Tom Payne, the University of Kentucky's first African-American men's basketball player, was paroled Tuesday after spending most of the past four decades in prison as a result of multiple sex crimes.
Payne, 68, will be released in early January, according to the Kentucky Department of Corrections.
Payne was found guilty in 1977 of raping a woman in Georgia. He served five years in prison, then was sent to Kentucky where he served five more years on a separate rape charges. After being paroled in 1983, he was convicted three years later on a rape charge in California.