It was a special ceremony over the weekend as the Lexington African American Sports Hall of Fame inducted 23 new members.

The Class of 2023 includes ten former Kentucky Wildcats and two trailblazing jockeys from the late 19th century.

Those being recognized for the honor said it's an important spotlight to step into tonight.

We honor some of Lexington's hometown sports heroes that.

Are not as high as the ladies.

Racially charged and the fact that it is people coming out and recognizing this, it means a lot.

It just means so much.

It means a lot because.

I haven't been here in Lexington in a while and people still know me.

They still know what I have brought to Lexington and who I am.

And, you know, as big time.

And I love it.

I love the people here in the Big blue.

I'm always going to be big.

It's truly, truly an honor.

I've been away from Lexington for a while, and just this entire process, it really stirred up a lot of emotions and brought back a lot of great memories.

So it's truly an honor.

Means a lot to me to be recognized by your community.

And I do this for the children because I want them to realize it no matter what I want.

Still, if you want the best, try on dream big and if it's God's will that same day.

It's a huge honor just to know that his legacy is going to continue, not just with his accomplishments at the University of Kentucky.

He just really shows how amazing he was.

I know me growing up this year and all the stories about my dad and finally being able to see him inducted into the Hall of Fame is a very big accomplishment.

We definitely have the rest of our lives.

We played together in high school.

We played together in college.

And for us to be inducted at the same time, it's really a blessing.

And I hope he's looking down, smiling, knowing that we still love him, because a lot of.

That is a huge honor for our family.

My mother has done so much research and trying to sound out our lineage.

It's like the icing on the cake.

When you finally get all of the pieces of the puzzle that they can take a picture of the puzzle.

This is amazing opportunity because so many people don't know the history of the African American jockeys.

And when I tell them my great great grandfather, our great great grandfather, won the Kentucky Derby, this blows their mind and also initiates them to go and do their research and find out those other 25 jockeys out there way before they did this.

When I see someone who has that capability and I think what happens is that it starts a fire in anyone just to have that capability.

So I think this establishment, they've got a lot of hard work in.

And I can tell that I think shows the contribution that we have made and that we continue to make.

And so I think putting on such an event will help bring that to life.

What it means to me is that I had a coach, people would all experience to me would be standing here today.

I remember her telling me it's not the big things with the small things.

And I know that might sound like a cliche, but it really does make a difference.

It makes a difference when you're standing in front of something that doesn't look like you when you're trying to decide whether you should go right to the left or even if you're standing in the right position all together, it's important that we see people like us.

It's important to us so that we can grow.

And so anything and all things.

And that is where we stand in anything that we can do today.

We need to make sure that we reach back and make sure that they understand what it took to get here.

What they're doing now is make a difference so small things happen.

Good advice.

And congratulations to all the inductees who were nominated by the public and selected by the founding members of the Lexington African American Sports Sports Hall of Fame.