A three-sport star out of old West Rome High School, Chuck Kinnebrew perhaps became most distinguished as being part of the “first” group of scholarship black football players at Georgia. He joined Horace King, Clarence Pope, Richard Appleby, and Larry West in that group. Yet, Kinnebrew almost didn’t attend Georgia—and later, he nearly transferred out of the university.

A starter on Georgia’s 1971 freshman team, Kinnebrew developed into an extremely quick and often double-teamed defensive guard, who would be recognized as the Bulldogs’ top defensive lineman as a senior in 1974. Since his playing days, Kinnebrew has enjoyed a successful business career for more than four decades.

UGASports.com caught up with Kinnebrew from his home in the Atlanta area.

UGASports: Chuck, to start off, was there any thought while you were growing up of actually becoming the first—or one of the first—black football players at a particular school—or did it just kind of happen?

Kinnebrew: “As for Georgia, I was aware they hadn’t had any scholarship African-American players at the time. And, for most of my life, my parents had pushed me somewhat to be the ‘first’ here, or the ‘first’ there. In fact—and I’ve told this story before—when I was six or seven years old, my dad had bought my sister a tape recorder. He interviewed me on the recorder about being one of the first blacks to play football at the University of Georgia. But, as for going to college and playing football, I really didn’t want to be the ‘first’ to do so at Georgia, or really for any program. I really wanted to go somewhere where I wasn’t starting from scratch, so to speak. I really wanted to go somewhere where they already had African-American players.”

UGASports: We’re guessing you had dealt with being the “first” before?

Kinnebrew: “Yes, schools were integrated in Rome, Georgia, during the mid-1960s. So, I knew what to expect by being the ‘first’—the racism—yet I knew how to deal with it. It wasn’t unique to me. When I was in seventh grade—that’s when schools were integrated in Rome—I was too big to play on the little league team, so they put me on the freshman team at West Rome. I was the only black player on the team. I wasn’t called names or anything, but I was targeted—didn’t feel welcomed. And I eventually quit. Here I was, a seventh-grader playing with ninth-graders—and that wasn’t a whole lot of fun. But, I learned, after a year or two, most teammates didn’t mind what color I was, as long as we were playing football. Once I got to ninth grade, it was pretty smooth sailing, because I felt the racism I was exposed to in the seventh and eighth grades didn’t exist anymore, as far as I was concerned. At that point, it was like I was in a position to kind of control my own destiny, and people really didn’t mess with me.”

UGASports: You said you didn’t want to go to Georgia at first. Where did you initially want to attend school and play football?

Kinnebrew: “I had given some thought to Florida State and Notre Dame too—but I didn’t want to go too far from home. And, of course, there was Georgia. However, my first choice was no doubt Tennessee. Lester McClain had played at Tennessee, and Jackie Walker was there at the time (two of Tennessee’s first black players). Honestly, Georgia was probably No. 2 on my list. However, when my parents and I visited Knoxville, they were taken out by one of Tennessee’s assistant coaches—and the coach had too much to drink. My dad was deeply religious and didn’t drink, so he didn’t want me to be exposed to that kind of environment. On the other hand, when we came to Georgia, my parents dealt with Claude McBride. Rev. McBride was the team chaplain—and that was right up my dad’s alley.”

UGASports: Did your dad play a part in you deciding to attend Georgia?

Kinnebrew: “Remember that tape recording from more than 10 years earlier—the one of him interviewing me? The night before I was going to make my decision, my dad found that recording. And you really could barely understand it, but he played it. He then talked to me about how making the right decision, staying at home, and being one of Georgia’s first black players would pave the way for other black kids to enter the program. My dad also talked to me about being a good role model. Finally, I knew that I might be one of the first black players at Georgia—but I wasn’t going to be the only black player. There were four others, and I wasn’t going to be by myself.”

UGASports: How was it when you finally stepped on campus, especially when faced with an annual hazing ritual, and some upperclassmen dressed up in Ku Klux Klan attire?

Kinnebrew: “Man, par for the course. I mean, that KKK-thing was apparently a tradition that the UGA football program had before we got exposed to it. Now, we (UGA’s first black players) didn’t like getting exposed to it—but we knew it would be short-lived. Like I said, usually after one or two years, all the BS had gone away, and most white teammates had already started treating us as people.”

UGASports: What was a quality shared by all five black players, especially yourself, which helped you with any conflict you had while at UGA?

Kinnebrew: “The upbringing we all had was pretty solid. For my family, a focus was on doing the right thing. My father made it clear to me that my objective ought to be to graduate from college. Any opportunity for pro football was secondary in his mind. His deal was for me to keep my nose clean, graduate, and he guaranteed I wouldn’t have a problem getting a job. Also, and as I’ve mentioned, I needed to make sure I was a good role model, because there would be other kids to follow. Our quality upbringing is a primary reason why we never got in trouble—never made the newspaper. Well, there was actually one incident (amongst the first black players) when the campus cops were involved—but hardly anyone found about it. Not even Coach Dooley (then-head coach Vince Dooley) knew about it at the time. We were all focused and had processes where we maintained discipline amongst ourselves. We used these processes to keep ourselves in line. So if somebody got out of line, we’d sit that person down—and he couldn’t say anything—and we told him what we thought, what we expected, and how important it was for us to set a good example.”

UGASports: Besides your teammates, was there anyone else locally providing you with support while you were at UGA?

Kinnebrew: “Horace, Clarence, and Richard had a very good relationship with a group of local black businessmen. And those men took me in, adopted me, and treated me like they did the other guys. From my standpoint, that worked out very well. Another thing I did: I wound up pledging my uncle’s fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi, which enabled me to have a life outside of football. My fraternity was really focused on achievement, public service, and academics. I was around a group of guys who, yeah, we liked to have a good time, but we also believed in public service and having a high academic standard. The fraternity really influenced and enriched my life, because I started to have a much better understanding of what leadership was all about.”

UGASports: Did you experience any racism from teammates while at Georgia?

Kinnebrew: “I remember playing Alabama in Athens my sophomore year (1972). That’s when Alabama ran the wishbone and had [halfback] Wilbur Jackson, and we couldn’t stop him. He was running all over the place. I remember we were in the dressing room, and [a fellow defender] started complaining about how we couldn’t stop [Jackson] and called him the N-word. (With Jackson as its leading rusher, Alabama rushed for nearly 300 yards in a 25-7 win over Georgia.) I looked at him and said, ‘You have to be crazy!’ That taught me that the racism was still there, although it might not have been directed at me. Still, for him to say that, and to say it in my presence, meant that he looked at me from that same perspective. And I instantly looked at the guys who he hung around with, and thought that they must view black players the same way.”

UGASports: Is there an individual game performance of yours at Georgia which stands out to you?

Kinnebrew: “After I didn’t play a whole lot as a sophomore, but played more as a junior, I was a starter as a senior in 1974 [video below vs. Florida]. Although I wound up getting the ‘Meanest Mother in the Trench’ award for top defensive lineman on the team, I really don’t recall any standout games where I made 10-12 tackles, or anything like that. But, the year before, in 1973, and although I didn’t start, I had a pretty good game when we upset Tennessee in Knoxville [35-31] and the Vols’ quarterback, Condredge Holloway." (Although defending against Tennessee in just five of 11 offensive possessions, including only one when he played the entire possession, Kinnebrew still totaled a handful of solo tackles while pressuring the quarterback several times, in what remains one of Georgia’s biggest upsets in the modern era.)

UGASports: What do you recall about your defensive coordinator at the time, Erk Russell?

Kinnebrew: “Outside of maybe Nick Hyder (Kinnebrew’s head coach at West Rome), Coach Russell is probably the best coach I’ve ever had—from both a coaching and a human standpoint. He was an extremely classy guy. Coach Russell also recognized that the five of us black players were a cut above from a character standpoint. To be honest, I actually thought of transferring at one point, and if it hadn't been for Coach Russell, I don’t know if I would've stayed at Georgia. He was very charismatic, and unlike most people, actually understood what we were going through.”

UGASports: After graduating from UGA, what did you do professionally?

Kinnebrew: “My goal was to be an assistant coach in the SEC because, at the time, we didn’t have any black coaches. I told Coach Dooley and Doc Ayers (head coach of UGA’s freshman team) that I wanted to coach. So that’s what I did as an assistant for the freshman team (1975). while I was working on my Master’s degree. That was going phenomenally well. But, that December, one of the local guys I spoke of—he worked for the Department of Labor—wanted me to interview for a first-line supervisor job at a local supply plant in Athens. Although that wasn’t my professional objective at the time, I agreed to interview, because that guy had been so good to me. I interviewed, then was asked to come back—and, when I did, they offered me the job. Interestingly, the person who had held the job before was a black man who had gotten transferred to a different plant, and they were looking for another black supervisor. And that’s how my business career got started.”

UGASports: Tell us more about your business career.

Kinnebrew: “Over the years, I’ve held all kinds of business positions, including leadership roles for DuPont, Home Depot, and my current employer, Floor & Decor. I had worked in procurement for the majority of my career and I was planning to retire in October. After the George Floyd incident had occurred, I was asked to take on a new role as Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. That’s my current position.”

UGASports: What about your family?

Kinnebrew: “My wife and I just celebrated our 30th anniversary, and I have three boys, all happily married and successful. My oldest son is named after me, Robert Horace Kinnebrew, III. My middle son is named Omar; my youngest is Vandrick. I have grandkids from all three of them—five total, four boys and one girl.”

UGASports: Looking back, do you think attending the University of Georgia helped prepare you for the rest of your life?

Kinnebrew: “I’ve had a successful business career, and I believe my time at Georgia played a significant role in that. In most environments I’ve worked in, I was typically the only African-American in a leadership role. But we’re trying to change that, so that the underrepresented people can look up and see people like themselves—and know that they will have a fair share and equitable opportunity to advance. We’re all about being able to manage differences, so you can embrace diversity—something I’ve dealt with all my life.”

UGASports: Besides when distinguished as one of the “first,” do you have any other sort of association with the University of Georgia?

Kinnebrew: “Hey, you see what’s behind me? (On a wall behind Kinnebrew hangs his UGA letterman’s jacket in a framed casing.) I’m a Dawg for life! I’m a UGA graduate, I have season tickets, and I contribute to the Hartman Fund and am a 1961 Club member. I feel like I’m legitimate, and feel like if you really want to see what a role model looks like, that’s what I represent. Still, I benefitted from this situation—and that’s why I have no problem in giving back.”