Regular visitors of Notinhalloffame.com know that we are slowly working on the top 50 of every major team in the NHL, NBA, NFL, and MLB. Once that is done, we will examine how each team honors its past players, coaches, and executives. As such, it is important to us that the University of Kentucky will be inducting six new members to their Athletic Hall of Fame.

They will be officially inducted during the weekend of September 20-21.

The Class of 2024 is:

Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, Women’s Track and Field, 2016-18.  Camacho-Quinn was one of the most accomplished hurdlers in Wildcat history, a twelve-time First Team All-American, three-time NCAA Champion, and six-time SEC Champion.  She would later represent Puerto Rico and won two Olympic Medals in the 100-meter hurdles: Gold in Tokyo 2020 and Bronze in Paris 2024. 

John Cropp, Administrator, 1992-2013, Assistant Football Coach 1991.  Cropp worked for the University for 22 years, serving in multiple capacities.

Henrk Larsen, Rifle, 2018.  Larsen attended Kentucky only for one season, but as a freshman, he won the NCAA Air Rifle Individual National Championship and led the Wildcats to a National Championship.  Winning all but one competition he was in, Larsen was named the NCAA Shooter of the Year and Freshman of the Year.  He would turn pro after and represent Norway at the Tokyo Olympics.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Women’s Track and Field 2018.  McLaughlin-Levrone competed one season for Kentucky where she won the 400-meter hurdles at the NCAA Championship and set a new college record in doing it.  She was a three-time SEC Champion and later won Gold in the 400-meter hurdles and 4x400 relay at the Tokyo and Paris Olympics.

Jodie Meeks, Men’s Basketball, 2007-09.  Meeks was a consensus Second Team All-American in 2009 and a First Team All-SEC Selection that season.  He still holds the single-game record in Points with 54.  He later played for ten years in the NBA for Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Los Angeles Lakers, Detroit, Orlando, Washington, and Toronto, the last of which saw him win an NBA Championship.

Corey Peters, Football, 2006-09.  A Defensive Tackle, Peters was a First Team All-SEC Selection as a senior and was part of two Music City Bowl wins and a Liberty Bowl win.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate the impending members of the University of Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame.

We are going way back for this one.

An All-American at Kentucky in 1935, Wildcats Head Coach, Adolph Rupp called Center Leroy Edwards the best player he ever coached.  Fine praise, indeed.  Edwards, who won the Helms College Player of the Year in 1935, was so dominant and physical in the paint, that it was alleged that he was the reason that basketball enacted the three-second rule, preventing players from spending longer than three seconds under the basket.

Edwards then played professionally for the Oshkosh All-Stars in the National Basketball League from 1937 to 1949, and for a time, he was the best player in the league.   Excellent on both sides of the ball, Edwards won three straight NBL MVPs (1938-40), all of which coincided with three consecutive scoring titles.  Edwards also was a six-time First Team All-NBL Selection and he led Oshkosh to two league titles (1941 & 1942).

The NBL was an all-white league, but Oshkosh faced the New York Rens, an all-black team.  Edwards and Oskosh were able to match up equally with New York, with Edwards respected unilaterally by the Rens. 

Edwards never made it to the NBA as his career ended before that league formed, but any player who was a three-time league MVP has a Hall of Fame case. 

Playoff Rondo.

Rajon Rondo loved it best when the lights were at their brightest.

The Boston Celtics acquired him in a 2006 draft-day trade from Phoenix, and he was a Second Team All-Rookie. Rondo won the starting job as a sophomore, and the Celtics loaded him with talent with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen joining him and Paul Pierce. Boston won the championship that year, but although many credited the "Big Three", Rondo was at times their best player in the playoffs.

Rondo improved his defense and earned a Second Team All-Defensive slot after his 2008 playoff success. Afterwards, he went to four straight All-Star Games and was in the conversation as one of the top point guards in the league. Rondo won the steals title in 2009-10, coinciding with a First Team All-Defensive nod, which was the first of two. He then became a better distributor, winning back-to-back assists titles (2011-12 & 2012-13), and was an All-NBA Third Team Selection in 2011-12. Notably, Rondo also finished 10th and 8th for the MVP in those seasons and was the face of the franchise. Everything was going well for Rondo until he tore his ACL in January of 2013, and nothing was the same again.

Rondo returned a year later, but his traditional and advanced statistics were a little lower. Boston was struggling, and in December of 2014, he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks to help them in their playoff run. Bluntly, Rondo did not help Dallas, and he was benched in the playoffs. Dallas did not want him, and Rondo's journeyman phase began.

He signed with Sacramento and won his third and final assists title (2015-16). Coincidentally, this was also his last season averaging more than 10 points per game. He played for Chicago, then New Orleans, then signed with the Los Angeles Lakers, where he was now coming off the bench. Rondo could still light it up, but it was becoming less frequent. He helped them win the 2020 NBA Championship, and this was his last great moment in the sport. Rondo played two more years, playing for Atlanta, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Lakers again, and Cleveland.

As good as Rondo was at his peak, his off-court issues could push him on the wrong side of the fence.

Only Mike Kenn played more Games (251) than Jeff Van Note (246) did with the Atlanta Falcons, and for nine years, they would play on the Offensive Line together.  Van Note played at Center after being drafted in the 11^th Round of the 1969 Draft, and over his 18-year career (all with Atlanta), he would only miss four games due to injury.  

From the University of Kentucky, Bob Talamini would play his entire nine-year professional career in the American Football League.  The first eight of those campaigns were with the Houston Oilers, where the Left Guard was a six-time AFL All-Star (1962-67) who played his way into three First Team All-Pros.  The Oilers were one of the powers of the league, and Talamini was a member of the first two AFL Titles (1960 & 1961), and after his run with Houston, he played one final year with the New York Jets.  

Bob Gain was drafted 5^th Overall in 1951 by the Green Bay Packers, but that year he elected to play in Canada with the Ottawa Rough Riders instead.  

With his year of eligibility pushed back from his attempts to get back in the big time through the D-League, Antoine Walker is sadly best known for his financial woes more than anything he did on the court. In his playing career, his best seasons were with Boston, where along with Paul Pierce his three pointers excited crowds (though he probably took too many) and he was a member of three All Star squads. In a reserve role, Walker had a very good season assisting the Heat in their first championship, but despite his role there, he is often the forgotten contributor on that team. Forgotten players generally don’t wind up enshrined; especially one who has become a punch line.