KWC's Thornton selected for Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame
May 20—Former Kentucky Wesleyan College All-American and two-time NCAA champion Dallas Thornton will be inducted into the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame on Aug. 22, it was announced Thursday.
Thornton, who starred at Louisville Male and was named an All-American as a senior in 1964, was a four-year starter at KWC and led the Panthers to NCAA Division II national championships in 1966 and 1968, as well as a third-place finish in 1967. He averaged 17.5 points and 8.1 rebounds per game in his career.
In the Wesleyan record book, he ranks fifth in scoring with 1,929 points and seventh in rebounds with 903 boards. He also started a school-record 112 straight games.
Following his Wesleyan career, Thornton was drafted by both the National Basketball Association's Baltimore Bullets and the American Basketball Association's Miami Floridians. He played two seasons for the Floridians before spending 17 years with the Harlem Globetrotters, playing alongside legends like Meadowlark Lemon and Curly Neal.
Over his career, he visited 75 countries and even performed before the Queen of England. Thornton appeared in several TV shows as a Globetrotter, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was a guest of two presidents at the White House.
Thornton joins fellow KWC honorees "King" Kelly Coleman (2000), basketball coach Guy Strong (2002), George Tinsley (2011) and announcer Joel Utley (2016) in the Hall of Fame.
Other members of the 45th KSHOF class are Mitch Barnhart, athletics director at the University of Kentucky; Michael Bush, football star at Louisville Male High School, the University of Louisville and in the NFL; and Sue Feamster, former UK athletic administrator and trailblazer for girls' and women's participation.
