‘Black lives matter, and they matter to me a great deal.’ Kentucky football marches.
Nearly 53 years after Wilbur Hackett, Houston Hogg, Nate Northington and Greg Page made the University of Kentucky’s football team the first to integrate in the Southeastern Conference, members of the current UK squad took to the streets of Lexington in the name of civil rights.
In prelude to an anticipated eighth straight night of protests in the city against police violence and calls for police accountability, about 80 UK players and coaches — flanked by a few city officials, a few police officers and family members — donned Black Lives Matters T-shirts and marched several blocks from the a parking garage in the downtown Hilton Inn to the city’s courthouse square, where head coach Mark Stoops kicked off a chorus of statements promoting the movement.
“I play things pretty tight to the vest with the media, but there’s no more of that on this issue,” Stoops said. “Everybody needs to get off the bench and make a difference and stand for something. We’re not going to tolerate any more racism and social problems. We want to make a difference and be part of the solution, and that’s why we’re here.”
Stoops elaborated on his public statement later with reporters.
“I can’t feel their pain,” Stoops said. “I’m a white person, obviously, and what young black people go through, I feel for ‘em, and I just wanted to listen to and be there for ’em. I could just tell that it was a very difficult time for a lot of people, and it still is. ... Everybody has to get off the sideline, get in the game and be part of the solution. And that’s just a fact. That’s the way it is. Black lives matter, and they matter to me a great deal.”
Friday would have been the 27th birthday of Breonna Taylor, a black woman from Louisville who was killed in her apartment by Louisville Metro Police. Her name was not invoked by UK team members during their march, nor were the subjects of police violence and accountability, but players and other attendees were made aware of and encouraged to attend another downtown protest planned for later in the evening in her honor.
Lexington Chief of Police Lawrence Weathers — a black man and graduate of UK — was in attendance, and alluded to aggressive action taken by law enforcement around the country in an address to the crowd.
“People always want to say, when they see movements like this, that all lives matter,” Weathers said. “Unfortunately, history and even recent history, hasn’t shown that to be true. So we have to stand up and say black lives matter.
“And, although it’s not popular, but I have to say this because of my profession and because of some of the things some people in my profession have done, ‘We’re sorry.’ But it can’t just be words. We have to put it into action. We have to train for it. We have to live for it. We have to make sure that we make it right, and when I see stuff like this, I know that the road, even if it’s hard, we’re gonna have people to help lift us up and help make things right.”
Stoops and Courtney Love, a former player who’s in his second year as the team’s director of player development, reached out to state representative George Brown (district 77) Thursday morning to coordinate the downtown march. Kentucky’s players and coaches, many of whom had made individual comments on social media since video emerged of the killing of Minnesotan George Floyd by police officers on May 25, were united in wanting to make a statement of support.
Brown likened the team’s willingness to embrace the Black Lives Matter movement as a group to the steps Hogg, Northington, Page and Tackett undertook in the 1960s as civil rights pioneers.
“It’s just historic that they want to step forward and be a part of this,” Brown told the Herald-Leader.
Kentucky joined Missouri, South Carolina and Texas among the schools whose football teams had joined in protests in their respective states. Many universities have been louder and more explicit in their support of the Black Lives Matter movement in the last week than at any point since the campaign began in 2013.
The on- and off-the-field activism of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who kneeled during the national anthem during the 2016 season, helped ignite conversation about racial injustices four years ago, but UK associate head coach and recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow thinks it’s being met with more seriousness now compared to then.
“I think any athletic department that has this much diversity should be taking a stand because, let’s be honest, in football, about 65 percent of your roster is African-American,” Marrow told the Herald-Leader. “How can you coach these guys and not show them that you stand with them for something that’s very unjust? Me being a black man, it hits a little more home, but what you’ve been seeing in the protests is all types of nationalities basically working for a cause, because everybody’s tired of it.”
“ ... Everybody didn’t understand Kaep. It makes sense, now, what he was doing. People thought he was disrespecting the flag, and he wasn’t. He was standing against an unjust and police brutality.”
Several players, past and present, have been vocal on social media in their support. Clevan Thomas, a junior wide receiver, says he’s fortunate to be in the position to use his standing as a college athlete to raise awareness and be an advocate for social issues.
“It’s sad that it takes a death to get us together, but I’m happy to see everybody uniting and joining together,” Thomas said. “God has blessed me with the ability to play football, and I’m trying to use my platform to speak out.”
