Player’s death brings ‘shock and heartache’ to UK athletics
Ben Jordan, the pitcher on the University of Kentucky baseball team who joined the short-handed basketball team for the 2019-20 season, has died. He was 22.
UK’s baseball program tweeted the news of Jordan’s death. “Our hearts are broken today,” the program tweeted. “Rest easy, @ben3jordan. You will forever be part of us.”
In a statement, UK baseball Coach Nick Mingione said the team was experiencing “shock and heartache” upon learning of Jordan’s death. The school did not announce a cause of death.
“We are devastated to learn of Ben Jordan’s tragic passing last night,” Mingione said. “There are no words to express the shock and heartache our team is feeling with the loss of Ben. He was an absolute joy to coach and be around. His coaches, teammates and brothers loved him dearly. His smile, his sense of humor and love for this university will never be forgotten. He will be missed beyond measure.”
In another statement, UK Coach John Calipari spoke of the impact Jordan made in his one season with the basketball team.
“Our hearts are broken today,” Calipari said. “We learned early this morning that we have lost Ben Jordan. It is difficult for me to express and to put into words what a tragedy it is to lose a young person too early. Ben impacted our team last season in so many ways with his kind heart, his big smile and his wonderful personality. He cared so deeply about this place and it meant so much to him to be a part of this team. We are grieving today over the loss of a teammate and a brother, but Ben will not be forgotten.”
UK Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart spoke of “profound grief” upon learning of Jordan’s death.
“Ben loved and cherished being a Wildcat,” Barnhart said in a statement. “He had a servant’s heart and answered the call whenever asked, including putting his promising baseball career on hold to help the basketball team when it needed him.”
A native of Olive Hill, Jordan took on the role of competing against Nick Richards in practice. That freed up Nate Sestina and EJ Montgomery to practice at the power forward position.
Jordan, who was 6-foot-9, played in two games: against Eastern Kentucky and Mount St. Mary’s. He missed his only shot.
When Jordan joined the UK basketball team in late October of 2019, a business in Olive Hill commemorated this development with a T-shirt. As UK basketball coach John Calipari pointed out, Jordan’s many baseball accomplishments never merited a T-shirt, but joining UK basketball as a practice player did.
Wanda Antrobus, the owner of Stylish Stitches (the company that sold the T-shirts), explained.
“Everybody is a huge basketball fan and everybody bleeds blue,” she said. “We are in the BBN, which is Big Ben Nation here.”
The T-shirt business was short-lived. NCAA rules prohibited a player profiting off his or her name, image and likeness. Although neither Jordan nor his family were receiving profits, UK sent a cease-and-desist order to Stylish Stitches.
Before coming to UK, Jordan was a two-sport athlete for West Carter High School. He was a right-handed pitcher on the baseball team.
As a basketball player, Jordan finished his high school career as West Carter’s all-time leading rebounder and shot-blocker. In his senior season, he averaged 12.2 rebounds and was named Eastern Kentucky Conference Defensive Player of the Year.
Jordan did not play baseball in his freshman season at UK (2017-18) as he recovered from Tommy John surgery. In 2018-19, he played in 10 games, pitching eight and two-thirds innings and giving up eight hits and seven runs while striking out eight.
This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 11:45 AM.
