From Olympic gold to Super Bowl MVP, Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame's 2019 class shines

Rana L. Cash
Courier Journal

They won championships and medals. They competed on the highest levels possible in their sports. And now they will soon be recipients of the highest honor on the local athletic landscape as Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame inductees. 

Six of the Commonwealth's most accomplished athletes were selected to the hall of fame's class of 2019, the Kentucky Sports Commission announced. They include:

Derek Anderson

He starred at Doss High School before later transferring from Ohio State to the University of Kentucky to become part of the 1996 national championship team, didn't stop there. He was a member of the Miami Heat's 2006 NBA title-winning team during an 11-year professional career. Anderson is now an assistant basketball coach at Male High

Deion Branch

Deion Branch played two seasons at Louisville, where he led the Cardinals in receptions and to two Conference USA championships.

He carried his career from the University of Louisville where the wide receiver was a two-time all-conference selection to the NFL where he experienced incredible success, including being named the MVP of Super Bowl XXXIX with the New England Patriots. Branch played 11 seasons in the NFL, with the Patriots and Seattle Seahawks.

More:Don't undersell the importance of Immanuel Quickley to Kentucky basketball

Nate Northington

He left Thomas Jefferson High for UK, where in 1967 he became the first black football player in SEC history. In 2016, a statue of Northington was unveiled on the UK campus. Northington later transferred to Western Kentucky. 

Looking back:Celebrating Nate Northington, SEC's first black football player

Ralph Hacker 

He was the voice Kentucky sports fans were quite familiar as an analyst and play-by-play radio announcer for UK football and basketball from 1972 to 1998. 

William Exum 

Exum, the first African American football player the University of Wisconsin, was the Kentucky State athletic director from 1949 to 1977, coached track, tennis and cross country at the school and led KSU to the men's 1964 NCAA Division II cross country championship. Exum was also the head manager of the USA Men's Olympic track team in 1972 and 1976.   

Willis Augustus Lee

Lee, a native of Natlee, Kentucky, won seven medals at the 1920 Olympics on the USA Rifle Team before going on to become a vice admiral in the Navy. Lee won five gold medals, one silver and one bronze in the Summer Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium.

The class will be honored August 19 at the Galt House Hotel.