Thomas Robert Payne (born November 19, 1950) is a former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player, professional boxer and a convicted

serial rapist A serial rapist is someone who commits multiple rapes, whether with multiple victims or a single victim repeatedly over a period of time. Some serial rapists target children. The terms ''sexual predator'', ''repeat rape'' and ''multiple offending ...

. A 7-foot, 2-inch center, Payne played with the

Atlanta Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays its home games at ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

(NBA) during the 1971-1972 season. He was also the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

ever to play basketball for the

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

Early years

The eldest of nine children, Payne broke one record in birth; he was the longest baby ever born at the local hospital. He grew up in a home where academics were stressed; his father had attained the rank of master sergeant in the

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before retiring, and his mother had a bachelor's degree in biology. His eight siblings were also well-educated, with a total of fourteen college degrees. Despite his height and incredible physical skills, Payne was basically a newcomer to basketball. He didn't play organized basketball until his sophomore season at Shawnee High School at

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. By his senior season, he was one of the most coveted players in the nation, with

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

and

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

recruiting him. On June 9, 1969, the high-school All-American signed with Kentucky; he was not only the tallest player ever to play at the school at that time, he was also legendary coach

Adolph Rupp Adolph Frederick Rupp (September 2, 1901 – December 10, 1977) was an American college basketball coach. He is ranked seventh in total victories by a men's NCAA Division I college coach, winning 876 games in 41 years of coaching at the Univ ...

's first-ever African-American player.

University of Kentucky

Touted as "another

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" (the player later known as Kareem Abdul Jabbar), Payne struggled in adjusting to college life at Kentucky. A low entering test score prevented him from playing on the Kentucky freshman team. (Freshmen were ineligible to play varsity basketball at the time.) He instead played for an AAU team called "Jerry's Restaurant." Payne boosted his grades and gained eligibility to play during his sophomore season, averaging 17 points and 10 rebounds per game, earning all-

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 o ...

honors along the way. Impressive as these numbers were, signs of trouble developed during the season. In a road game against the

Tennessee Volunteers The Tennessee Volunteers and Lady Volunteers are the 20 male and female varsity intercollegiate athletics programs that represent the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Volunteers compete in Division I of the National Collegi ...

, Payne flipped Jim Woodall head over heels battling for a rebound. The referees whistled Payne for a

flagrant foul In basketball, a flagrant foul is a personal foul that involves excessive or violent contact that could injure the fouled player. A flagrant foul may be unintentional or purposeful; the latter type is also called an "intentional foul" in the Nati ...

and ejected him. In the rematch against Tennessee at Kentucky, Payne again flagrantly fouled Woodall, and was ejected from this game also. Payne was also ejected from a home game against Alabama for objecting to a referee's call. Payne's temper was exacerbated by

racial slur The following is a list of ethnic slurs or ethnophaulisms or ethnic epithets that are, or have been, used as insinuations or allegations about members of a given ethnicity or racial group or to refer to them in a derogatory, pejorative, or oth ...

s that he heard when playing in opposing venues. For all his temper, Payne continued to improve during the season, and dominated opponents. He scored 34 points in one game against Georgia Bulldogs, and 39 against

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

. The future looked bright for Payne after he scored 30 points against Auburn, in a game that clinched the Southeastern Conference regular season title for Kentucky. During the summer however, Payne experienced a variety of troubles. In August, a police officer cited him for speeding in his new Cadillac. The car was registered to a

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

auto dealer; it was rumored that teams from the NBA and American Basketball Association were coveting Payne and that the car was a gift from the

Pittsburgh Condors The Pittsburgh Condors were a professional basketball team in the original American Basketball Association (ABA). Originally called the Pittsburgh Pipers, they were a charter franchise of the ABA and captured the first league title. The team pla ...

of the latter league to apply for the ABA draft. Payne also had nine hours of incomplete grades that needed to be made up before he could return to Kentucky. With the slim likelihood of being eligible to play the following season, Payne left Kentucky and joined thirteen other underclassmen in the NBA's first-ever supplemental draft.

Professional basketball

Payne was drafted by the

and, during the 1971–1972 season, averaged 4.1 points in 29 games. During the season, his mother, a major influence in his life, died.

Professional boxing record

, - , align="center" colspan=10, 2 Wins (2 knockouts), 2 Losses , - , align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3", Res. , align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3", Record , align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3", Opponent , align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3", Type , align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3", Rd., Time , align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3", Date , align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3", Location , align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3", Notes , -align=center , Loss , 2-2 , align=left, Randy Davis , KO , , 1 , 1985/06/06 , , align=left, El Cortez Hotel, San Diego, California, USA , align=left, , -align=center , Win , 2-1 , align=left, Richie Montes , TKO , , 1 , 1985/02/21 , , align=left, El Cortez Hotel, San Diego, California, USA , align=left, , -align=center , Loss , 1-1 , align=left, Ricky Reese , KO , , 1 , 1984/08/27 , , align=left, Forum, Inglewood, California, USA , align=left, , -align=center , Win , 1-0 , align=left, Victor Serrano , KO , , 4 , 1984/06/23 , , align=left, Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, California, USA , align=left, , -align=center

Legal issues

In 1972, Payne was convicted of raping a woman and served five years in a Georgia prison. After completing his sentence in Georgia, Payne served six years in a Kentucky prison on separate rape charges before being paroled in 1983. However, Payne was again convicted of rape in 1986, this time in California. Payne was paroled in California in 2000, only to return to prison in Kentucky for a parole violation. Payne was paroled in January 2019. Payne said in a 2015 interview with

WHAS-TV WHAS-TV (channel 11) is a television station in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on West Chestnut Street in Downtown Louisville, and its transmitter is located in ru ...

that he regretted his past behavior and was reformed.

References

External links

Tom Payne's career NBA statistics
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Payne, Tom 1950 births Living people African-American basketball players American men's basketball players American people convicted of rape American prisoners and detainees American sportspeople convicted of crimes Atlanta Hawks players Basketball players from Louisville, Kentucky Crimes in Louisville, Kentucky Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball players Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) People extradited within the United States Prisoners and detainees of Kentucky Prisoners and detainees of Georgia (U.S. state) Prisoners and detainees of California 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople