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The University of Kentucky has a SEC history that when fully unveiled would merit a monumental amount of recognition. Wilbur Hackett who is now and has been an SEC football official for twenty plus years is a huge part of that history. His major accomplishments go far beyond that. There's a movement underway by some of Hackett's teammates led by Paul Karem who now resides in Louisville, Kentucky. Hackett along with Houston Hogg, Nate Northington, and Greg Page Broke the color barrier in the SEC. For now we will focus on the exploits of Hackett.
Yours truly was setting in old Stoll Field Stadium watching a game between the Cats and the Oregon State Beavers. What was so attractive about that game was the fact the Beavers had a converted linebacker then running back named Bill "Earthquake" Enyart. This monster of a running back's physical stature was 6-foot-3, 235-pounds. During the season of 1968 Enyart, one PAC-10 coach described this running as a snowball rolling down a mountain gaining size and momentum. Enyart came into Stoll Field having had several 200 hundred-yard games that season, one game in which he had carried the ball fifty times for 299-yards.
This Oregon State team had just lost 17-13 to the eventual 1968 Southern Cal National Champs. They upset USC in 1967 3-0. O. J. Simpson was on both of those USC teams. So here we have Hackett a 5-foot-9, 185-pound middle linebacker who's responsibility is to stop Enyart. That entire night was like David going against Goliath. Time after time Hackett jacked up Enyart in the hole and that night resulted in a 35-34 UK victory. Enyart's stats that night amounted to twenty-three carries for 65-yards. You wouldn't have believed it if you didn't witness it. I likened it to Frank Minnifield bulldogging to the ground the then Cincinnati Bengals 6-foot-1, 258-pound running back Larry Kinnebrew.
Rich Brooks was the defensive line coach at Oregon Sate at the time. "We didn't have anybody on our team that could stop Enyart in scrimmages," Brooks said.
Hackett played in a game against Ole Miss at Jackson, Miss in which there we only four African-Americans in the entire stadium. That being Mister and Mrs. Hackett and Houston Hogg. This was a game in which Hackett knocked Archie Manning out of the game. All sorts of mean-spirited expletives were raining down on the field. Paul Karem at the time a freshman jokes about Dick Palmer and Jeff Van Note suggesting that Hackett stand a distance away from the huddle.
In short let's hope that this movement spear-headed by Karem gains momentum so the entire SEC will know what university and it players were the pioneers of breaking the color-barrier for the south in athletics. Hackett was the first black captain of any team in the Southeastern Conference. More importantly the present African-American players need to know who's shoulders they are standing on.
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