LEXINGTON — Reggie Warford, the second Black varsity player to take the court for Kentucky basketball, died Thursday morning. He was 67.
Warford was the first Black basketball player to spend four years at Kentucky and graduate from the university. He arrived on campus in 1972, two years after Tom Payne broke the color barrier in the program. Payne spent only one season at UK.
A Drakesboro, Kentucky, native, Warford had battled a variety of health issues over the last decade, undergoing multiple organ transplants. According to a 2019 story from WKYT, he developed sarcopenia, a neuromuscular disease that leads to the loss of muscle mass and strength, while recovering from the transplants.