Back to the Kentucky Wildcats Newsfeed

C.M. Newton, basketball icon who restored Kentucky to greatness, dies

C.M. Newton, whose basketball legacy includes playing for a University of Kentucky national championship team, later rescuing UK’s program from national embarrassment and repeatedly opening doors for historically marginalized black athletes and coaches, died Monday from natural causes. He was 88.

Charles Martin Newton filled many roles in more than a half-century in basketball. Among them were UK player, coach at Transylvania, Alabama and Vanderbilt, associate commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, UK director of athletics, chair of the NCAA Rules Committee, chair of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, president of USA Basketball, NIT Committee chair, USA Basketball representative at FIBA and inductee in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.