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P O S T S E A S O N P R E V I E W >> P E N N S T A T E Then in 1947, Triplett, Hoggard and their teammates integrated the Cotton Bowl in a game against segregated SMU. When Rip Engle became the head coach in 1950, he made recruiting black players like Rosey Grier and Lenny Moore a prior- ity, and when his protégé Joe Paterno took over in 1966, he upped the ante. In 1967, with freshmen still ineligible, Paterno had two black sophomores in his starting lineup: future All-America tailback Char- lie Pittman and underrated linebacker Jim Kates. More black players were in the pipeline, such as freshman quarterback Mike Cooper and high school recruits Franco Harris and Lydell Mitchell. Nineteen sixty-seven was also a mo- mentous year in racial relations for Ken- tucky and the entire 10-team SEC. On Sept. 30, 1967 – one day a@er Penn State's notable game at Miami that turned around Paterno's career – Nate Nor- thington, a sophomore Kentucky defen- sive back from Louisville, became the ered a catastrophic neck in- jury on a routine play without pads during practice, leaving him paralyzed. He died on Sept. 29, the eve of Kentucky's SEC opener against Mississippi in Lexington. The next day, Bradshaw inserted Northington into the game. "Before separating his shoulder in what became a 26-13 Kentucky loss to the Mississippi Rebels, he logged 3:17 of playing time," reported the Lexington Her- ald-Leader years later. Northington was so distraught that he quit the team. He eventually transferred to Western Kentucky and was the starting fullback on the Hilltoppers' 1970 team, which won the Ohio Valley Conference championship. In 1967, Bradshaw recruited two more black players out of Kentucky high schools, linebacker Wilbur Hackett and running back Houston Hogg. Hackett went on to start at linebacker for two years and in 1969 became the

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