Snorton, Hickman Matthew "Matt"
(born: 1942 - died: 2016)Matt Snorton was an athlete who was born in Crofton, KY in 1942. He would eventually return to Christian County to become the Disaster and Emergency Services Coordinator. His family left Kentucky when Matt Snorton was a child and they would settle in Detroit, MI, where Matt attended high school. He was a gifted athlete in baseball and football, he also played basketball, and was a musician in the marching band. Matt Snorton's high school baseball team won Detroit's Public School League Title in 1959 [source: R. Bak,"Northwestern Field in Detroit launched many great baseball careers," 08/03/2014 at detroitathletic.com ]. He received scholarship offers for both football and band, and he was offered a contract to play professional baseball. Considering all of the offers, Snorton settled at Michigan State University, where he played wide receiver on the football team from 1961-1963. He was selected by the Detroit Lions in the second round of the 1964 NFL Draft, and selected in the third round of the AFL Draft. Snorton decided to play professional football with the Denver Broncos, an AFL team. His career was cut short after five games due to an injury. Snorton changed his career to banking. He returned to Christian County in 1994 and was hired as the Disaster and Emergency Services Coordinator. Snorton also worked at the radio station WHOP in Hopkinsville and he became a historian who researched African American history in Christian County. He developed one minute segments on African American history that were aired on WHOP during Black History Month. Hickman Matthew Snorton was the son of Flem and Mary Whitney Snorton, and he was the nephew of Charles C. Snorton. For more see S. Burnside, "Matt's journey," Kentucky New Era," 04/28/2004 [online]; "Community icon Matt Snorton will be missed by Christian County,"The Eagle Post, 01/03/2017 [online]; Matt Snorton at the NFL profile website; Matt Snorton's college stats at sports-reference.com; and KY House of Representatives 17RS BR 1017 honoring Matt Snorton.
