On the weekend Olympic gold medalist and world record-holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was welcomed back to her alma mater to be enshrined in the UK Athletics Hall of Fame, one Kentucky football player had a tribute ready.
Wide receiver Dane Key hoped to find the end zone so he could unveil a touchdown celebration where he did his best impersonation of McLaughlin-Levrone leaping over a hurdle. He had to settle for doing it on the field of play instead.
“I hope she saw that,” Key said Saturday after UK’s 41-6 win against Ohio at Kroger Field. “I hope my form was pretty good.”
Key’s hurdle came on a fourth-and-7 play in the second quarter when Brock Vandagriff rolled out to his right, buying enough time to find Key hope down the right sideline. Key caught the ball near the Ohio 20-yard line then sprinted toward the end zone. At the 6-yard line, he hurdled over a defender trying to cut his legs from under him to reach the 1-yard line before he was pushed out of bounds.
On the next play, running back Demie Sumo-Karngbaye scored on a 1-yard carry to give Kentucky a 17-0 lead that essentially wrapped up the victory.