The Bulldogs Original Five to celebrate the integration of UGA football
The integration of the University of Georgia’s football program in 1971 is one of the most extraordinary and inspiring stories in the history of Bulldogs athletics. Fifty-five years later, Richard Appleby, Horace King, Chuck Kinnebrew, Clarence Pope, and Larry West, or the five pioneering student-athletes who broke barriers and changed the course of Georgia football forever, will reveal their moving and encouraging stories at a networking event this weekend.
Premiering at The Gathering Spot in Atlanta from 5-8 p.m. on Sunday, February 22, “The First Five: Legacy in Motion” event will be presented by The Bulldogs Original Five, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Founded and organized by the quintet of original black scholarship football players at Georgia, The Bulldogs Original Five is in partnership with the UGA Mentorship Program and the UGA Center for Global and Cultural Student Engagement to provide workforce readiness, career development, and job-placement pathways for UGA students. The foundation’s executive director is Chris Burgett, a UGA football letterwinner from 2003 to 2005.
“The original five of us, we’re all 72 or 73 years old now. So, the fact that we can come together as one with our foundation—after more than 50 years—and be together, work together, it’s an absolute blessing,” said Kinnebrew, who serves as the foundation’s secretary. “But we certainly realize that the five of us won’t be around forever. Our foundation is beginning to have annual events, like the ‘Legacy in Motion’ event, to raise money to broaden the support that we’re providing to students, while also making sure we have a process in place to allow the organization to continue to exist after the five of us are gone.”
Hosted by former Georgia All-SEC quarterback and current FOX 5 Atlanta Sports Director D.J. Shockley, “The First Five: Legacy in Motion” will feature powerful storytelling, special guests, and the presentation of the foundation’s first endowed scholarship award.
As for Kinnebrew, it’s a UGA event that nearly didn’t come to be. As a highly-recruited defensive tackle at West Rome High School in 1970—and tired of often being the “first,” he nearly committed to the University of Tennessee.
“I had been a part of the integration of Rome schools and the city’s ‘Y’ programs, so I had plenty of experience of being the first—or one of the first—black people to do this or do that. But I was looking for a new experience. Therefore, I originally looked for a school, like Tennessee, where I didn’t have the pressure of being the first or only black football player,” Kinnebrew said. “But some things happened (on a recruiting visit by Kinnebrew and his parents to Knoxville) where my dad was influenced. My parents then talked to me about making the right decision and staying close to home. At Georgia, I could be a role model and help pave the way for other black athletes to enter the program.”
In addition, at Georgia, Kinnebrew wouldn’t be the only black athlete to integrate the football program.
“I wasn’t going to be by myself—and there was some comfort in that,” he said. “There were five of us.”
Living together as freshmen at UGA’s then-athletic dorm, McWhorter Hall, the players established a process whereby if anyone in the group got out of line, so to speak, or did something not consistent with what the rest wanted to be represented by, they’d be brought before the rest for an interrogation-type ritual they labeled “Rat Court.” Rat Court created “a high degree of harmony amongst us,” according to Kinnebrew, while holding each player accountable for their actions.
“What really helped was that the five of us had a lot in common. We had similar backgrounds and were all raised by strong families with similar morals and principles. So, it was easy for us to collaborate and support one another. If we did not have that support, I think it would have been tough for all five of us to get through that first year at Georgia,” said Kinnebrew, who added that a group of men in the local Athens community also provided the players with support and guidance at the time. “That first year, the group of us pledged that we would try to conduct ourselves in a manner that would make it easy for Georgia to go out and recruit other black athletes. Not wanting to create unnecessary attention, we stayed out of trouble while striving to be good role models.”
More than a half-century later, it seems fitting that Georgia football’s five pioneers continue to be strong role models, among various reasons, by virtue of their foundation and its upcoming “First Five” event. Although individual former UGA athletes have endowed scholarships for years, it is believed the event will mark the first time a group of UGA athletes has come together to endow a scholarship.
Moreover, the group of five hopes the event will give “incentive” to those who followed in their footsteps at Georgia.
“Through our foundation, and events like our ‘Legacy in Motion,’ the five of us aim to give UGA students a vision of their potential—what they could become—and then to help them find a route to reach that potential,” Kinnebrew said. “In addition, we hope that this represents an incentive for other former UGA athletes, especially the black athletes, to serve as strong role models. And, in doing so, they’ll see that there’s definitely value in giving back to the University of Georgia, a place that has been so good to so many of its athletes.”
General admission and VIP tickets to the “Legacy in Motion” event can be purchased HERE. Any donations to The Bulldogs Original Five nonprofit can also be made HERE. The Gathering Spot is located at 384 Northyards Boulevard NW in Atlanta.