‘Always smiling.’ UK players gather with basketball fans to remember Terrence Clarke.
Scores of University of Kentucky students and community members joined the UK men’s basketball team Friday night in grief for the death of former UK player Terrence Clarke.
They gathered outside Wildcat Coal Lodge in silence and lit candles in memory of Clarke, 19, who died Thursday afternoon when he crashed while driving a Hyundai Genesis in Chatsworth, Calif., a suburb of Los Angeles.
Fans left flowers at a makeshift memorial honoring Clarke outside the athletes’ dorm, where a floral wreath was flanked by large photos of Clarke and his No. 5 jerseys.
The vigil included a prayer, a moment of silence and remembrances by some of Clarke’s teammates.
Kentucky forward Keion Brooks Jr. said the candlelight was appropriate.
“A lot of times Terrence was the light in my life,” he said.
Brooks said that if he was having a bad day, Clarke would “come around the corner” with a huge smile on his face and make him feel better.
“All Terrence ever wanted to do was hoop and have fun,” he said, and Clarke always made sure “that everybody around him was going to have a good time” too.
He said Clarke lived with “no fears and no worries,” and he asked those in attendance to “keep his family and his loved ones in your prayers.”
Fellow Wildcat Davion Mintz said that during times when the team was struggling, they “would just wonder, like, why is this dude always happy?”
“It seems like everything is going wrong for him, and he’s just still smiling,” Mintz recalled, “And little did we know he was just being happy for his last moments.”
Clarke, a native of Boston, Mass., entered the NBA Draft last month, after one season at UK that was plagued by injuries. He was in Los Angeles preparing for pre-draft workouts.
“Terrence was just that close to realizing the dream and figuring everything out,” Lance Ware told the assembly.
“Terrence was my brother. Everybody loved him,” he said. “This isn’t going to be easy for anybody.”
This story was originally published April 23, 2021 at 10:37 PM.
