LEXINGTON – More than 50 years later, George Hill doubts that legendary Kentucky basketball coach Adolph Rupp expected him to accept the invitation.
Hill, a Black postdoctoral fellow in UK’s department of biochemistry at the time, had become active in the Civil Rights movement upon moving to Lexington and initially being denied an apartment due to his race. As Hill pushed for fair and open housing in the city, he continued to be astounded by the way basketball dominated the conversation.
That obsession seemed like an opportunity to Hill.
What better way to advance racial equality in the city than tackle one of its most visible examples of a white-dominated institution?