The Southeastern Conference (SEC) ranks among the best in college football. It’s no secret that the league’s esteemed reputation was built with help from dominant Black athletes. The exploits of icons such as Herschel Walker at The University of Georgia, Bo Jackson at Auburn University and Reggie White at the University of Tennessee are well known. There was a time, though, when the Black presence on White college football teams in the Deep South was null and void.
All of that began to change in the mid-1960s. The University of Kentucky signed Nate Northington, who became the first African-American to play football in the SEC. In recognition of Northington’s place in history, CBS Sports has produced a documentary for Black History Month.
Forward Progress: The Integration of SEC Football will air on the network Feb. 16 at 8 p.m. The hour-long documentary examines the impact that Northington’s arrival had on Kentucky and the SEC as well as on the sports and cultural landscapes of America.
Nate Northington
Among many college football fans, there’s a wrong assumption about integration in the SEC. The most common myth is that Alabama paved the way after taking a 42-21 beating from the University of Southern California during the 1970 season.
Northington reveals the true story about the league’s move to integrate in his autobiography Still Running, published in 2013. That same year, he received the inaugural Nathaniel Northington Groundbreaker in Athletics Award from the William Winter Institute of Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi.
“Folks look at the SEC today and see how much Black athletes have contributed to the league’s success,” says Northington. “What they don’t realize is that there are some forgotten aspects of how the conference has grown the way it has.”
