Paralympic medalist, heavyweight champion highlight Louisville's 2025 class of Hometown Heroes

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Seven Louisville natives will be honored with banners in 2025 as Hometown Heroes, including a World Series champion, a Grammy-nominated singer and a 19-time Paralympic medalist.

The Greater Louisville Pride Foundation announced the 2025 class Wednesday, adding to long list of Louisvillians remembered with banners adorning the side of city buildings.

"The ongoing nominations once again underscore the community's desire to show pride in Louisville by recognizing the city's most famous sons and daughters,” Mike Sheehy, GLPF's President and founding member, said in a news release Wednesday. "As with all of our hometown heroes, Class of 2025 honorees possess the grit, resilience, talent, determination and 'can do spirit' our city is known for."

Below is a rundown of the seven honorees, complete with career biographies courtesy of GLPF:

Will Smith

Two-time MLB World Series Champion catcher with the LA Dodgers. Will is a graduate of Kentucky Country Day School, graduate of the University of Louisville, father of two, a founder of the Catching Hope Foundation -- a family foundation focused on providing better opportunities for kids in the Los Angeles and Louisville communities. In addition, he was recently a member of Team USA. During Covid, Smith made a huge positive impact as a mentor and coach with local youth baseball players.

World Series Baseball — Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Will Smith celebrates after tagging New York Yankees' out at home during the fourth inning in Game 3 of the baseball World Series, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Ashley Landis

Oksana Masters

A 32-year-old Paralympic medalist in rowing and many other sports. She was adopted from a Ukraine orphanage at a young age after being discarded by her birth parents for being born with serious birth defects after her mother was exposed to Chernobyl nuclear meltdown radiation. She has lived in Louisville with her single adoptive mother and has thrived after both legs were amputated. Internationally recognized for her inspiring and competitive spirit, she competes in a number of sports and has won medals in many. In 2024, Masters won her 9th Paralympic gold medal and 19th Paralympic medal across different sports.

Teddy Abrams

Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra since 2014, Musical America's 2022 Conductor of the Year, and 2024 Grammy Winner for The American Project. He is an internationally recognized American conductor, composer, pianist and clarinetist. His work has been profiled by CBS Sunday Morning, the New Yorker, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and PBS Newshour. In 2019, Abrams brought national recognition to the Louisville Orchestra as he conducted their performance at the Kennedy Center Honors. Among Abrams's manifold achievements in Kentucky are the Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps; a trailblazing initiative that provides a fully funded residency for three composers. He spearheaded the "In Harmony" tour; a multi-season community-building project on a giant scale funded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky that takes the orchestra to every corner of the state for concerts and special community events. Deemed by the New York Times as a "Maestro of the People," Abrams "has embedded himself in his community, breaking the mold of modern conductors."

Dr. Kevin Cosby

Dr. Cosby was born and raised in Louisville's West End where he has lived his entire 65 years. He has been pastor of St. Stephen Church for 45 years and President of Simmons College of Kentucky which will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2025. His life has been dedicated to uplifting the West End which has positively impacted the entire city of Louisville. His work at Simmons College - the only private HBCU in Louisville founded in 1879 - has been monumental in creating economic growth in Louisville. Simmons College attracts students from 28 states and is a significant part of the fabric of the Louisville community.

SIMMONS BREAKFAST — Dr. Kevin Cosby speaks at Transform Louisville Breakfast on Feb. 21, 2023.

Jimmy Ellis (1940-2014)

Louisville native and graduate of Central High School, Ellis was a middleweight amateur boxer who became a successful professional heavyweight boxer. After watching a friend box a fellow Louisville youngster, Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) on a local amateur boxing television show, Ellis believed he had found his calling. He went on to win 59 of 66 amateur bouts and was a Golden Gloves champion. He boxed Ali twice as an amateur, with Ali winning the first bout and Ellis winning the second. Ellis wrote a letter to an initially skeptical Angelo Dundee, Ali's trainer, and asked him to handle his career. Dundee agreed to be both his manager and trainer. Ellis became a sparring partner for Ali and fought on several of Ali's early pre-world championship undercards. By the mid-1960s, Ellis was fighting heavyweights, with his development from middleweight to heavyweight cited as one of the most dramatic transformations in boxing history. Jimmy achieved a remarkable record of 40-12-1, which included 24 wins via knockout. Celebrated as one of the lightest heavyweight champions in history, he was inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in 1989 and inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 2004. After retiring from boxing, Ellis worked for the Louisville Metro Parks Department where he helped organize and officiate senior athletic programs, as well as train aspiring amateur boxers. Jimmy's faith was central to his life and his love for singing gospel music led to him being a member of the Riverview Spiritual Singers who released a CD titled, "Jimmy Ellis – A Gospel with a Punch." In 2004, Ellis told the Washington Times, "All I ever wanted to be was a good fighter and good man."

Ken Clay

Founder of the Corner of Jazz, Louisville's first cultural cooperative; Legacies Unlimited, Inc. and the Renaissance Development Corporation in the 1960's and 1970's. Clay is a formidable arts pioneer, business entrepreneur and cultural arts activist who has spearheaded relevant arts-related programming to support and create opportunities for African American artists and beyond. Ken has provided leadership in the arts that has impacted Louisville neighborhoods from every direction, particularly for youth living in underserved communities. He has used and utilized transformative arts programming and practices to catapult social change via his 21-year tenure (1983-2004) as the first Vice President of [Diversity] Programming at the Kentucky Center for the Arts (now Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts). Clay has received numerous distinctions and awards, including, Notable African Americans in Kentucky, Who's Who in Black Louisville, Chicago Kuumba Theatre's Liberation Award for Presenting African American Artists, the Governor's Community Arts Award, and the Greater Louisville Fund for the Arts' prestigious, Arts Lifetime Achievement Award. He has also been lauded nationally and internationally, as an important and well-respected arts producer, presenter and administrator.

Nicole Scherzinger

Raised in Louisville and a 1996 graduate of the Youth Performing Arts School (YPAS) at duPont Manual High School, Scherzinger is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and television personality. She was a member of the R&B pop group and dance ensemble, the Pussycat Dolls, between 2003 and 2010. With only two albums and over 55 million records sold worldwide, the Pussycat Dolls became one of the world's best-selling female groups of all time. At the age of 14, she joined Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she was cast in her first professional play, La Bête. While at YPAS, she participated in many plays. In 2007, she was inducted into duPont Manual Alumni's Hall of Fame as one of the youngest inductees. Since 2013, Scherzinger has endowed YPAS with a yearly $2,000 namesake scholarship. Since 2019, she has been a panelist on the popular show, Masked Singer. She is also the voice of Sina, Moana's mother, Tui's wife and Chieftess of Motunui in both the original Moana and Moana 2. Scherzinger played the role of Norma Desmond in the 2023 revival of Sunset Boulevard at the Savoy Theatre. Her performance garnered widespread critical acclaim and received the 2023 Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Musical Performance and the 2024 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical. In 2024, she made her Broadway debut in the same role in the transfer of the production to the St. James Theatre. She has also served as an ambassador for the Special Olympics.

The banners, a program organized by the Greater Louisville Pride Foundation, honor city natives who have gone on to national and international notoriety. Last year, two-time PGA Champion Justin Thomas took part in a ceremony to unveil his banner on the Watterson City Park Towers on Bishop Lane. The 2024 class also included John Y. Brown Jr., Rajon Rondo and Howard Schnellenberger.

To nominate someone or to offer space on your building for a banner, click here.