In 1971, the seasons transitioned, summer turned to fall, the leaves: now red and orange, the temperature: a little cooler, and the University of Georgia: forever changed. Horace King alongside Richard Appleby, Chuck Kinnebrew, Clarence Pope and Larry West stepped onto campus as the first Black student-athletes to earn a scholarship and play football for Vince Dooley’s Bulldogs.

“I thought I would end up at a place like North Carolina A&T, Grambling or Southern [University],” said King. “But, it was a big surprise when Vince Dooley and the Georgia Bulldogs came calling. If anybody else recruited me, my mother told me, ‘You need to just leave that alone cause you aren’t going to school there anyways!’ And she was the one in charge.”

Thanks to King’s mother and Coach Dooley’s willingness to move forward and break the color barrier on the gridiron at UGA, the Athens native would join “The First Five” as a cornerstone of racial progression on this very campus.

King was no stranger to the Classic City as he played high school football at Clarke Central just after the schools integrated in 1963; however, his passion for football in the city of Athens didn’t begin with the Gladiators. It began as a vendor and a sneaky fan in Sanford Stadium.

“I guess the statute of limitations has run out on me at this point, but I used to sneak in Georgia games,” said King. “We used to dig holes under the fence, cover them with pinestraw, climb a tree, break a limb, or do whatever to get in those games. Then, I got older, and the athletic director at Burney-Harris school, E.T. Holmes, chose the football players to sell Cokes in Sanford Stadium. Once I sold my first basket of Cokes, I just went over with the regular students and watched the game. Now, I share with everyone, ‘I used to sneak into Georgia games, then sold Cokes in Georgia games, then played in Georgia games,’ and I was proud to do all three.”

Upon his arrival at Georgia, King had the hometown support of family and friends when he took the field. The same friends that snuck in the stadium or sold Cokes alongside him remained common attendees at Sanford Stadium to watch their hometown hero represent the “G” that we all revere. Furthermore, no supporters were quite like King’s mother and father despite their differences in methods of cheering on their son.

“I was most proud to see my mother sitting in the stands supporting me,” said King. “Likewise, my daddy was a great supporter too, but he didn’t go in the games with my mother because she would get excited and make too much noise for him. My daddy was sort of a quiet guy that didn’t respond too much to my success or my failures on the field. Rather, he went on the railroad tracks and watched the game over there.”

The running back was a highly touted recruit out of Clarke Central side by side with two of the other First Five, Appleby and Pope, who were also Gladiators. As Dooley brought these five in and changed Georgia football for the better, the crew of trailblazers never viewed themselves as history-makers. On the contrary, they were just there to succeed in the classroom, succeed on the football field and work for an opportunity to play professionally or build the foundation of a career at this institution.

“I never thought of it as being the first,” said King. “My focus was never to make history, but it was to be the best I could be and earn the opportunity to wear that red and black, play football for the University of Georgia on Saturdays, and aspire to play professionally. I was fortunate enough to achieve that goal, so… feat accomplished.”

Regardless of UGA integrating 10 years prior to King and the rest of the First Five’s appearance on the field, racism was still prevalent on campus. King remarked that he remembers when Charlene Hill and Hamilton Holmes became the first Black Georgia students in 1961 and created a path for King and other young African-Americans at Georgia. Henceforth, it was his teachers that guided the road ahead for King prior to and during college.

“I don’t recall one significant event [of racism],” said King. “However, at the athletic department, they had advisors who gave us a list of professors not to take classes from. It was eye-opening to realize that it definitely existed there, but man, my teachers taught us all they could about focusing on reaching that next level. It was unknown what was ahead, but they educated us on accepting the challenge and moving forward… one Horace King would not change the ratio at UGA. I could be the beginning, but just as my teachers all the way through had told me, my focus was to advance my future.”

King closed with a quote that he’s taken with him throughout his life, “Give out, not up.” In the depths of a dark time in our nation’s history, this University’s history, King alongside four of his best friends became a face of change, forever altering Georgia’s trajectory on the football field and beyond. It was not to be the first, but in his words, “It was to be the best person I can be all the time, not just sometimes.” Rather than throwing in the towel when obstacles arose, King, with the support of family, friends, teachers and Coach Dooley, chose to give out. And give out, he did, pioneering a path for so many more Black student-athletes to chase their dream Between the Hedges on Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium.