A former Kentucky athletics director to be honored as trailblazer in integrating SEC
Alabama will recognize the late C.M. Newton’s enduring legacy this coming basketball season by naming a game in his honor.
The Tide will play Colorado State in Birmingham on Dec. 21 in what will be known as the C.M. Newton Classic.
His son, Samford Director of Athletics Martin Newton, thanked Alabama for naming the game for his father, the former athletics director at the University of Kentucky.
“We all want to be remembered,” Newton said in a telephone conversation Wednesday. “For a son who idolized his father, it’s even more sweet.”
The idea of honoring his father began with a conversation with Mike Eady, an owner of the Birmingham-based Knight Eady marketing company.
“We were just talking,” Martin Newton said. “With all the racial tension going on, what are ways we can do things to make a difference in this community? We just thought this could be a way of bringing people together.”
Alabama Director of Athletics Greg Byrne, who formerly worked in UK’s athletics department, liked the idea. Martin Newton said the hope is that there will be an annual C.M. Newton Classic on Alabama’s schedule.
“It should be an exciting game for the fans and a great way to honor a legendary figure in college basketball,” Alabama Coach Nate Oats said in a news release.
C.M. Newton was a pioneer in integrating basketball in Alabama and in the Southeastern Conference.
A mere six years after Governor George Wallace stood in the doorway at the University of Alabama to symbolize his opposition to integration, Newton signed the program’s first Black player, Wendell Hudson, in 1969. Hudson was only the second Black player on an SEC team.
Then four years later, Alabama became the first SEC team to start an all-Black lineup: Ray Odums, T.R. Dunn, Charles Cleveland, Charles “Boonie” Russell and Leon Douglas.
When asked what motivated his father to integrate the program, Martin Newton said, “You know, I don’t think he had a motivation. I think his thing was he wanted to treat everybody well. Everybody is the same. I don’t think there was ever ‘I want to be the first to do this’ or ‘I want to be a pioneer.’
“No. 1, he wanted to win. And he felt the best way to win at the University of Alabama was to get the best players and the homegrown talent to stay in Alabama. And those best players — the Reggie Kings, the Wendell Hudsons, the T.R. Dunns — they just all happened to be Black.”
Later, as Kentucky Director of Athletics, C.M. Newton hired Tubby Smith as coach of the school’s iconic basketball program.
“He wanted to win,” Martin Newton said of hiring Smith to succeed Rick Pitino in 1997. “It had nothing to do with Tubby being the first Black coach. That sounds simple. . . . We never had any conversation about Black-White. It was people. And I think that’s truly how he lived his life.”
Integration brought unprecedented success to Alabama basketball.
C.M. Newton had a win-loss record of 211-123 in 12 seasons as Alabama coach. That included three straight SEC regular-season championships beginning in 1973-74. That’s believed to be the only time a program other than Kentucky’s has won three straight.
But not everyone applauded the integration. As Martin Newton recalled, the famous burning of a cross in the family’s yard was done during the season with an all-Black starting lineup.
Martin Newton said he was about 12 years old. His father did not make “a big issue” of the cross burning.
“I don’t know that I was completely aware of it until later . . . ,” he said. “We never talked about it. The one thing I’ll say about my dad: He was a lot less talk and a lot more do. He just kind of lived his values. He didn’t preach his values. He just kind of lived them.”
This story was originally published September 1, 2021 at 3:33 PM.
