Bert Nelli - The Winning Tradition: A History Of Kentucky Wildcat Basketball

The Winning Tradition

A History of Kentucky Wildcat Basketball

SECOND EDITION

Bert Nelli and Steve Nelli

For Bill Nelli

Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Copyright 1998 by Humbert S. Nelli and H. Steven Nelli
Published by The University Press of Kentucky.
Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine College, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Club 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

98 99 00 01 02 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Nelli, Humbert S., 1930

The winning tradition : a history of Kentucky Wildcat basketball / Bert Nelli and Steve Nelli. 2nd ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.

ISBN 978-0-8131-5594-4

1. University of KentuckyBasketballHistory. I. Nelli, Steve, 1962- II. Title.

GV885.43.U53N45 1998

796.323'63'09726947dc21 98-3788

This book is printed on acid-free

, Wayne Turner firing from three-point range as South Carolina guard Melvin Watson looks on helplessly. Like Watson, the Gamecocks were ineffective against the Wildcat assault as UK won the March 8, 1998, SEC tournament championship, 86-54.

, A triumphant Orlando (Tubby) Smith is carried off the floor of San Antonios Alamodome after winning the 1998 NCAA national title.

Opposite, A high-flying Jeff Sheppard shoots a layup over Utahs Mike Doleac (51) and Alex Jensen (50) as Kentucky overcomes a ten-point halftime deficit to win the 1998 NCAA championship game, 78-69.

, A casually dressed Rick Pitino at a UK practice.
The usually Armani-clad Wildcat coach was widely noted for his sartorial spendor.

Tables

The much-awaited Battle of the Bluegrass saw the first regular-season meeting in over sixty years between two of college basketballs premier teams, the UK Wildcats and the U of L Cardinals. Here, forward Kenny Walker leaps over two Louisville defenders as UK drives to a 65-44 victory at Rupp Arena on November 26, 1983. Center Melvin Turpin is at right.

This book originally appeared in 1984. The fourteen years since have certainly been eventful. They have contained, for the basketball program and its legion of supporters, elements of tragedy as well as glory. The period has witnessed the retirement of Joe B. Hall; the unexpectedly short tenure of Eddie Sutton; the retirement of University of Kentucky President Otis A. Singletary and his replacement by David Roselle, who in turn left Lexington for the University of Delaware; a major NCAA penalty of the basketball program; and the replacement of Athletics Director Cliff Hagan with C.M. Newton, who in turn recruited Rick Pitino as head coach in Suttons place. Pitino remained in Lexington for eight seasons, during which he returned the Big Blue to college basketball glory and prominence and then, at the peak of his success, electrified Wildcat fans with his sudden (but long anticipated and dreaded) departure for the head coaching position with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association. The Cats are now launched into yet another new era, that of Tubby Smith. On the basis of his first season in Lexington it promises to be another period of success for Kentucky basketball.

The University of Kentucky Wildcats are one of the nations premier college basketball programs as well as one of the major unifying forces in the state. It has not always been so. Originally basketball at UK was little more than a form of recreation to help students pass the long winter months.

In its early years, college basketball was a womens as well as a mens game. At the University of Kentucky, in fact, women played the game and enjoyed success in 1902, a year before the first mens team was organized. Womens basketball at UK merits full treatment in its own right, and such a study should be written. But it is mens college basketball that has captured the loyalty of Kentuckians.

Adolph Rupp, who coached the team from 1930 to 1972, was obviously a major factor in the development of the Wildcat tradition, but he was not the only one. The tradition, in fact, was already firmly in place and developing strongly by the time the Baron arrived in Lexington. An even more significant fact is that the Rupp system, much of which was used by Joe B. Hall, originated not with Rupp but with his predecessor, John Mauer, and was based on the system Mauer had learned as a player for the University of Illinois Fighting Illini. Wildcat basketball owed a great deal to the Illinois connection. Whenever the Wildcats needed a basketball coach in the late teens and the 1920s, they generally looked to the Illini for help. Even Rupp, who came to UK from a high school coaching job in Illinois, needed a strong recommendation from the Illini head coach to obtain the Wildcat coaching position.

Many myths and inaccuracies have grown through the years about University of Kentucky basketball, especially about the Rupp era. This study attempts to separate the facts from the myths. Interestingly, the truth is every bit as fascinating as the myths. The book also examines the role of Joe B. Hall in continuing the program he inherited from Rupp. Halls accomplishments were often obscured by his stormy relations with the press, but his achievements were many and significant.

This volume examines important events as well as personalities in Wildcat history. These include the 1921 SIAA championship game in Atlanta, the Madison Square Garden appearance of LeRoy Edwards and his teammates in 1935, the Wildcat NIT and NCAA championships, and, on the negative side, the 1951 basketball scandal and UKs exclusively white recruitment policies prior to 1969 and the profound changes that have taken place in the decades since, the hundred-dollar handshake scandal of 1985, and the far more serious Emery package scandal of 1988.