48 pm to BammerDelendaEst
quote:
I thought Bear Bryant integrated the SEC after the 1970 USC game
Bama was actually the 7th team in the SEC to integrate. The SEC wasn't "fully" integrated until, I think 1972 when LSU, Georgia and one other that escapes me became integrated but yes UK was first in football. Odd thing is this is right after the UK-Texas Western national championship in basketball where 5 black starters for Texas Western beat an all-white Kentucky team with Pat Riley, Gary Gamble and Jimmy Lemaster. I want to say, and this is odd but UK basketball didn't integrate until 71. Great Kentucky high school players left that state, Wes Unseld being one. Now, Rupp had put forth an effort to recruit black players and had several visit during the mid-late 60's but all opted for Western Kentucky or the Big 10. The SEC's first black player, perry Wallace, who played at Vandy had been recruited by Rupp. Joe B Hall had really butted heads at times with UK admins and even Rupp at certain points. Shortly hereafter Rupp becomes ill and Joe B Hall had taken over and he brought in great black players but the perception of Rupp is somewhat skewed. Hall was able to recruit well because so much misinformation and the perception of Rupp was not correct. Rupp wanted to win. UK football integrated earliest and is a proud accomplishment but it was not the same convincing state politicians to recruit black football players as it was black basketball players. Same way in Alabama. Basketball could have probably integrated in the mid- late 60's. Football was gonna be tougher. Thank you Sam Cunningham.
Posted on 9/23/16 at 12:53 pm to TouchdownTony
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Sam Cunningham.
I always loved this quote "Sam Cunningham did more to integrate Alabama in 60 minutes than Martin Luther King did in 20 years."
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