After a trying year, one of these 10 will be the 2020 Ky. Sports Figure of the Year
Among its many other sins, 2020 really stunk as a sports year.
No NCAA Tournament.
No Kentucky Boys’ Sweet Sixteen.
A partial Girls’ Sweet Sixteen without a state champion crowned.
Aborted spring sports seasons, stranding a whole senior class without the life-long memories of their final chance to play ball with the friends with whom they grew up.
No Kentucky-Louisville football game.
No Kentucky-Louisville women’s basketball game.
Even once coronavirus containment advanced enough to allow some sports to return, things still weren’t right.
Events had to be held without fans in the stands or with sharply reduced crowds. As a result, we learned that, without the electricity of a crowd, the experience of sports lacks something vital.
Yet with all that, when I began in late November working on the list of nominees that the Herald-Leader would send out to state media to vote for Kentucky’s 2020 Sports Figure of the Year, I came to an uplifting realization.
For all that sports in our state lacked in 2020, athletes and coaches with tangible ties to the commonwealth nevertheless produced a remarkable litany of achievements last year.
You will see that below as we reveal, in alphabetical order, the 10 finalists to win the 2020 Lexington Herald-Leader Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year award.
The winner, based on the votes of 153 sports media members from around the commonwealth, will be announced on Kentucky.com around 9 a.m. Tuesday with full coverage in Wednesday’s Herald-Leader.
The finalists:
Bred in the commonwealth by Peter E. Blum Thoroughbreds, the race horse Authentic converted the “Kentucky double” in 2020, winning the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville and the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland in Lexington.
Before announcing his retirement, Trinity High School football coach Bob Beatty directed the Shamrocks to the 2020 6A state championship. It marked an astounding 15th state title for Trinity in the 21 seasons Beatty walked the ‘Rocks’ sideline.
For Lexington native Walker Buehler, a journey that began playing youth baseball at Ecton Park culminated with a dominant pitching performance in Game 3 of the World Series, one that helped the Los Angeles Dodgers win their first championship since 1988.
Ex-Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball star Anthony Davis, having forced his way out of a non-winning situation with the New Orleans Pelicans, joined forces with LeBron James and helped restore the Los Angeles Lakers to championship-winning status in 2020.
As a sophomore, current UK women’s basketball star Rhyne Howard produced one of the brilliant seasons in Wildcats sports history. The Cleveland, Tenn., product finished as the nation’s second-leading scorer (23.4 points per game), the SEC Player of the Year and an AP First-Team All-American.
Former Louisville Cardinals star Lamar Jackson continued to confound his skeptics, quarterbacking the Baltimore Ravens (11-5) to the NFL Playoffs for a third straight season.
In a dazzling first season with the Memphis Grizzlies, ex-Murray State men’s basketball star Ja Morant was named NBA Rookie of the Year.
Kentucky football assistant John Schlarman proved an inspirational figure in 2020. Schlarman coached one of college football’s best offensive lines while battling the cruel cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, that ultimately took his life in November.
The NCAA designated Kentucky Wildcats swimming star Asia Seidt its 2020 Woman of the Year in recognition of the Sacred Heart Academy product’s rare combination of athletics (four SEC individual championships in her career) and academic (4.0 GPA majoring in kiniesiology) success.
Finally, St. Xavier High School alum Justin Thomas won three times on the PGA Tour in 2020 and led the circuit in earnings ($7,344,040).
From this list of 10 — which includes three former winners: Davis (2012), Jackson (2016) and Thomas (2017) — will come the 2020 Lexington Herald-Leader Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year.
This story was originally published January 24, 2021 at 11:11 AM.
