James Duane Bolin - Adolph Rupp and the Rise of Kentucky Basketball

Adolph Rupp and the Rise of Kentucky Basketball

Adolph Rupp
and the Rise of
Kentucky Basketball

James Duane Bolin

Copyright 2019 James Duane Bolin

Published by The University Press of Kentucky, scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved.

Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky

663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008

www.kentuckypress.com

Unless otherwise noted, photographs are from the authors collection.

Cataloging-in-Publication data is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 978-0-8131-7720-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-8131-7724-3 (epub)

ISBN 978-0-8131-7723-6 (pdf)

This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

For Dr. Humbert S. Nelli

And

For Evelyn Seaton Bolin, Wesley Seaton Bolin, and Cammie Jo Bolin

Contents

Prologue

A dolph Rupp stormed into the locker room, threw off his brown suit coat and flung the silver belt bucklea consolation prizeagainst the far wall. The coachs outburst stunned the reigning national champions of college basketball. It was December 30, 1948, and the University of Kentucky Wildcats had just lost to St. Louis 4240 in the final game of the prestigious Sugar Bowl Tournament in New Orleans.

The Wildcats did not lose many basketball games. Even before Rupps arrival in 1930, his predecessor, John Mauer, had a 4014 record over three seasons before leaving to become coach at Miami University of Ohio. Along came Adolph Frederick Rupp, a brash young all-purpose Midwestern high school coach with no college coaching experience. He built on Mauers success and turned Kentucky into a dynasty, winning four NCAA championships in an 11-year span starting in 1948. Going into that game in New Orleans, the Wildcats were 36271 during Rupps tenure, and the team that lost that night to St. Louis would finish 322 and win a second straight national title, with a starting five of Alex Groza, Ralph Beard, Wallace Wah Wah Jones, Cliff Barker, and Dale Barnstable.

Kentucky held a commanding 2718 halftime lead against the Billikens, but in the waning minutes of the game, unheralded Louis Lehman scored seven crucial points to give St. Louis the victory, and the Wildcats had to settle for those silver belt buckles as the runner-up prize. Then came Rupps locker-room tirade, which probably even shocked players long accustomed to such outbursts. I wouldnt give that to my nigger on the farm, Rupp blurted out.1

One of Rupps more legendary dressing room explosions had occurred at halftime of a game on January 8, 1945. The Wildcats led an overmatched Arkansas State team 344, and one player had scored all four of the Indians points. When Rupp walked into the home locker room in Alumni Gymnasium, he demanded, Who is guarding No. 12? Kentuckys All-American Jack Parkinson looked up meekly and said, Coach, I am. Rupp barked, Well, get on him, because he is running absolutely wild!2

But Rupps venomous nigger on the farm outburst was an entirely different matter, and it provides another insight into an individual who played a leading role in the development of big-time college sports in America during the twentieth century. To many Americans, Adolph Rupp remains an icon of racism, a lingering reminder of the Southeastern Conferences role in the segregated South. Within the Bluegrass State, however, he continues to be held in reverence by most of the Big Blue faithful. In a 2001 Lexington Herald-Leader series framed around the question, What is the Legacy of Adolph Rupp? almost every contribution from the newspapers readers contained some defense of the coachs stand on the race issue.3

Rupps defenders see a very different Man in the Brown Suit than the caricature presented by his critics. They suggest that the critical image of Rupp is exaggerated, if not misplaced. When George Will referred to Rupp as a great coach and a bad man in a 1991 newspaper column, Rupps son wondered how Will could be that ignorant and dumb. A granddaughter remembered a kind man who took his family to Pralltownan African American section of Lexingtoneach summer to distribute Shrine Circus tickets to all the black children in the neighborhood.4 Others recall the Rupp who once told a radio interviewer that black players owed their quickness to the fact that the lions and tigers caught all the slow ones.5

And then there was the testimony of Marie Jackson, the widow of Dr. V. A. Jackson, the Wildcats team physician from 1965 until 1972, the year the university forced Rupp to retire. Mrs. Jackson remembered a different Rupp from the gruff, public image he presented to the press, although she agreed that the coach had always been genuinely concerned about the almighty dollar. By the end of his coaching career, Mrs. Jackson believed that Coach was a very wealthy man; he kept his money. He wasnt very giving at that time.6

In a 2010 interview at her comfortable home in Paducah, Mrs. Jackson said, Now, remember honey, I told you that he never likes a yes person; be honest with him, what you believe in.7 Perhaps, that is why the Jacksons got along so well with Rupp: they were honest with him. Dr. Jacksons honesty did not allow him to tell Rupp that a player could play when he really was not able to play. For Marie Jackson, a devoted Baptist, honesty usually centered on matters of faith. So when the world-renowned evangelist, Billy Graham, held a spectacular crusade in 1971 on the grounds of Stoll Field directly across Euclid Avenue from Memorial Coliseum, complete with big screens set up in the coliseum for the overflow crowds, Rupp was at first stunned and more than a little agitated.

When the Jacksons visited the Rupps soon after the crusade, she knew what to expect. So when we walked to the door, Mrs. Jackson recalled,

they always met us at the front door and Coach would give me a hug, and Mrs. Rupp would hug [Dr. Jackson], and then [Coach] just stepped back real fast, and you know he had a little chubby tummy, so he stepped back and put his hands down and said Marie, I want you to tell me something. Whats that coach? Why in the world did you Baptists bring this man in here and fill Memorial Coliseum and set up screens. This man just swept the town. But I couldnt believe that Stoll Field and Memorial Coliseum were both packed. You never did anything like that for Uncle Adolph.8

Now Marie was stunned. I looked at him and he said to me [again], she recalled, Did you hear me, Marie? You all never did anything like this for Uncle Adolph. What Uncle Adolph liked best about Marie Jackson was her beauty and her quick wit. Coach, she told him, all I can say is it looks like Billy Graham had something better to sell than you do.9