Former Alabama basketball player Wendell Hudson found himself lost for words when Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne first called him up with his plan to recognize Hudson in a way that none of the school’s athletes had ever before been honored.

“When he told me about retiring the jersey and that kind of stuff, I paused. … Because I had to take that in,” Hudson said. “Because I know the history of Alabama, and I know the history of the athletes and all the things that had happened here.”

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Alabama took a pause of its own on Saturday afternoon during halftime. It didn’t matter that the Crimson Tide led No. 25 LSU by 11 points in a game Alabama absolutely had to win.

For a moment, all eyes were on Hudson, the first African American scholarship athlete in the school’s history. Then all eyes, including Hudson’s, wandered up to the rafters where Alabama unveiled his No. 20 jersey hanging between the program’s two sweet sixteen banners.

“For mine to be the first one, it was an unbelievable feeling when I found out,” Hudson said.

Although his jersey is the lone one hanging above the court in Coleman Coliseum, the No. 20 will remain in circulation for the men’s basketball team.

On the court, Hudson averaged 19 points and 12.9 rebounds in 93 games. Then as a senior, Hudson became the program’s first Southeastern conference Player of the Year after he led the league in scoring while averaging 20 points per game.

“My story is not the necessary the typical story of integrating an athletic department and being the first black athlete,” Hudson said. “Because I had fun.”

Hudson said he didn’t realize the big-picture implications of his actions when he decided to attend Alabama in 1969.

“Everybody wanted to play at the highest level they can play, and I looked out there, and I thought I could play here,” Hudson said.

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