Nathaniel "Nate" Northington (born 1947) was the first

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

to play

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

in the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(SEC). He became the first black

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholarsh ...

athlete to play in an athletic contest of any kind in the SEC when his

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...

Wildcats The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat (''Felis silvestris'') and the African wildcat (''F. lybica''). The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus, while the ...

opened their 1967 season against

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

Bloomington, Indiana Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County, Indiana, Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the List of municipalities in Indiana, seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside ...

on September 23 of that year. One week later, he became the first black scholarship athlete to play in a contest involving two SEC teams when the Wildcats hosted Ole Miss in

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, Fayette County. By population, it is the List of cities in Kentucky, second-largest city in Kentucky and List of United States cities by popul ...

. Northington was a member of Kentucky's 1966 freshman team along with African-American teammate Greg Page. (At the time, freshmen were not allowed to play on NCAA varsity teams). Before the 1967 season, Page became paralyzed after suffering a spinal cord injury during an August practice. Northington was the only Wildcats player allowed by Kentucky athletic officials to visit Page in the hospital. Page died from his complications 38 days later – on the night before Northington's and Kentucky's game against Ole Miss. Northington only played three minutes before dislocating his shoulder, and Kentucky would go on to lose 26-13. Immediately after returning from Page's funeral a few days later, Wildcats head coach Charlie Bradshaw put the team through a three-hour practice. Page had been Northington's roommate and pillar of support as they had jointly become the first two African-American men to play on a Kentucky football team. Northington was griefstricken about the loss of his best friend and missed some classes over the ensuing weeks. Five games into the season, his meal ticket revoked by the coach as penalty for missing classes meaning he could no longer eat with his teammates, Northington left the Wildcats team and later transferred to

Western Kentucky University Western Kentucky University is a public university in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It was founded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1906, though its roots reach back a quarter-century earlier. It operates regional campuses in Glasgow, Elizabethtow ...

. In 2016, the University of Kentucky unveiled a new statue of Northington, Page, Wilbur Hackett and Houston Hogg in recognition of the first four African-American football players in the SEC.

Footnotes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Northington, Nate 1947 births Living people Kentucky Wildcats football players African-American players of American football 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople