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Posted by catmandoo (Member # 1284) on 10-24-2013, 01:50 PM:

It will be good to see these men who were so instrumental in breaking the color barrier. It had to be a awfully difficult thing to do back then.

Nate Northington says he “appreciates the support” former University of Kentucky football teammates, and now UK, are showing him and three other former black teammates who were pioneers in racial integration in the Southeastern Conference almost 50 years ago.

“I know that Greg Page would be thrilled with the efforts as well. I have faith that it will come to fruition and I am grateful to know a group of guys with this kind of class,” said Northington.

Northington, a Louisville native, became the first black football player to play in a SEC game on Sept. 30, 1967. Northington, a safety, had planned to make history with his roommate, Greg Page, a black defensive from Middlesboro. But the night before the Mississippi game, Page died from a neck injury suffered 38 days earlier in practice.

Page’s parents asked UK not to cancel the game, so Northington got to play against Ole Miss. However, he injured his shoulder early in the game. Northington had trouble coping with his friend’s death daily. He hurt his shoulder again against Auburn, didn’t always go to class and decided to leave UK just weeks after Page’s death.

He transferred to Western Kentucky and was the starting fullback on Western’s 1970 Ohio Valley Conference championship team.
Now teammate Paul Karem is heading a drive to have Northington and Page along with Houston Hogg and Wilbur Hackett — two black players who arrived at UK one year after Page and Northington — honored by UK for their historic roles in integrating the SEC.

Northington kept silent for years about his fate but now his book — Still Running: The Autobiography of Kentucky’s Nate Northington, the first African American Football Player in the Southeastern Conference — is available. He will have a book signing Saturday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at Barnes & Noble in Lexington and Nov. 9 from noon to 2 p.m. at Joseph-Beth in Lexington Green. The book can also be ordered online at natenorthingtonsr.com.

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