New film about UK football’s first four black players ‘is story of healing’
At the time Kentucky Wildcats football players Nate Northington and Greg Page were integrating Southeastern Conference football in 1966 and ‘67, Paul Wagner was also a UK student.
“I was aware that they were at UK,” Wagner says now. “But I can’t say that I fully appreciated the magnitude of what they were doing. Now, I look at their stories, and what they did was genuinely heroic.”
Over the past five years, Wagner, 70, a Trinity High School graduate and an Academy Award-winning film maker, has been working on a documentary that tells the stories of the first four black players — Northington and Page, Wilbur Hackett and Houston Hogg — to play for UK.
That film, “Black in Blue,” will be shown for the first time in Lexington on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Worsham Cinema inside UK’s Gatton Student Center.
It is a story that is both tragic and triumphant.
In December 1965, Louisville’s Northington committed to play football at Kentucky, becoming the first black player to sign with an SEC school. The next fall, Northington and Middlesboro’s Page became the first two black players to enroll at UK.
On Sept. 30, 1967, Northington became the first black player to play in an SEC vs. SEC football game, taking snaps at safety in UK’s 26-13 loss to Mississippi.
Page never got to play in a varsity game for Kentucky. In a preseason practice before the 1967 season, the defensive end fell awkwardly during a non-contact drill and suffered a neck injury that left him paralyzed. Page spent 38 days in intensive care before dying at 11:25 p.m. on Sept. 29, 1967.
The very next night, Northington, Page’s roommate, broke the SEC color barrier.
However, grief-stricken over the death of Page, Northington left the Kentucky team only weeks later.
It was left for Hackett, a linebacker from Louisville, and Hogg, a running back from Daviess County, to become the first black football players to complete their college careers at Kentucky. In 1969, Hackett became the first black team captain in SEC football history.
Wagner, who along with producing partner Marjorie Hunt won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject in 1985 for “The Stone Carvers,” says “Black in Blue” is “a story of healing.
“With what happened to Greg, this obviously was a very difficult experience for Nate,” Wagner says. “And Wilbur and Houston went through very challenging experiences, too. I think it took longer than it should for history to sort of catch up with the magnitude of what these four did. But, I think that has happened, and I think that has led to healing.”
In 2016, UK unveiled statues of Northington and Page, Hackett and Hogg that stand outside the Joe Craft Football Training Facility.
After the showing of the 73-minute “Black in Blue,” Northington, Hackett, Hogg and Mel Page, younger brother of Greg, will join Wagner and film co-producer Paul Karem, a former Kentucky quarterback, in a panel discussion moderated by UK English professor Frank X Walker.
If you go
What: “Black in Blue” Lexington premier
When: 6:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: Worsham Cinema inside the University of Kentucky’s Gatton Student Center
Admission: Free and open to the public (a standing-room crowd is expected, so early arrival is advisable to secure a seat)
