‘Sky is the limit’ for what Kentucky track program can do at facility named for Jim Green

Jon Hale
·4 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

The newest athletic facility on Kentucky’s campus was dedicated Wednesday in honor of Jim Green, the first Black Southeastern Conference athlete to win an individual championship in any sport.

The Jim Green Track and Field Center was officially dedicated at the former site of Cliff Hagan Stadium off Sports Center Drive on UK’s campus. The indoor track is adjacent to UK’s outdoor track stadium in the space that was opened when the former baseball stadium was torn down after the construction of Kentucky Proud Park.

“To have days like today, that doesn’t get old,” athletics director Mitch Barnhart said. “To have a day like today when you get to celebrate a guy like Jim and all the things he’s done for athletics and the sport of track and field.

“I had an opportunity to speak at someone’s funeral on Monday. Everybody said you did a great job, you said some really wonderful things. Sometimes we wait too long to say wonderful things. We should say wonderful things while they’re alive. That man deserved to have it said so he could hear everybody thank him, be a part of that while he was living. I’m so thankful that we had the opportunity to do that. Sometimes we wait too long. This is a good reminder today to celebrate people, what they’ve accomplished at the right time.”

UK’s new track and field indoor training facility includes a wall of champions display. The building will be used largely for training although UK hopes to host small indoor meets at some point.
UK’s new track and field indoor training facility includes a wall of champions display. The building will be used largely for training although UK hopes to host small indoor meets at some point.

Green was a two-time NCAA champion, winning the indoor 60-yard dash in 1968 and 1971. He earned All-America honors six times and won eight SEC individual titles. In 1971, Green became the first Black athlete to graduate from UK.

The new facility includes a high-banked track, the standard for NCAA and SEC indoor championships. It was constructed with the help of a $7.5 million gift from UK boosters Joe and Kelly Craft. Kelly Craft, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the Donald Trump administration, spoke at the dedication ceremony Wednesday.

UK dedicated the newly constructed Jim Green Track and Field Center on Wednesday. The new facility includes a high-banked track, the standard for NCAA and SEC indoor championships.
UK dedicated the newly constructed Jim Green Track and Field Center on Wednesday. The new facility includes a high-banked track, the standard for NCAA and SEC indoor championships.
The construction of the new indoor track facility was approved at a cost of $20 million in February 2022 as part of a larger project that also included the renovation of the Nutter Field House.
The construction of the new indoor track facility was approved at a cost of $20 million in February 2022 as part of a larger project that also included the renovation of the Nutter Field House.

The construction of the new indoor track facility was approved at a cost of $20 million in February 2022 as part of a larger project that also included the renovation of the Nutter Field House, the former site of UK’s indoor track, for more efficient use by the UK football program. The field house renovations were completed last summer in time for the football team to use during the 2023 season.

“What people want to focus on is the football-only piece of that facility, but that allows both our soccer programs, our softball and our baseball program to have an indoor place to practice in the winter,” Barnhart said. “That’s hard. Track and field having to have practice in there, and all four of those teams and football, the scheduling was a nightmare. So, what this did is allow us to give very specific times to those folks, and by the way we don’t need that space for track and field anymore. They’ve got their own place, so they can feel free to come in here and train all the time.”

For now, the indoor track facility will be dedicated to training.

UK will host its annual indoor track and field meet, the Rod McCravy Memorial, at the Norton Healthcare Sports and Learning Center in Louisville next month. UK track coach Lonnie Greene said the program hopes to host smaller meets with four to six teams at the new facility in the future, but spectator capacity will be limited.

Greene has already seen a recruiting impact from the facility though as he estimated 85% of the recruits who visited campus during the fall semester and got a sneak peak during construction have since committed to Kentucky. The banked track should pay dividends for current athletes too.

A product of Eminence, University of Kentucky track star Jim Green was the first Black athlete competing for an SEC school to win an individual league championship and the first to win an individual NCAA championship. Green was also the first Black athlete to earn a degree at UK.
A product of Eminence, University of Kentucky track star Jim Green was the first Black athlete competing for an SEC school to win an individual league championship and the first to win an individual NCAA championship. Green was also the first Black athlete to earn a degree at UK.

“We were training on a 300-meter flat track (in the Nutter Field House),” Greene said. “This is the type of facility and surface we race on. On top of that, it’s healthier. It keeps our kids healthy. When you’re racing on a flat turn, the torque on the lower legs is crazy. Now, when you’re on a bank, there’s no torque. The body actually lines up with the turn, so the athletes are healthier.

“We can get through big workouts, we can get through competition and we can go from one day to the next without having to crosstrain or do something else in order to stay healthy. The sky is the limit for what we can do in this facility, to be honest with you.”

It’s taken a while, but UK is ‘doing right’ by another of its Black sports pioneers