Kentucky Football Star Josh Kattus Earns Title in Dancing Competition
In one of the more bizarre headlines coming out of UK's athletic program, a football star has won another award in the offseason… but this time it's in a dancing competition.
Wildcat tight end Josh Kattus was honored with the Judge's Champion Award during the 2025 'Dancing with the Lexington Stars' dance competition.
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The competition, with its branding a clear play on the famous competition TV show 'Dancing With the Stars,' is more than just a test of dancing prowess, however, with the event serving as the largest fundraiser of the year put on by the Lexington Rotary Club.
The victory in 2025, which saw Kattus and Clark's Pump-N-Shop marketing and community and engagement leader Allison Fliehman tie Whittney Allen, marked the second year in a row the former football star had logged, also being victorious last year with dancing partner Mattie Lewis.
Kattus and Fliehman raised around $11,000 for charity during the event, held at The Carrick House, with his efforts going to support Baby Health Services and the Lexington Rotary Club, which goes along with the $34,000 he helped raise in last year's event.
In 2024, his charity of choice was Surgery on Sunday, a nonprofit that helps under-insured or low-income individuals have access to necessary surgeries.
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All of these efforts are hardly out of character for Kattus, who has been famously charitable during his Kentucky tenure as well.
He was named to the SEC Community Service Team last season, was a finalist for the Pop Warner Football Award, an award that recognizes an athlete who made a 'positive impact on the field, in the classroom and in the community,' and was named to the University of Kentucky's Frank G. Ham Society of Character.
Off the field, Kattus is also on UK's Student-Athlete Advisory Council to represent the football team, is on the football-specific Leadership Council and represents the SEC as a whole on the NCAA Football Oversight Committee's Student-Athlete Connection Group.
Katus also volunteers with the Ronald McDonald House in Lexington, packing meals and writing get-well-soon cards for sick patients. He also formerly worked with the Scott County Humane Society, doubling the society's adoption rates since joining.
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Kattus came to Kentucky out of Archbishop Moeller in Cincinnati, being a three-star football recruit.
Last season, he saw the field in 11 of UK's 12 games, eight of which were starting appearances. His only missed game was the season opener, in which he was injured. Kattus totaled six catches for 77 yards and two touchdowns.
He is expected to return to the team for his senior season in 2025, with the staff hoping Kattus can be part of the cultural revival for a football squad that went a disappointing 4-8 last season to end its streak of bowl game appearances.
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