Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hines-Allen react to being named to 2025 UK Athletics Hall of Fame class

Six former Wildcats were announced as a part of UK Athletics’ 2025 Hall of Fame class. Among those names are Josh Hines-Allen and Karl-Anthony Towns — both of which are tearing up to NFL and NBA, respectively.

Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart was the one to break the news, calling all six — Towns, Hines-Allen, Abbey Cheek-Ramsey, Sonia Hahn, Makayla Epps and Doug Flynn — of the new Hall of Famers to tell them. UK Athletics recorded it, and one by one each of the former player’s reactions were revealed.

The Call to the Hall!
Congrats, Hall of Famers! @AbbeyCheek-Ramsey – @UKsoftball
Makayla Epps – @KentuckyWBB
Doug Flynn – @UKbaseball/@KentuckyMBB/broadcaster@sonia_hahn – @UKWomensTennis @JoshHinesAllen – @UKFootball@KarlTowns – @KentuckyMBB pic.twitter.com/7FPblwkE3x

— Kentucky Athletics (@UKAthletics) July 31, 2025

While all six have gone down in Kentucky history as being some of the greatest players to ever play the sport at the university, Hines-Allen and Towns have had the most prominent careers professionally. It helps that they play the two most mainstream sports as well.

Of course, Karl-Anthony Towns was a part of the Kentucky team that won its first 38 games of the season before suffering a heartbreaking loss to Wisconsin in the Final Four. He went on to become the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft.

“I’m in shock,” Towns told Barnhart. “I’m literally sweating. … Hopefully one day, my kids can see that their dad was something special in college at Kentucky.”

Hines-Allen was a game-wrecker for the Wildcats on the football field. An elite pass rusher, he helped lead Kentucky to its first 10-win season in decades that concluded with a victory over Penn State in the Citrus Bowl. His 31.5 career sacks are a program record.

“Man, you know I love Kentucky,” Hines-Allen said. “It’s family up there, man. I don’t care who, pieces move in and out, but I’m always going to be connect that’s why I started my family I created my life there, man. So I really appreciate everybody in that organization.”

Cheek-Ramsey, Epps, Flynn and Hahn were all included in the video as well. Each reaction is sure to put a smile on fan’s faces.

Epps was a celebrity in Lexington during her tenure with the Wildcats’ women’s basketball team. She’s top 10 in almost every statistical category you can imagine and helped UK through an incredibly successful stretch that saw her win 98 games in a UK uniform. She recorded the second triple-double in UK WBB history with 21 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds vs. Morehead State in Nov. 2015.

Cheek-Ramsey was the NFCA’s 2019 National Player of the Year as well as a unanimous first team All-American. She sits second in UK history in the following categories: RBI (202), runs scored (189), home runs (61), slugging percentage (.678) and third in total bases (454).

Flynn is the oldest, yet most versatile of the bunch. He played baseball and basketball for UK in the 1970s. He went on to play 11 seasons in the MLB, winning two World Series with the Cincinnati Reds and a Gold Glove in 1980.

Hahn played tennis for UK from 1986-1989 where she became a two-time All American in both the singles and doubles ranks. Hahn won the 1987 ITA National Indoor Singles Championship and an SEC singles title in the same year.