Kentucky just 4th school with No. 1 pick in NBA, WNBA, and NFL

Rhyne Howard made plenty of history for Kentucky Women’s Basketball earlier this week, and in doing so, she helped pushed the school as a whole into rare company.

After Howard was selected No. 1 in the 2022 WNBA Draft by the Atlanta Dream on Monday night, the University of Kentucky has now produced top overall picks in all three of the WNBA, NBA, and NFL, just the fourth school in the country to do so. The Men’s Basketball program has seen three former Wildcats go No. 1 overall in the NBA, all under current head coach John Calipari: John Wall (2010), Anthony Davis (2012), and Karl-Anthony Towns (2015). On the gridiron, legendary UK quarterback Tim Couch went No. 1 in the 1999 NFL Draft to the Cleveland Browns.

Kentucky has become the fourth school in nation with a No. 1⃣ overall draft pick in the @NFL, @NBA, and @WNBA.#EverythingSchool pic.twitter.com/aZYHLEXrgu

— Kentucky Athletics (@UKAthletics) April 13, 2022

The other three schools to achieve this feat are Notre Dame, Washington, and LSU. Shoutout to the Fighting Irish football teams of the 1940s and 50s for giving Notre Dame the most athletes.

Notre Dame (7)
NBA: Austin Carr (1971)
WNBA: Jewell Loyd (2015)
NFL: Angelo Bertelli (1944), Frank Dancewicz (1946), Leon Hart (1950), Paul Hornung (1957), Walt Patulski (1972)

LSU (6)
NBA: Shaquille O’Neal (1992), Ben Simmons (2016)
WNBA: Seimone Augustus (2006)
NFL: Billy Cannon (1960), JaMarcus Russell (2007), Joe Burrow (2020)

Kentucky (5)
NBA: John Wall (2010), Anthony Davis (2012), Karl-Anthony Towns (2015)
WNBA: Rhyne Howard (2022)
NFL: Tim Couch (1999)

Washington (3)
NBA: Markelle Fultz (2017)
WNBA: Kelsey Plum (2017)
NFL: Steve Emtman (1992)

Not bad company, eh?