Josh Kattus, Zoe Hammond Nominated for 2026 H. Boyd McWhorter Award
Kentucky tight end Josh Kattus and Zoe Hammond of women’s tennis have been nominated for the 2026 H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship by the University of Kentucky, the Southeastern Conference announced today.
The H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship has been presented by the SEC since 1986 to the league’s top male and female scholar-athletes.
The SEC will name the 2026 recipients of the H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship in early May.
Highlights of Kentucky’s nominees include:
Josh Kattus, Football, Cincinnati, Ohio
Major: Communication
- Played in 44 career games with 26 starts for the Wildcats
- Caught 38 passes for 505 yards and six touchdowns in his career
- Scored the game-winning touchdown in the 2024 win at No. 6-ranked Ole Miss
- One of 11 players in the FBS named to the 2025 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team
- Two-time Pop Warner College Football Award finalist, along with being a Wuerffel Trophy semifinalist and a Campbell Trophy semifinalist in 2025
- 2024 SEC Community Service Team
- 2024 Division I Academic All-District Team by CSC
- Represented UK Football on UK’s Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) and was a member of the SEC Football Leadership Council
- Represented the SEC on the NCAA Football Oversight Committee’s Student-Athlete Connection Group
- Graduated in December of ’25 with a degree in communication and an undergraduate certificate in business
Zoe Hammond, Women’s Tennis, Edmond, Oklahoma
Major: Economics with Graduate Certificates in Business Analytics & Technical Writing
- Academic All-America Third Team by College Sports Communicators
- Only women’s tennis student-athlete Academic All-American honoree to achieve a 4.0 GPA
- 2025 SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year
- 3x SEC Spring Academic Honor Roll2025 All-SEC Second Team
- 2025 Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Most Improved Player in the Ohio Valley Region
- Owns three wins over top-10 ranked singles players
- Holds a career-high ITA singles ranking of No. 35
- Graduated in three years and plans to attend law school
- Active in the Lexington community, with more than 150 volunteer hours
The SEC provides the league’s male and female McWhorter Scholar-Athlete of the Year Post-Graduate Scholarship recipients with a $20,000 post-graduate scholarship. The remaining nominees for the award will also receive a $10,000 post-graduate scholarship.
The award recipients are chosen by a committee of Faculty Athletics Representatives from the 16 SEC institutions and are announced in May, as well as honored by the league membership at SEC Spring Meetings in Destin, Fla.
Last year’s McWhorter Award recipients were Ole Miss’ Mason Nichols (baseball) and Georgia’s Abby McCulloh (swimming and diving).
Kentucky’s previous winners of the award include: Asia Seidt (swimming), Chelsea Oswald (track and field/cross country) and Jeff Zurcher (football).
