The 'eternal bond' of Georgia football's first five Black players and their lasting impact
Growing up on the west side of Athens, Horace King admired the Georgia football players he saw in the 1960s when he worked his way into Sanford Stadium.
There was Steve Greer, an undersized defensive lineman. Kirby Moore, the quarterback of an SEC championship team, along with Kent Lawrence, Bill Stanfill and Jake Scott.
King sold Cokes in Sanford Stadium — 24 a game — for a few years while attending Burney-Harris High, an all-Black school.
“All I wanted to do is get in the game,” he said. “Once I sold my Cokes I didn’t make much money. I went over to the student section and watched the football game.”
Since he was about 11, King dreamed of playing college sports, but figured it would end up being at a Historically Black College or University.
He couldn’t play Pop Warner or Little League ball in Athens as a kid. He stood by the fence at the YMCA on Broad Street where the Holiday Inn now is and watched the white kids play. There were pickup games for him instead on the streets of the Rock Springs Homes and occasional games against a team on the east side.
His mother had other ideas.
“You’re going to the University of Georgia, that’s it,” she told him.
King and four others — Richard Appleby and Clarence Pope from Athens, Chuck Kinnebrew from Rome and Larry West from Albany — became the first Black players to play football at Georgia.
The school this weekend is marking the 50th anniversary of their first year with the Bulldogs in 1971.
“They call them now the First Five,” said Vince Dooley, the Bulldogs football coach from 1964-1988. “I felt it was definitely time. The five worked good because they came at the same time in the same class.”
Dooley actually had other Black players on his team previously — Ken Dious from Athens walked on in spring of 1966 before leaving and eventually becoming a lawyer. John Hurley was a walk-on in the spring of 1967 who ended up signing with Vanderbilt. John King from Huntsville, Ala. signed only an SEC letter in February of 1970 and instead went on scholarship to Minnesota.
West grew up in a home involved in the civil rights movement. He was the first Black middle schooler in his city to integrate and one of the first on the football team at Albany High.
Dooley took a recruiting visit to see West and told him he would treat him as he would his own son.
“It was probably the right people at the right time to do the things that we did at the University of Georgia knowing it would be impactful because we were the first,” said West, a defensive back. “We realized it was more than just football.”
Kinnebrew, a defensive lineman, wanted to go to Tennessee because it already had Black players starting in 1968. His favorite was linebacker Jackie Walker. Kinnebrew was among Black students that integrated the schools in Rome.
“I didn’t want to be the first again,” he said. “I didn’t want to go through that, but my father and my uncles were my role models …They kind of guided me and pointed me towards the university.”
His father, a big SEC fan, bought his sister a tape recorder when Larry was about 6 and interviewed him as one of the first Black players at UGA.
“He reminded me of that and played what we barely could hear of that tape,” Kinnebrew said.
It helped also that his parents, who were religious, were hosted on a visit by Georgia’s team chaplain, Claude McBride.
King remembers a meeting with himself, Dooley, assistant coach Michael Castronis and three black Athens men who followed the sports scene, one of which was Clarke Central assistant principal Walter Allen.
“Walter Allen came out and made the statement—King and Appleby are coming to school here if you take Pope,” King said. “That was the end of that. A couple of days later we were signing a grant-in aid to go to Georgia.”
King thinks Harry “Squab” Jones, an advisor to Dooley who knew King’s family, also may have had some sway on the players going to Georgia.
It was Jones who helped change the name of the Dixie Redcoat Band to the Redcoat Band. King said he heard if Georgia wanted to attract Black athletes from all over, it needed to lose the “Dixie.”
The University of Georgia was integrated in 1961 — 10 years before the first Black players — when a court order led to Hunter Holmes and Charlayne Hunter to become the first Black students.
Maxie Foster from Athens was the first Black athlete on scholarship at UGA with the track team in 1968. Ronnie Hogue signed to play basketball in 1969, becoming the first Black to sign a full scholarship since Foster’s was partial.
Players weren’t allowed to play as freshmen then so the first season for King and the others was 1972. King, a running back, became the first Black player to score a touchdown for Georgia in the third game against N.C. State.
He said he told a reporter after the win he was doing the best he could “to help them win.” He read it in the newspaper the next day and got misty eyed because, he thought instead, “I was a part of that team already.”
He had lingering bitterness from his senior season at Clarke Central after all white Athens High merged with Burney-Harris in 1970. Pope, who lived on the East side, and Appleby, from the West side, also were on the team.
“When things are not good off the field, it’s a little difficult to make it good or great on the field,” King said. “We lost twice, to Gainesville and Lakeside. Both of those losses were almost as if the coach (Weyman Sellers) wanted to blame the Black guys for being the ones that lost the ballgame.”
Dooley said Georgia fans had seen schools in their communities being integrated before the Bulldogs team was.
Kinnebrew was one of five Black players who integrated the schools in Rome in 1965.
“We were subjected to a lot of name-calling, racism, things of that nature but because of my size I didn’t get the brunt of it,” said Kinnebrew, who was listed at 6-foot and 225 pounds as a UGA senior. "Once I started the ninth grade and participated in a freshman football team, all that started to change.”
Kinnebrew, who grew up in a two-parent, middle class household, was recruited as a sophomore by Georgia assistant Doc Ayers.
“Coach Dooley, in my opinion, made a courageous move that he had to make in order to be competitive because Bear Bryant had done it and some of the other coaches were following his lead,” Kinnebrew said.
Alabama brought in its first Black player, John Mitchell, a year before Georgia. That came after Southern Cal with Black players including running back Sam Cunningham came to Birmingham in 1970 and beat the all-white Crimson Tide 42-21.
“I think everybody was heading in that direction about the same time,” Dooley said. “Kentucky was ahead of everybody but they were a border state. Everybody was gradually integrating teams in the SEC.”
When King arrived on campus he saw a hangman’s noose and a Dixie flag.
“That kind of singed a little bit, wasn’t anything brand new growing up in Athens,” he said.
As freshmen, Kinnebrew said the players were lined up in front of McWhorter Hall and someone in a hooded sheet sat in a chair while others stood with shotguns and a Confederate battle flag.
“Our objective was to change all of that,” Kinnebrew said.
Kinnebrew said in his sophomore year in 1972, Alabama’s Wilbur Jackson was running on the Bulldogs and a defensive player “was cursing and called him the N word,” he said. “I kind of looked at him and I knew then that’s how they saw all of us to be frankly honest.”
Kinnebrew said many of his white teammates at Georgia preconceived views changed the more they were around him and the other four.
“It got better,” he said. “Some of the things we were subjected to early on we weren’t subjected to as juniors and seniors.”
During his time at Georgia, Kinnebrew was more forceful than the others of what he asked of Dooley which was more than he was willing to give, he said.
“Those four years were probably some of the best four years of my life,” Kinnebrew said. “I had an opportunity to grow and develop in a fairly good environment and the experiences I had played a major role in the success I was able to have as far as my business career was concerned.”
King tried to stay focused on achieving on the field and in school with social changes going around him in the early 1970s.
“I said I’m here to be a student-athlete and had blinders for some of the other things going on that I couldn’t change or fix immediately,” King said. "When I was running with the ball or doing something, I wasn’t checking to see what color the guy was that was blocking or tackling me or throwing me a pass. It became a team.”
King, Kinnebrew, West and Pope addressed the Georgia football team in February last year and met with coach Kirby Smart individually in his office.
He learned more about what they did after Georgia.
Kinnebrew, who lives in Smyrna, went to work for DuPont, Home Depot and Floor and Decor before retiring as vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion.
King, whose home is in Alpharetta, played nine seasons for the NFL’s Detroit Lions and is retired from General Motors.
Appleby, a tight end who led Georgia in receiving from 1973-75, spent a season with Tampa Bay before playing three years in Canada. He became a businessman and moved to Hawaii.
Pope, a linebacker who first walked-on to the team before earning a scholarship, retired as a firefighter (Dooley attended the ceremony) and is pastor of New Freedom Christian Center in Athens.
West is a pastor in a church in Washington, D.C.
“It’s just incredible the impact each ones had on their communities,” Smart said. “It’s pretty cool to have them be able to share their experiences here and the rest of their life with our players. I think you learn, you learn from history and certainly our players give these guys a lot of credit for trailblazing the opportunity that was created for them.”
Their stories are being told at UGA’s Hargrett Library with its exhibit “Not Only for Ourselves: The Integration of UGA Athletics,” including a guided tour at 3 p.m. on Fridays before home football games. The Grady School of Journalism has produced a documentary “The First Five” that will be available soon.
The five former players have a busy weekend starting Thursday morning at the College Football Hall of Fame where they will be recognized with a display featuring artifacts from their playing days.
There is a private reception UGA is holding for them on Friday night. Prior to Saturday night’s game against South Carolina, a pregame recognition on the field will include the unveiling of a monument in Reed Plaza next to the stadium to mark the integration of the program
“We have an eternal bond,” Kinnebrew. “I don’t necessarily pick up the phone and call Horace, Clarence, Larry or Appleby, but when we see each other it’s like, bam, we’re right back where we were. We were all supportive of each other and we still are today.”