At age 59, ex-Cat Maurice Douglass fulfills promise to his mom by graduating from UK

Maurice Douglass has come to believe God has “a great sense of humor.”

If Douglass, a starting cornerback for Kentucky in the 1984 and 1985 football seasons, had graduated from college “on time,” it would have happened in 1986. Instead, 37 years later, Douglass was slated to walk across the stage at Rupp Arena on Friday and receive his UK degree.

“God took my (football) jersey number and made that how long it took me to graduate from the University of Kentucky,” Douglass said Wednesday.

When UK Athletics issued a news release Wednesday announcing that 41 Wildcats athletes were slated to graduate this semester, that list featured some familiar names. Included were current football standouts Ray Davis and J.J. Weaver, volleyball stars Reagan Rutherford and Azhani Tealer and women’s basketball players Emma King and Nyah Leveretter.

Yet the most interesting name was the ex-UK football player who rocked Kentucky blue back when Jerry Claiborne was the Wildcats’ head coach in the 1980s.

Douglass, 59, came to the University of Kentucky in the fall of 1984 as a transfer defensive back from Coffeyville Community College in Kansas.

Now the head football coach at Ohio’s Springfield High School, Douglass said, “I always tell my players, I went to junior college because I had to. It was not because I didn’t have the (football) talent to (sign a Division I scholarship), it was because my grades weren’t good enough out of high school.”

In his days (1982-1989) as UK’s head football coach, Claiborne put extreme emphasis on the academic achievement of his players. After becoming a Wildcat, Douglass quickly became a standout player at cornerback, but the transition academically from a junior college to the University of Kentucky was not easy.

“People don’t realize this, but UK is a difficult school. Some think UK is just this lazy, state university. It’s not,” said Bob Bradley, the longtime, former head of the academic advisory arm of UK Athletics. “It’s a big adjustment going from junior college to the University of Kentucky, and that was especially true back at the time Mo was trying to do it.”

After Douglass finished his UK playing career, he said he left school early to prepare for the NFL draft. He departed Kentucky some 30 hours short of his degree, Douglass said.

The Chicago Bears chose Douglass with the final pick of the eighth round of the 1986 draft. Douglass went on to have one of the longest pro football careers by any ex-Cat not named George Blanda or Jeff Van Note.

Douglass played nine years with the Bears, then two more with the New York Giants. Over his NFL career, he made 274 tackles, 12 fumble recoveries and six interceptions.

From the time he was finishing up playing at Kentucky through the end of his pro football career, Douglass said his mother, Nan Lawary, was imploring him to get his degree. He vowed to her that he would, but “I just had a lot of things (happen) in between that kept me from it.”

That’s where things stood in 2018 when Mark Stoops, Vince Marrow and the UK football coaching staff were wooing Douglass’ son, Moses, as a defensive back prospect. That caused Maurice to think again about the idea of finishing his degree. After Moses signed with Kentucky in 2019, Maurice pondered the idea of father and son receiving UK degrees together.

Alas, Moses transferred to Alabama A&M after the 2021 season. Instead, it was the decision of Maurice Douglass’ daughter, Shiloh, to attend Kentucky that helped motivate the former UK defensive back to finish his degree work — because her tuition costs would be more advantageous if she were the child of a University of Kentucky graduate.

So, starting in 2022, while he coached the Springfield High School football team and worked at the school during the day, Douglass also crammed in the reading, studying and test-taking of a college student.

“A lot of late nights, a lot of long weekends,” he said. “A lot of reading of books. I can tell you, I hadn’t read the kind of books I had to read to go through.”

In a digital world, Douglass was able to earn the course credits he needed to receive a general studies degree from UK via the internet.

On Friday, his plan was to march during Kentucky’s graduation ceremonies.

Though Claiborne passed away in 2000, “he will definitely be looking down and clapping from heaven when I walk across that stage,” Douglass said. “Another man I owe a lot of credit to is Bob Bradley, who was always on me about coming back (to UK) and finishing up.”

Douglass was able to complete his college course work via UK’s Cawood Ledford Post-Eligibility scholarship. Named for the venerable Kentucky Wildcats radio play-by-play announcer who died in 2001, the scholarship provides ex-UK athletes with the funding needed to return to school and finish their degree work.

“We’ve probably had 100 kids, or more, finish on ‘the Cawood Ledford,’” said Bradley, who worked for UK Athletics in academic tutoring from 1977 through 2018. “It’s made a big difference.”

For Douglass, the prospect of being a college graduate is meaningful on three fronts.

“It means I was able to complete something that I had started,” he said.

For a high school football coach trying to inspire one’s players, it is an example of walking one’s talk.

“I always talk with our kids about completing what you start,” Douglass said. “What greater example is there than being able to finish up my college degree after 37 years.”

As a son, getting his college degree means he kept his word.

“It is something I promised my mom I would do,” Maurice Douglass said. “It took me awhile, but I have done it.”

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