From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)

Lee, George

(born: 1943) 

George Lee, from Dayton, OH, was the first African American football player at Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) in 1961. He was a graduate of Roosevelt High School, and one of the five African American athletes brought to EKU by track and football coach Floyd Norman. Roosevelt High School had won the state high school track championship in Ohio and Floyd Norman was the coach. George Lee was a star football player at the school. During Lee's first year at EKU, the football team was on a road trip when Lee was denied entrance to a movie theater because of his race, 40 members of the football team walked out of the theater in protest. George Lee talked about that day during his speech at the 2000 EKU graduation. Information from 1906-2006: A Century of Opportunity, an EKU web page; and A History of Eastern Kentucky Univesity by W. E. Ellis.

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NKAA Source: A History of Eastern Kentucky University : the school of opportunity

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Cite This NKAA Entry:

“Lee, George,” Notable Kentucky African Americans Database, accessed December 2, 2023, https://ukscrc001.net/nkaa/items/show/567.

Last modified: 2017-07-19 17:51:21