Interview with Adolph Rupp

RUPP: We played Columbia in the first game, beat them 76-53. We beat Holy Cross, who were the defending national champions, we beat them 60-52, and I think they had exactly the same team back that won the NCAA the year before. And, then we beat Baylor 58-42. Now, that meant that we had to stay for the Olympic trial tournament. We played, of course, Louisville in the first game. They had won some kind of a tournament out in Kansas City, I don't remember the name of it, but they brought the mayor and four hundred faithful fans back to New York on a special train, and they all were confident that they were going 00:01:00to beat us. I remember there sitting across, hooting and hollering at me, and I didn't see how they could beat us. They did have a good team, I guess. They won this tournament, and they, of course, had a broadcaster by the name of Hill, I believe was his name. And he said they were the national champions Louisville, national champions Louisville. Well, fine, that finally got under our skin a little bit, so when that thing was over, the score read Kentucky ninety-one, Louisville fifty-seven. So that settled that little argument for the time being. So some people always write saying that we don't play this, and we don't play that. Well, if you'll go back down through 00:02:00the history, you'll find that we have played some of these schools, and we have been fairly successful, I think this 91-57 is fairly convincing that we can play some basketball. Then we played Baylor again, because Baylor was the runner up, and we beat them 77-59, and I believe that amounts to twenty-eight points, which is exactly the same amount that we beat them in the NCAA tournament. That brought us to the game with Phillips, and we led Phillips, at one time, if I'm not mistaken, 18-8 in that game, and we were going along just fine, and the crowd was all back of us. That was one time that Madison Square Garden really got back at Kentucky and they helped us. Cliff Barker 00:03:00received a broken nose, and he didn't want to get back in the ballgame, and I don't know why, but then from that time on, that was a turning point in the ballgame, because I believe if Barker hadn't broken his nose, that we might have won that ballgame. As it was, we were beaten 49-53, they beating us with about a minute to go, getting their last four points all in that last minute of play. They had a fine team. They were national AAU [Amateur Athletic Union] champions. They had a fine team. So that meant that their boys, five of their boys, and five of our boys would be on the Olympic team, and then four boys would be picked at large. We would pick two college boys, and we would pick 00:04:00two AAU boys, and then, of course, you say well, how does a team, now, that's as strong as that team is, lose three games? Well, as a matter of fact, we lost those games because we lost two of them to Phillips. We played, then, to raise some money to help de-fray the expenses to the Olympic Games. And, I remember very distinctly that we made the trip down to Bartlesville, Oklahoma. We stayed there, and I believe we played the game in Tulsa. We drove over there in cars, and then we flew in planes, in Phillips' planes to Kansas City. We beat them in Kansas City. We had the ball, I remember that Joe Holland had the 00:05:00ball and was dribbling toward our basket, and the score was tied. He intercepted a pass and was going--and was all the way out in front. All he had to do was just take it and stick it in the basket and we'd have won, when some foolish spectator threw a firecracker out on the floor, Joe thought that someone had fired the gun, so he just took the ball and half-heartedly threw it at the basket, and we all stopped the game, we thought it was the end of the half. It wasn't. We still had about six seconds to go, which meant that we'd have won that game there. As it was, we had to go into an overtime, and we did beat them then in the overtime. Then we came to Lexington, and as so many of 00:06:00you will recall, we moved the floor from the Louisville Armory out here on our stadium, and we played to a large crowd, I think around sixteen, eighteen thousand outdoor fans, and the next day we got on the train and went to New York. Well I was very warmly greeted when we got to New York. The Olympic committee, in fact, was standing at the door waiting for me to get there. And, they said--coach said, "You had a good game, didn't you last night?" I said, "No," I said, "I'll tell you fellows, we've got some bad news for you. We had a rain last night and we couldn't play and had to call the game off." They said, "You mean you didn't bring any money up here then?" I says, "No," I said, "we haven't got any money for you." He said, "Well, I'll be darned." Said, "I thought sure you'd--with the advanced sale that 00:07:00you had--" "Well," I said, "We've got to give all that money back," I said. "We couldn't play in a driving rainstorm." So I kidded them along a little bit, and I finally handed them a check for twenty-five thousand and I said, "There'll be more coming later, but," I said, "we haven't been able to balance the books yet. And as soon as the rest is made available, we'll send the balance to you. But it'll have to be after today, because we couldn't tell exactly what the expenses are, how much it's going to cost to take the floor and move it back to Louisville, and all those expenses, so it's hard for us to tell what it'll be." Well, I thought they would treat us pretty nice. But I'll tell you, they said, "Well, we can take the women's track team then." Of course, woman's track wasn't too important, and wrestling wasn't too important. They said, "We can take the wrestling team too. We've got enough money now to take both of those teams." I said, "Well, fine." 00:08:00By George, when we got on that ship, we were down there about on the sixth floor, down below the waterline, and those wrestlers were down on about the third, and I think the women's track team was on the second floor. Well, I can understand why they wouldn't put the women down in those holes, but I'll tell you, when you turned the lights off down there in where the basketball team stayed, the lights were off, and don't you think for a minute they weren't. You couldn't see a thing. It was really dark. Well, the trip to the Olympics, we'll talk about that some other day, but to give you some idea of how we just dominated everything there except the game with Argentina, we beat Switzerland 86-21 and then Czechoslovakia 53-28. We beat Argentine--Argentina just 00:09:00by luck 59-57 by Groza tipping in one that gave us the lead right at the close. Then we beat Egypt 66-28, Peru 61-33, Uruguay 63-28, Mexico 71-40, and then in the final game against France, 65-21. So, the--it was a great year. And that, of course, brought on the--a great season for us then the following year. We had Barker back, and Barnstable, Beard, Groza, Walter Hirsch, James Line, Wallace Jones, and it was just 00:10:00a fine basketball team. It didn't have a lot of depth, but it did have just what we needed. And it gave us Beard back at a guard position, with Barnstable. We moved Barker up to a forward with Line and with Jones, and Groza, and it--we just didn't have any depth at all that year. We had trouble getting boys, because of the material that we had in here the year before and the year before that, and the material we had coming back, it was hard to get anything. We won thirty-two that year and lost two. We played in the--that was the year that we lost, I believe, to the Sugar Bowl, I think we lost the final game in 00:11:00the Sugar Bowl to St. Louis by a score of 42-40, by one of the most stupidest plays that I've ever seen. We were leading by three--by two points. And, the clock, of course, was in the center, and I don't like a clock hanging in the center of a hall, because a kid has to look up there. And one of my boys, and of course we won't mention any names, but I'll remember as long as I live, was looking up at that clock, and he dribbled the ball, he dribbled it on his foot, and the ball went out of bounds and St. Louis got it and took it on down, and we watched them while they scored the basket, just stood around, I guess, didn't make too much of an effort to guard them, and we were, of course, the 00:12:00game was tied. And then, we fouled, and I told them, I said, "Now, be sure that they don't tip it in." They had one boy who hadn't scored a basket all night, and by George if he didn't tip in that basket standing in the number two position just as the gun went off, and they beat us 42-40. I'll not forget that as long as I live. The other game that we lost, we were going to make a grand sweep of things. We beat Florida 73-36 in the tournament, Tennessee 83-44, Tulane 68-52, and Auburn 70-39. Then we went back to National Invitation and got the surprise of our life. We got beat by Loyola Chicago 56-67, in the 00:13:00first round of the tournament. I was so darn mad at the boys that I just took the plane home the next day with the team and I got them, and we practiced like the Dickens. And I'm telling you, we went through some bloodthirsty practices, and I took them back then, most of the fans stayed in New York, because the NCAA Eastern Division play-offs were held there too. The first round was against Villanova, we beat them 85-72, and then we beat Illinois 76-47. We then went out and played Oklahoma A&M in Seattle, beating Oklahoma A&M 46-36 to win the second NCAA title in a row. Now, the thing about it was the--again, 00:14:00a lot of people wonder that--is it worth the time for a youngster to come to the university and take a chance on trying to work out with the team, and not have a scholarship. Well, little Bobby Watson, we all decided he was too little. He went to Alabama and they wouldn't talk to him, they said he was too little there. So he stopped at Vanderbilt and they said he was too little, so he came up here and he paid his own way here. Well by George, by the time the season started, they elected him captain of the freshman team, and that was rather embarrassing to the freshman coach, and rather embarrassing to me, because here was a boy that was just a little fellow, who was paying his own way, so I told Bobby, I says, "Now Bobby," I said, "we can't do anything about it this semester," but I said, "Next semester, you 00:15:00make an application for a scholarship, and I'll see to it that you get a scholarship." That brought us to the '51 season, and--'49-'50 season, rather. And, we had, on that team, Barnstable, Hirsch, Line, Shelby Linville, Bill Spivey, who was our first seven footer, Guy Strong, who is, at present, coaching over here at Eastern, Garland Townes, Bobby Watson, the boy that came here without a scholarship, and Lucian Whitaker. Mostly a bunch of sophomores. You see, you didn't see--hear of many of those names on that other group. The newcomers were Hirsch, and there was Pearson on there, and Spivey, and Strong, and Townes, and Watson, and Whitaker. We went, of course, to the Sugar Bowl, we 00:16:00beat Villanova in an overtime 57-56 and then beat Bradley 71-66 for the championship. So we felt very good about that. We, of course, had Spivey here. We looked at him and we weren't too sure we were going to give him a scholarship the year before. Of all the skinny, scrawny kids, you wouldn't believe it now to see him, because he's a big heavyset boy now. He isn't a boy anymore, he's a man, but he came here and we told him we couldn't use him. He stopped at every school in the Southeastern Conference. I think he weighed about a hundred and sixty-eight pounds. And, he came in and he begged, and he begged, he wanted to come to Kentucky. And I said, "There's only one thing 00:17:00that you can do, and that--to play basketball, you've got to get your weight up to two hundred pounds." And, so we got a job for him down at William's Drugstore. Owen Williams is running a drugstore at the time, and he made him drink a lot of malted milks, and he fed him good, and during the time that I was over at the Olympics, I was getting a letter from Coach Lancaster. He says, "Spivey now weighs a hundred and seventy-five," "He now weighs a hundred and eighty-three," "Now weighs a hundred and ninety," "He now weighs two hundred pounds." So I cabled him back collect, I says, "I am convinced he can eat, but can he play?" Well, that was for us to find out later. And we found out later that he also could play. He certainly could play. This team won 25-5. We 00:18:00won the Southeastern Conference 56-46 against Mississippi State, beat Georgia 79-63, and Tennessee 95-58. Then, we went back to the National Invitation Tournament. We were of the opinion that since we had won the NCAA on two different occasions that we were going to be invited back to the NCAA, and we should have been invited back. Our record deserved us being invited back there. And we were awful downhearted that we weren't invited. They invited North Carolina State because they got the man who extended the invitation from this area, and at that time, it was an invitation affair. You didn't automatically qualify, and you were offered an invitation, and we thought our record 00:19:00was good enough to come back there. At the time it was 25-4. And, our boys were dejected, and we went back there and City College in New York got a hold of us, and boy they knocked our pants off. They beat us 89-50 in one of the worst thumpings, I think that's the worst whipping that a Kentucky team has ever taken since I've been coaching here. It was something to behold. And, we just weren't able to beat these fellows, or even stay in the ballgame. They had us twenty-- twenty-three or twenty-four to five before we could even get on track. Our boys couldn't get enthused about things, and we stumbled, we made 00:20:00mistakes, we made errors, we fell behind, and of course, the crowd got back of them, and when the crowd got back them, they really moved along in good shape, and they went on then. They won the grand slam that year. They won the National Invitation, and then they went on and won the NCAA on top of it. The only team in the history of basketball to win the grand slam in basketball. And now, of course, we have--our basketball season seemed to go into eras. And they're short-lived. They're not as long as they are in history. Now we come to the Hagan- Ramsey-Tsioropoulos era. And, that is the '50-'51 when these boys were 00:21:00here, and they compiled a 32-2 record as a bunch of freshmen. There was Hagan, and there was Shelby Linville, there was Frank Ramsey, there was Lou Tsioropoulos, there was Bobby Watson, there was Lucian Whitaker. Now we've talked about those boys, but then here we go with Cliff Hagan. We didn't have a big boy, and of course we were going to build around Shelby Linville, or Lou Tsioropoulos as to the center. But, it finally developed that Cliff Hagan--we had trouble--we thought we had some trouble about getting these boys. Frank Ramsey, of course, saw us play in New York, and decided early that he was going to come with us. Lou Tsioropoulos played in the All-American football game in 00:22:00Baton Rouge, or Shreveport, Louisiana, I don't remember where it was played. And, came through here and signed a football grant in aid as an end with Paul Bryant. And, then, of course, we were fussing around as to whether or not we were going to get Hagan or not. And I remember Coach Lancaster telling us about this. He went down and talked to Bill Thompson about the thing. And, he said, "Well, I'd like to know, have you ever talked to him about this thing? Where is this boy thinking about going?" And, Bill said, "Well, I just don't have the slightest idea." "Well," he says, "where do you think he wants to go?" "Well," Bill says, "why don't we go and ask him?" So Harry said, "That's a pretty good idea." So they jumped in the car, they went over to Cliff's 00:23:00house, and they said, "Cliff, want to talk to you a little bit about basketball. Where do you plan to go to the university?" And he said, "I'm going to the University of Kentucky." "Well," Harry said, "That's- -have you made up your mind to that?" He says, "Yeah, I've always wanted to go there." Well, that's how we got those boys. And, now Lou showed up here, and of course our boys started working early in basketball, as they always do. They met in the old gym, and they used to shoot around there, and so Lou started to working with them, and the first thing I knew about it, oh, I guess it was about three weeks, Paul Bryant cornered me one day, and he said, "Say, Adolph, have you got some big Greek kid out there playing basketball with your basketball players?" I said, "I don't know, Paul," I said, "I don't have the slightest idea." 00:24:00"Well," he said, "I'm short one guy on a scholarship, and I don't know if he's here or not." And I said, "Well, what's this guy's name?" He said, "I don't know what his name is. He's from Lynn, Massachusetts. He's a big Greek kid. Got a big prominent nose." I said, "Well, I'll check tomorrow and I'll ask the boys and see." I wasn't checking very much, because when the season begins, I have enough problem to be there everyday and be with these boys. And so the next afternoon I went out there and checked, and sure enough, here was this kid out there, and he was just working out just fine. And, so I called him over and I said, "Son," I said, "what's your name?" And he says, "It's Lou Tsioropoulos." I said, "How do you spell it?" And he spelled it to me- -for me, and it's spelled T-s-i-o-r-o-p-o-u-l-o-s. And, the--whenever 00:25:00we'd go away to play somewhere, I would always come to the scorer's table, and I'd have to give the opening line-up. And, so I would always write this out on paper, because after about two or three times, when I gave the line-up to them verbally, they said, "Spell that last name," I couldn't spell it. I didn't even have the faintest idea of how to spell it. And so I always had a written one, and so I had the secretary write out a whole bunch of them and mimeograph them, and I put those in my pocket, and I kept them, and then I'd give the opening line-up to the scorer before the game. But anyway, we finally settled on Hagan at the center position. And everybody at that time used to come through the gymnasium to see us play, we couldn't lock any doors. 00:26:00And we had a lot of spectators there. They all heard about this great bunch of sophomores that we had in there. They saw them play as freshmen, and they said, "Well, old Rupp's putting something together." And, sure enough we got busy, and had a very fine basketball year. We got a team together that had very little size, but had tremendous determination. And if you will notice these boys as they develop, they made a remarkable record here, possibly the greatest record that was ever made by a bunch of boys in the history of the entire university. There was Cliff Hagan at center, from Owensboro, Kentucky, about oh, I guess about 6'4.5" at center. One of the best hookers that I have 00:27:00ever seen. I was going to break him of that hook shot and every time that he would go out there, and I was about ready to get--make him stop using the thing, he'd throw four or five in in the ballgame, and I'd say, "Well, I'll break him of that thing next week." And then he got better and better and better on that thing, until I think one time he got fifty-two points against Temple, and most of them that were hookers, and I decided well, I guess we're going to let him keep that shot going. Then this boy Ramsey, a big powerful kid, he was from Madisonville, Kentucky. And he was a strong boy. He'll get that ball off of that backboard, and he'd bring that thing down, and he would ram for that basket, he would set up the plays, he was an intelligent boy, and he developed every single day. Had a lot of pride. He and 00:28:00all these boys had tremendous pride. They just simply wanted to win. And, I've never seen a bunch of sophomores as determined as this bunch of boys were. They simply had class all the way through. And then, of course, this Tsioropoulos boy, I said, was 6'5", a big strong kid too that played on the left-hand side of the floor, and he would rip across there, and when he made up his mind that he wasn't going to give that ball up and it was going to go in there on the jumper, he went in there on that jumper, and he could score. Lou was a great boy, and started, I think every game he was here. Now, on this team was also a boy by the name of Spivey, and he, of course, was that slender 00:29:00boy that we talked about before. He developed now until he weighed about two hundred and twenty pounds. And, he was also a sophomore. He stood seven feet or maybe a little bit better than that. So, we did have quite a team with these boys. Now, then, we could play Hagan at center, or we could play Hagan over at the forward position. It didn't make any difference where we played him. But, we had--we won the conference very easy in the first round of the Southeastern, of course, we won that against Mississippi 92-70, then Auburn 84-54, Georgia Tech 82-56, and then Vanderbilt beat us. Now, they had agreed the year before that the tournament would no longer be the championship 00:30:00team to represent the Southeastern Conference. But, the team that had won the conference standing would represent the conference. Well that was to force us to play more conference games. They wanted us to play more of those games and bring our teams south to where they could see us play. Well, that definitely made us do that. Well, we won the conference. We definitely won it. So we already knew we were going to the national tournament. And so we were upset in that. Then we had a post-season game with Loyola Chicago, winning 97-61, then we beat Louisville 79-68 in Raleigh, then beat St. John's 59-43, Illinois 76- 74, and here's where Shelby Linville, of course came in and really saved 00:31:00the day for us again. He was a marvelous player that played in the clutch for us. Spivey had already fouled out, and he came in there, we fed Shelby the ball, and he got us some hookers in there, and helped win that. Then we went to Minneapolis, and Kansas State was highly favored to beat us. I remember I spoke to Henry Iba. Now, Henry Iba played them in the finals of the western division. And, Kansas State annihilated them. I think they had them 32-8 at the half. And, Hank wasn't going to give me any information, because he didn't want a team that had beaten his team so bad for us to beat them. He wanted them 00:32:00to go on and win, that would make him look that much better. Well, he didn't give us a bit of information at all. He said, "Adolph, it's the best basketball team that's ever been put together in the history of basketball, that's all I can say." He said, "They're fast, they shoot well," and he said, "They're good on the boards," and they had a boy by the name of Lew Hitch. He said, "Is one of the best pivot men," he said, "that I have ever seen." But, we didn't get much of a scouting report from him. And, so we went out there, and Kansas State made quite an issue of it the first half, and I think led us by one point at the half. At one time, I think, they led us by six. We cut it to one at the half, and I got a little rough with them at the half. We went out there, and before you could say, "Scat," we had a twenty point 00:33:00lead. I think I played everyone that I had on the team, because you want to let everybody play in an NCAA championship game that you've got with you, because they can always say, "Well, I was on that team." And, we finally beat Kansas State 68-58, and won the NCAA tournament with all these sophomores. So, you can understand very well that we did have a very nice promising future ahead of us. That brought us to the '51-'52 season. We had Evans and Hagan, and Linville, and Ramsey, Rose, a newcomer from Paris, Kentucky, Tsioropoulos, Bobby Watson, a boy from--that had been around for a while, Whitaker back, so things looked very good. This team won twenty-nine and lost three. 00:34:00Won the conference, won the Southeastern Conference with ease, and went to the NCAA tournament, and after we had beaten St. John's by a terrific score of 81-40 early in the year on Dece--in December. I remember the St. John's coach stayed at the same motel where we did. He was so angry at his team, that he wouldn't take them to the side of the game in taxi-cabs. He said, "You walk." And, he and his team walked to the side of the game that night. I'll never forget that. I thought that we would have an easy time. They had a big center by the 00:35:00name of Zawoluk. And he was the difference in the ballgame. He's a great, big, rugged kid, he took charge of things in there, they beat us 57-64. We were already packed and ready to go onto UCLA because it was a cinch that we were to go on and win. So, without any fanfare at all, we came on home. Now, the next season, of course, we went through undefeated. That was our '53-'54 season. On this team was, of course, Jerry Bird, Billy Evans, Phil Grawemeyer, a slender 6'8" boy from Louisville. There was Cliff Hagen, Frank Ramsey, Gayle Rose was now developing into a starting guard, and there was Billy Rouse here from Lexington, and Lou Tsioropoulos was on this team. They won 00:36:0025-0 and of course, we had all the arrangements made to go to the NCAA tournament, thinking surely that we would go. We had quite a fuss with LSU because they thought we owed them the game, and we thought they owed us the game, and Mr. Shively would not play them at Baton Rouge, and they wouldn't play us here. So, they were undefeated at the end of the year, so the commissioner ordered us to play a playoff game at Nashville. We went down there and played them, beat them 63-56, and so we won the Southeastern Conference, and won, as I say, every game. This was a terrific way, now, for Hagan, Ramsey, Tsioropoulos to finish up a glorious career, losing, I think, 5 games, and winning, oh, 00:37:00goodness gracious, twenty-nine, and twenty-five straight, and thirty- two--well, add it up, thirty-two and twenty-nine and twenty-five and losing five. So, you can't ask for a greater era in basketball than that. Now, that took us to the '54-'55 season. We got a new bunch of boys coming in here now. There's Jerry--there's Earl Adkins from Ashland. There's Jerry Bird back, there's Bob Burrow, a junior college boy. I remember this boy very well because I sent my brother, who 00:38:00lives just a short distance from Hutchinson, Kansas, out to Hutchinson to watch the junior college tournament. And, he called me on the phone and he said, "This boy is from Wells, Texas, and I talked with him, and I believe I can interest this kid in coming." "Well," I said, "we've got to have a center." "Well," he said, "I believe this boy will come." Well, I went home, my mother was ill at the time, and I went home and when I was at home, he came here and signed a grant in aid to come to the university. Now, then, on this team, also, we have another newcomer Gerry Calvert from Maysville. A gallant little old rascal that was a delight to watch. Speedy and fast, unselfish, that passed that ball, and could move. There was Billy Evans, the same kind of a boy who later made the United States Olympic basketball team, and was 00:39:00a gold medal winner. Of course, Gayle Rose, and Phil Grawemeyer also were on this team. Now, this team won twenty-three and lost three. They won the Southeastern Conference. They beat Marquette--no, they did not, they lost to Marquette at Evanston, and then they beat Penn State in the se--in the playoff game. Now, that brings us to '55-'56. Now, this is the beginning of another era now. Now, follow this. Here comes Reverend Ed Beck. A big boy from Warner--no, he isn't from Warner Robbins, Georgia, he's at--that was Spivey's hometown. Beck is from down in there somewhere, I don't remember what his hometown was. There was Jerry Bird, there was Bob Burrows, Jerry Calvert, and 00:40:00there's Billy Ray Cassidy, and Lincoln Collinsworth, Crigler, there was a nice boy from up here in Northern Kentucky who was just a steady influence, never sensational, occasionally would get twenty for you, and then the next night would get five or six, but he'd make it up in rebounds. There was Phil Grawemeyer, and with Grawemeyer, and Burrow, and Bird under that basket, we could control those boards, and don't you think we couldn't. And then there was a fellow by the name of Vern Hatton on this team. And this is the beginning of Vern Hatton. So, get the new names here. There was Vernon Hatton, because we're going to hear some great things from some of these boys as we go along. This team won twenty and lost six. They went to the NCAA tournament, won 00:41:00the first game against Wayne University 84-64 and lost to Iowa 77-89. That was played at Iowa City, the home floor of Iowa, but of course, I didn't have anything to do with it. Now, the next year, we have about the same bunch of boys back. We have the same crowd. But on this team now is another new face. Now, we'll develop these boys as we go along. There's a fellow by the name of Johnny Cox from Hazard, Kentucky shows up. There's Hatton. And, then practically all of these other boys are back that I mentioned to you before. I think they're almost all of them back. Now, they had a very fine year winning 23-3. 00:42:00They--winning 23-5 I should have said. They won the tournament, and they beat Pittsburgh in the first round of the NCAA 98-92 and lost to Michigan State 68-80. Now, the following year, this is about the same kind of team that we've had. This is the '57-'58 team. Now then, I want you to pay attention to this team, because on this team is Earl Adkins from Ashland. Earl Adkins', high point, of course, came when we put him in as a substitute at Vanderbilt. Our substitutes do very well for us, usually, at Vanderbilt. If we've got one and we want to try him out, if we put him in at Vanderbilt, and if he can't play there, we 00:43:00just figure he just can't play. But, if he can, he'll come out on that floor. We put Earl Adkins in early in the second half when one of our regular guards fouled out, and he--I think he got twenty-seven points for us. Now, there was Ed Beck on this team too, and Ed had a lot of trouble, his wife was sick, and I believe passed away during this year. There was Bill Cassidy, and there's Lincoln Collinsworth who played a great role in the Temple game. There was Johnny Cox now, who was playing his second year on this team. Johnny Cox was a slender boy, he was about 6'5" when he came here. Timid, bashful, skinny, scrawny kid. Never had any chance to put any weight on him. He worked out 00:44:00and didn't eat a great deal, as a result of that, he didn't put on any weight. And, just had an uncanny shot at that basket, and there was John Crigler on this team, who, as I said before, had some great games for us. There was Vernon Hatton, there was Dick Howe, another big boy from Southern Illinois on this team. There was Phil Johnson, a local boy on the team. There was Don Mills on this team. And, there was Adrian Smith, a junior college transfer on this team. Now, he tried to come here to us from Smithfield, a little old town in western Kentucky. And we told him, "Adrian, you're just too darn little to play college 00:45:00basketball." And so--

[Tape 2 side 1 ends; side 2 begins]

RUPP: --and didn't eat a great deal, as a result of that, he didn't put on any weight. And, just had an uncanny shot at that basket, and there was John Crigler on this team, who, as I said before, had some great games for us. There was Vernon Hatton, there was Dick Howe, another big boy from Southern Illinois on this team. There was Phil Johnson, a local boy on the team. There was Don Mills on this team. And, there was Adrian Smith, a junior college transfer on this team. Now, he tried to come here to us from Smithfield, a little old town in western Kentucky. And we told him, "Adrian, you're just too darn little to 00:46:00play college basketball." And so he went to a junior college down in Mississippi. And at the end of the two years in junior college, he contacted us, and he came here. Now, we won the Southeastern Conference. This team had a 23-6 record. It was not a great basketball team as far as greatness was concerned, except greatness in its heart. Now, it did, though, play some very outstanding basketball games. They beat Duke 78-74 and beat Ohio State 61-54, and I think on this team they had had Havlicek and Roberts, and Siegfried, and Lucas, and that--all those boys. And our--this team here beat them. And, 00:47:00they beat St. Louis 73-60, they beat some very fine outfits. They beat Minnesota 78-58, and we just rattled along pretty well, and of course, beat Temple in three overtimes here on our home floor. I'll never forget that. In the first regulation game, I mean, the game, Temple had us beaten by two points. In this Temple team, they had a kid by the name of Rogers, and one by the name of Pickles Kennedy, and they just had a good fine basketball team. We played about three 00:48:00years there, and I think during the three years, there was never more than about one point difference in the score. Now, this time, they had us with two points to go, and one second left on the scoreboard. We took the ball out of bounds exactly at the center of the line, and they passed it in to Vernon Hatton. He stood back of the center stripe and fired that ball. A lot of the crowd had already filtered and gone out and were on their way to their automobiles when that ball zipped through that basket. Now, we had a picture of that, and I wanted to keep that thing--keep it here at the university at the archives for all time to come. But somehow or another that picture got away from us and I don't know who got it. Now, if anybody ever hears of anyone that has that picture, we certainly want a copy of it, and we'll give that 00:49:00original back to them. But we'd like to have a copy of that. Now, we went to--they said, of course, after we won the tournament, people congratulated me all over and said, "Adolph, this is a great year of coaching, you've turned in a marvelous job. You've had just a great, great year." So we had the tournament here in Lexington. We beat Miami of Ohio who had a great fine ball club. They beat them 94-70. We just ran them off of the floor. And then we beat Notre Dame 89-56. They had beaten Indiana, the Big 10 champions the night before by, I believe, eleven points. And everybody said after we had beaten Miami, they said, "Well, you can't beat Notre Dame, they're too good." Well, we changed the strategy of the Notre Dame game, but we'll go into that 00:50:00some other time. We changed it just before we took the floor. And I think it is the change in the strategy that we made then that won that basketball game for us. Because, I couldn't rest that afternoon at all, I was here at the office, and I got ants all over me, and I went home and I couldn't brush the ants off, and collected more of them around there. I told Mrs. Rupp, I said, "I'm going back to the coliseum." She said, "You just came from there." I said, "I know I did, but," I said, "I just can't rest. I just can't do anything." "Well," she said, "let me fix you something to eat and maybe you'll feel a little better." Well, we ate early and we got over here, and just waited and waited and waited. I told the manager, I said, "Now, as our boys come in, tell them I don't want them to see this first game, I want them to 00:51:00go to the squad room, and as soon as we all get here, I want to talk to them." And that's when we changed the strategy of this ballgame. But we'll talk about that some other time, because it'd be too lengthy to discuss it here. But we played Notre Dame and beat them. Then we went to Louisville, and I'll never re--forget, because after the Temple game, we went to another overtime, and then we went to a third overtime before we beat Temple 85-83. After it was all over, Guy Rogers came over to me and said, "Coach," he said, "you've got a fine basketball team." He says, "You have to have a good team." He said, "Because we've got one of the best teams in the east." He said, "It's been a pleasure playing against you," he says, "I'm sorry we never could beat you, but," he said, "it's been fun playing against you." Well, when we got to Louisville, Temple was working out on the floor, and as we walked 00:52:00in to the playing arena, Guy Rogers came running over to me and shook hands, he says, "Coach, here I am." I said, "So I see." And he said, "Well, we're going to beat you this time." "Well," I said, "there's a possibility of that." Well, it looked like they might do it. But when the smoke cleared, they had us down by one point, and there's twenty-four seconds to go. Of course, we're playing this before all the coaches of the NCAA, and we call time out, and we were going to run a play. I was going to suggest it--I had suggested the number eight play, which would give one of our guards a shot, which would go--either be a jump shot, or would go all the way in on a dribble. So, Beck 00:53:00pointed out, he said, "Coach," he said, "I believe we can run a back screen and get one of the guards loose," he said, "because my center has stuck to me and never has switched a single time." He said--I says, "All right, we'll run a back screen then." He says, "I'll go out and screen. Whoever the guard is defensing, our guard, I'll screen him." I said, "Be sure though that you don't move now. Don't get caught moving," because I said, "These eastern officials, they'll blow you out of the place." He says, "Well, I'm going to foul," and so Collinsworth was playing at the time with--little "Smitty" had fouled out, as I remember. And, Vernon Hatton took the shot. And he dribbled, got all the way in, and there was about twelve seconds left, and all the coaches said Rupp got the basket too quick. I--you never get a basket 00:54:00too quick when you're one point behind with just twenty-four seconds to go. I don't. I want to be ahead. Because I don't think you can get that basket too quick. And so, they call a time-out, and we thought sure they were going to use a double screen to give Rogers a shot. Well, we guessed right. They were going to use a double screen, but they were going to give the shot to Pickles Kennedy. And, as Pickles Kennedy was getting ready to come around the double screen, Rogers came down, left his feet to throw the pass to Pickles, and threw it over his head. And it went out of bounds. And of course, we took our good old time to recover the ball, and by the time we recovered it, time ran out and we won 61-60. So, we watched the first half of the Kansas State- 00:55:00Seattle game. Kansas State, of course, their radio station wanted me to stay there and to comment. And they were so confident that they were going to beat Seattle, and in the first half, it was a very close basketball game. But I said, "I've got to take my boys back. I want to get my boys back to the hotel." I wanted to feed them, and get them up to their rooms where we had a policeman to protect them, because I didn't want all these parasites to come in there and get in their rooms and tell them how good they were, and then spend the night with them, and make our boys sleep on the floor while they slept in their beds. I've seen that happen before too. And I can tell you about that. And I wasn't going to have that happen. So I got the boys down, we fed them, and got them up there and got them in their rooms and got that policeman in there, and got him so that he wouldn't let anyone 00:56:00in there. Because they fi--have a way of finding out where you are, and your best friends, who wish you well, are the fellows that'll turn out to be your worst enemies and put the pressure on you in a case of that kind. Well, that evening, I asked Harold Lancaster, and my other scout to come into my room and give me the scouting report. Well, Harry said, "Seattle just toyed with them." He said, "In the second half," and he gave me the whole complete report. He said, "It's awful, Adolph," he said, "I'm afraid if they get ahead of us they'll just crucify us. They'll hold that ball, and it's going to be awful." Well, they jumped out and got a twelve point lead. We cut that down a little at the half-time, and I told our boys, I said, "Boys," I said, "I think we can beat this crowd." Now, I said, "If we'll go out and do these 00:57:00things, I--we'll beat them. Now just do these things." Well, in the first half, we were sure that their big center, Baylor, was going to guard Beck. Because Beck was only averaging four point eight a game. But the night before, Crigler failed to score. So, they put Baylor on Crigler out on the floor. Well, as soon as we observed that, we told Crigler to drive on him. Well, he drove on him, and he got a couple of fouls on him, and at the same time he got a couple of baskets on him. And then, of course, he loosened up a little bit, and by half-time he had three fouls on him. So, we kept using that same strategy the 00:58:00entire second half. And, they went into a zone, and they went into the zone after he got his fourth foul, of course, their zone was not effective. Johnny Cox started hitting those one-handers from out on the floor about thirty feet out there, I think he got six of them the second half, and we started pecking away at that score. And I think it was six minutes to go when we finally got ahead. And after we got ahead, they finally went ahead again by one, and then we went ahead and we never looked back. And the crowd picked this up, and thanks to that crowd, even to this day, if it hadn't been for that crowd, we could not have won. So, the final score was 84-72 with Kentucky winning the championship game over Seattle University for our fourth NCAA 00:59:00championship, and this team will always have one of the warmest spots in my heart, of all the teams that I've had, because it wasn't the most talented team in the world. A four point eight center, today, wouldn't do the job by any means, but I made the statement afterward, I said, "These boys certainly were not violin players," I said, "all they could do--but they certainly could fiddle." I said, "They're the Fiddlin' Five." And of course, they're known as the Fiddlin' Five. Well, the next year, all we had back was Cox, off of this team. But now, we begin to get Billy Lickert, and Dick Parsons, and some other boys, Ted 01:00:00Deeken begins to show up here now. No, Howard Dardeen, rather. And, we got, of course, Sid Cohen coming in here too. A junior college transfer. And, we just ran out of boys.

[Tape 1 ends; tape 2 begins]

RUPP: Well that ended an era in Kentucky basketball. Well, this ended an era in Kentucky basketball, and as I said, they don't last very long. It's just one group coming in that makes good, makes its imprint on Kentucky basketball history, and then leaves, and leaves its challenge to the other generation. Johnny Cox returned the following 01:01:00year, and of course we went out and got Bennie Coffman and Sid Cohen, two junior college transfers. We, in those days, had to go out after some junior college boys to fill in. Because we graduated that entire Fiddlin' Five, we graduated the Fiddlin' Eight, in fact. They were all gone. And then, of course, we had Ned Jennings come in, and Phil Johnson, Bill Lickert, there's a new face coming in, and Dick Parsons, and of course, Don Mills was back. And Don Mills played a very vital part in the game against Seattle, and if you will see the film of that game, you'll see how he helped us in that game. But he's back here 01:02:00now and ready to play regular ball, but he played behind Ed Beck. Now, everybody said, "Well, they're not going to get much done this year." And of course, I wasn't too sure about that myself. We started out very impressively. We beat Florida State, then we beat Temple, then we beat Duke, then we beat Southern Methodist, then we beat St. Louis, and then we beat Maryland in an overtime game. Maryland actually had us beat and didn't know it, and they made a mistake and fouled one of our boys, and forced the game into an overtime, and as a result of that, we were able to beat them. And then we beat Ohio State 95-76 01:03:00and beat West Virginia 97-91 in the invitational tournament, which again proves that we do try to get the best teams in the world for these tournaments. Now here is a brand new bunch of boys, and just look who they've beaten so far. Great ball clubs, and they went on, of course, to win the Southeastern Conference. They got to the NCAA tournament, and were beaten in both games there. So, their season's record was 24-3, which was not a bad record. We'd settle for that almost any year. Now then the following year, we get another new picture, there's Burchett, who later turned out to be the first hundred and ten percent cup winner in the history of Kentucky basketball. Bill 01:04:00Lickert is now starting to develop, Don Mills is a co-captain of the team, Dick Parsons, our present assistant coach, and baseball coach is playing a regular guard. He's co-captain of the team--no, Bill Lickert is co-captain of the team. Dick will be the full captain the following year. Larry Pursiful is on this team. This team should have been a stronger team than it was. It had an 18-7 record. It had an impressive win over Colorado State in the opening game, 106-73. Beat UCLA 68-66. Beat Southern Cal--no, Southern Cal beat us 87-73. These two games were played in the coliseum at the--at--out in Los Angeles. 01:05:00It isn't called the coliseum, I think the stadium there is called the coliseum, this is called the arena or something like that. It's where they play their basketball games. And then St. Louis beat us, then we beat Kansas in an overtime 77-72. Then in the first round of the tournament, we beat North Carolina 76-60, but West Virginia beat us 79-70. So, we didn't get away to such a good start. We did not win the Southeastern Conference that year, I don't know who won it, I don't remember who won it. But, we had an 18-7 record, and the season just didn't develop the way we anticipated. Now that brings us to the '60-'61 season. There's Carroll Burchett, Allen Feldhaus now, a big 01:06:00rough kid, Ned Jennings, Bill Lickert, Jim McDonald, and Roger Newman is the new one now, and Dick Parsons, the small fellow, the smallest fellow, I think, to ever play on the Kentucky team up until that time, is now captain of the team. And, Larry Pursiful is on this team. We didn't have the size, no use kidding about that. We won nineteen and lost nine. So, we didn't have a great record that year. Now, we did, though, get into the playoffs with Vanderbilt for the championship of the Southeastern Conference. We beat them 88-67 in Knoxville for the championship of the Southeastern Conference. And then were defeated by Marquette in the NCAA Mid-East Regional. So, that'll give you 01:07:00some idea. No--yes, that's right. So, we--that doesn't make sense. But, that's the way it was. That was a post-season game. That was a post-season game that we had, and the Mid-East Regional, we beat Morehead state 71-64 and were defeated by Ohio State 74-87. So, you see, it--the only bright spot was we played a 244,430 spectators having one, two, three, four, five, six capacity crowds. That was about all for the year. Now, that brings us to the next year, the '61-'62, and 01:08:00you see how these things develop now. Another new face shows up now. A couple of new faces, Scotty Baesler now shows up. Ted Deeken shows up. Cotton Nash shows up. And Roy Roberts, and Herky Rupp shows up. All right. The season's record is much better in every respect. We won twenty-three and lost three. We won the opening games. We beat Miami, were beaten too by Southern California, beat St. Louis, beat Baylor, beat Temple, beat Tennessee in the UK Invitational, and beat 01:09:00Kansas State for the championship. Then early we played Yale, beat them, 79-58, beat Notre Dame 100-53, and beat Virginia 93-73. Then we got into the conference and we won that. That took us to the regional tournament at Iowa City where we played Butler in the first round, winning 81-60, and again lost to Ohio State 64-74. That's getting to be too common. Now, we'll talk about some of these other boys as we go along. I do want to say this. Some people say that well, you make a mistake coaching--or letting your own son play for you. Well, we tried 01:10:00to get Herky to go to other schools, he wouldn't do it. He says, "No, I want to go where they play the best, and this is the place to go. We play the best basketball." Of course, it had been pretty tough for me to go out and tell other people, "Send me your boy," and then they said, "Well, why didn't you keep your own boy and send him somewhere else?" Now, the following year, we should have had a better season. We had John Adams, we had Conley, we had Deeken, we had Randy Embry, the littlest fellow to ever play here. We had Kron, and we had Mobley, and we had Cotton Nash. And the season record of--that was the following year. This is the year of '62 and '63. We had a 16-9 record. The 01:11:00team was Adams, Baesler, Deeken, Embry, Ishmael, Mobley, Nash, Roberts, and that was it. Sixteen and nine, we didn't win the conference, and we had a one--we won eight and lost five--six in the conference, which is the worst year I guess we've ever had in the conference. Should have had a better year than that, by far. Now, this is the year that I'm talking about where we had--where we get a new era beginning now. This is another new era beginning. Here is Conrey--Conley. And here's Kron. And there's Charlie Ishmael. There's Mobley, there's 01:12:00Nash, and there's little Randy Embry, the smallest fellow we've ever had. Now, this team had a 21-6 record, and I really feel that they could have had a better record than that too, because for some reason or another, we never could put that team together the way they should have been put together, because we weren't getting the shooting the way we wanted it. It was not a well-organized team. It'll take a couple of seasons later for this team to really mature. Now we'll go into that, because on this team here now, was a fellow by the name of Cotton Nash who made the All-American team for the third straight time. 01:13:00Nash, of course, was a 6'5" boy who was a tremendous shooter. And he did about forty to forty-four percent of the shooting on the ball club. And, some of the folks felt that he was doing entirely too much, and we were not getting the team play that we should have. May be, it may not be. On the team with two of the most unselfish boys I've ever had, in Larry Conley and Tommy Kron. Very unselfish. And of course, on this team was Terry Mobley, and I remember we played in the Sugar Bowl, and if I'm not mistaken we beat--we won that thing. We beat Loyola of New Orleans 86-64, and then beat Duke 81-79 in the finals. I remember with six seconds to go, we had the ball, and the score was tied. And, 01:14:00we, of course--Mobley was about the worst shot we had. And, so we were going to run the double screen and try to get a shot off of it for Nash, or one of these boys that could hit. And by George, Terry winds up with the ball. He can't find anyone to throw it to, and he looks around at me and I said, "Shoot!" And he fired it up at the basket and fell over backwards, and the darn ball went through. And we won the game. Now, of course the Duke coach protested. He thought the game was over, but the official score said it wasn't. He said the ball was in the air and through the basket when the game ended. And that ended it. So we dressed, and we couldn't come home because it was a 01:15:00terrific snowstorm, the worst they'd ever had there. But there's a game that even a fellow that may not be a great brilliant boy, he can win it for you, and Terry certainly came through with flying colors. Now then that takes us to the '64-'65 season. There was Adams, and Conley, and Dampier now is a new face in here. There's little Randy Embry, Kron, and Mobley, and Pat Riley is a new face. This team hadn't gelled, because it just did not have the experience. We beat Iowa in the first game 85-77, lost to North Carolina, beat Iowa State, beat Syracuse 110-77, beat West Virginia 102-78, and Illinois beat 01:16:00us 91-86. St. Louis beat us 80-75, then Notre Dame beat us, and we beat Dartmouth. Then we went into the conference, and we didn't win the conference that year, so those are a couple of bad years we had in there. Now, that brings us to the Rupp's Runts, or the '65-'66 season. Now this was a great basketball team. There was a new face again here, Cliff Berger, a boy from, I believe, Centralia, Illinois, if I'm not mistaken. About 6'8", not very fast, but a strong kid, a boy 01:17:00that would give you everything that he had. There's a kid on here by the name of Steve Clevenger. There was George--Larry Conley. There's Louie Dampier, now with a year's experience. There's a kid by the name of Gary Gamble. There was Thad Jaracz, a kid out here from Lafayette High School. There was Kron back, there was LeMaster, a local kid. And, Pat Riley was on this kid--on this team. I remember this Jaracz boy, Thad Jaracz played out here at Lafayette. He was about 6'4.5" to 6'5", a big fat kid. He wasn't fat, exactly, except he had too much weight and was kind of lazy. And I kept telling Harry, I said, "Get 01:18:00that boy for me. Get him." He said, "He can't play." And I says, "Get him anyway," I said, "We've got to have somebody." I said, "I believe that guy's got some possibility." So, I watched him play here in the first round of the tournament. And if I'm not mistaken, they got 01:19:00beat some thirty points. Harry was sitting there with me, and I said, "What do you think?" He said, "I think the same as I've always thought. I don't believe he can help us." I says, "Go out there tomorrow and sign him." He says, "Do you mean it?" I says, "Yes." I said, "That kid showed me a couple of moves tonight," I said, "I believe he--I believe we can teach that kid some basketball." Now, here is a sophomore on the team jumping center. And the first game, I believe, that he played in was against Hardin-Simmons, we won that very easy, 83-55, and then we went to Virginia and dedicated their field house 99-73, and if I'm not mistaken he got thirty-three points up there for us, and that boy was on his way. Then he went over to Illinois, and against their very experienced center, we beat them 86-68, then we beat Northwestern 86-75, and in the invitational tournament, we beat the Air Force 78-58, and Indiana 91-56. We beat Texas Tech 89-73 and Notre Dame 103-69. So we got away to a good start. We had one close game in two overtimes, and that was at Georgia. We finally beat them 69-65. They gave us 01:20:00an awful fuss down there. They--we went to the Midwest Regionals at Iowa City, we beat Dayton. I remember that Pat Riley jumped center for us. Now that's a strange thing. Here was a kid, would line up there, just a kid about 6'3", 6'3.5" at the most. I bet he was closer to 6'3" than he was 6'3.5". He learned to jump. And he could jump. Made All- American here. He was in there with Conley. He was in there with Kron. He was in there with Jaracz, and he's in there with Dampier. Dampier made All-American. And that little rascal could shoot, and don't you think he couldn't. I went up and watched him play at Indianapolis in 01:21:00the tournament. And, he hit eight the first quarter, and all of them were on a fast break where he stopped near the free-throw circle, and jumped up in the air and let her go. And, I had Joe Hall with me, I says, "Joe," I said, "sign this kid." We went up there and I talked to his daddy who was a very sick man at the time, died, I think, about two months later, and I told him just exactly what I'd do for his boy. I said, "I will see personally that that boy goes to school, and that he graduates." I said, "I'll make him graduate there in four years." "Well," he said, "that's all I want. I want someone to ride herd." And he said, "Do we have any formal papers to sign?" I says, "Yes 01:22:00sir." We sign them right there, and we had no trouble getting him. Of course, Jaracz, we had no trouble at all with him. And, of course, Jim LeMaster, he always wanted to come here. Pat Riley sent word that he wanted to come. I went up there and signed him, and Kron, we didn't have any trouble getting that fellow. And, of course, Conley was always a Kentucky bound boy from the day that he came. Conley, unselfish, a great passer, one of the finest kids that ever played basketball at Kentucky. The same can be said of Kron. Never have I seen a boy take the ball, play the point on the defense that we used the way he could. Fast, and aggressive, could set up plays, never 01:23:00would quit. This team then went to the international tournament in Tel Aviv where we won the International Championship of the World, and it was two days before we left that Riley went waterskiing in Herrington Lake. That is, due to the fact that he fell off of these--this water ski thing, that--water skis--that he hurt his back, and he knocked a vertebra out of place, and I didn't know that until after we got to Israel. Had I know it, I'd have left him at home and had the operation performed, and he'd have been ready to play ball. As it was, he was not able to play for us the following year. And that's going to show up. Now then, we beat Dayton, he out jumped this big Henry Finkel, I 01:24:00believe was his name, and I think he was 7'2". He got both tip-offs. The first high jump, it shows him getting a tip, he's at least 6" above Finkel, controlled the tip and we beat Dayton 86-79, then beat Michigan 84-77. We played Duke in College Park, Maryland, beat them 83-79, and were beaten by Texas Western 72-65. This is a great year. This is the year that we ran into some illness, by being out at Iowa City. I don't use it as an excuse. But in the Duke game, there was six different occasions when I had to take Conley out and rest him. We'd fall behind, I'd put Conley in, we'd get three or four ahead, 01:25:00I'd take him out, I'd--we'd fall behind again, I'd put him in, we'd get ahead, he'd signal to come out, I'd take him out, and that's the way it went. I told our doctor, I said, "Well," I said, "we're over this thing," and I said, "by the fact that we wore out this thing," I said, "we'll be a strong ball-club tomorrow." I said, "We've got about six other kids on the squad that have also got the same thing," but of course they didn't have it as severe as Conley. So, Conley did not practice. He had this severe bronchial infection, and we put him under an old croup jar, as you call it, at College Park Maryland. And Shively, and the trainer sat up with him, and finally broke this thing, his fever, at two o'clock in the morning, the morning before 01:26:00the game. And, then about three o'clock, Conley went to sleep, and that's the only rest that Conley got. Didn't get to work out at all, and of course there was a question as to whether he'd be able to play. He was not able to play. But when I told our doctor that--I said, "We've got this thing now, our boys will be much stronger tomorrow," he says, "Adolph," he says, "I don't want to kid you." He says, "You're through." He says, "You've shot your load." He says, "Your kids tomorrow just simply are not going to be strong." He said, "Not nearly as strong as they were today, because they've just got so much stamina, and this took it out of them." This was a courageous bunch of kids. A fine basketball team if there ever was one. Rupp's Runts, as they were known to everyone, because it was a small ball club. That 01:27:00takes us into the following year, which was the '66-'67. A couple of new faces show up here now. There's Argento, there's Clevenger, there's Dampier, there's Gamble, Jaracz is back, LeMaster is back, and Riley is back. Riley, of course, was back in some games, and other games he was not back. Because I could tell, or Riley could tell me as soon as he warmed up, he'd come over to the bench and he said, "Coach, I haven't got it tonight." Or, "Coach, I'm going to be all right." This team had the worst record we ever had at Kentucky, 13-13. Came as close to being the first team that I ever had that had a losing record. But in all the years that I've been coaching basketball here 01:28:00at Kentucky, and in all of the years that I coached in high school, I'm proud to say that not once did we have a losing year, and this is the closest that we ever came to having one. But, we just didn't have it that year, but things'll get a little bit better, and it'll soon go for the better I hope. Well, let's see if it does. That takes us to '67 and '68. Now, we've got some new faces here. There's a fellow shows up by the name of Casey, and one by the name of Issel, and one by the name of Pratt. Holdovers are Argento, and Berger, and Clevenger, and Gamble, and Jaracz, and things are beginning to look better. We 01:29:00play Michigan at Ann Arbor, we dedicate the place for them 96-79. And then we opened with Florida in the conference 99-76, play Xavier, play Pennsylvania, win those games, play North Carolina, they beat us 84-77, played Dayton, we beat them, first round of the tournament, play South Carolina and beat them 76-66, in what is a game considered one we would not win. Then beat Notre Dame 81-73 in Louisville, and we won the conference, and went down to the NCAA, beating Marquette 107-79, and then Ohio State. And as I said, I'm getting darn tired of that. Beat us 82-81 with a basket with two seconds to go. I'll never forget that 01:30:00as long as I live, because I thought we had that game one. The ball went out of bounds on a play that I won't discuss because in my late age I don't want to say that he went out and used excuses. But, it was a disputed play, and we were beaten because our defense was not set properly. It was a zone defense, and I really believe that we should have set a man to man defense at that stage. The boy that threw the shot just threw it in a half-hearted way, because he had to get rid 01:31:00of it. I didn't think it had a chance to get up at all, it hit clear at the top of the blackboard and dropped through. But we had all of our tickets bought, ready to go to California and everything else, but again we stayed at home. This team won twenty-two and lost five, and was a great team. So it doesn't take long for a team to kick along and come back. That takes us to the '68-'69 season. Now, a new face shows up here, Larry Steele. And you've got Argento, and Casey, and Issel. You've got Steele, you've got Pratt. And, you've got Terry Mills. Now, this game here, of course, is quite a--this team was quite a club. They won twenty-three, they lost five. Playing the kind of 01:32:00competition that we play, it's almost impossible for a team to improve on a record like that. We won sixteen and lost two in the conference. And, overall, as I say, it was 23-5. So, we had, in our--we played the Army and won 80-65 in the UKIT, and played Michigan in the UKIT, and beat them 112-104. That was a great defensive affair. And then Notre Dame would beat them 110-90. In the NCAA tournament, Marquette defeated us 81-74 at Madison, and then Miami, we beat Miami 72-71. 01:33:00Now, again, as I say, that's not exactly bad. That takes us to the '69-'70 year, and a few new faces show up here. It's Hollenbeck, and Key, and Parker. We've got holdovers in Issel, and in Pratt. Casey received a broken leg. And again, I think fate dealt us a cruel blow, and here is another time that we might have won, if it hadn't been for Casey being incapacitated the entire year. Casey never was able to come back. Destined to be All-American, no question about it. Issel, of course, makes All-American here. Makes All-American his last two 01:34:00years. A player that developed into a terrific man. A--one of the great sensational centers of modern times. He was not the biggest one, only about 6'8", but signed a contract at the end of his career for a million four, Pratt signing one for four hundred thousand, so apparently they were good basketball players. So anything that I might say about them, both of them making All-American, great ballplayers. And they were aided nicely, I say, by our guards, who were very unselfish in dealing that ball to them. They won the conference very nicely. They won seventeen and lost one, and then we went to the tournament beating Notre Dame 109-99, and then lost to Jacksonville 01:35:00106-100. Then that takes us to the last season, the '70-'71 season where we've got some new faces again. Casey now is back, but he is not the Casey as of old, because Casey--well, he didn't play bad ball, he played eight hundred and sixty minutes, averaged seventeen points, but there's some new faces. There's Payne, the first colored athlete in the history of the University of Kentucky in basketball. He's 7'2". There's a boy named Andrews who is 6'11". There's a boy named Stamper who's 6'5.5". And, of course our holdovers were Key, and Mills, and Hollenbeck, and Steele, and Parker. They had a very fine year, twenty- 01:36:00two and six, and won the conference. I think the conference record was sixteen and two, and the overall record was twenty-two and six. We went to the NCAA tournament, were beaten there by Western Kentucky, the first inner-state game that we've had with state schools, and--no, it was not, because we played Morehead before, as you will recall. And we played Louisville, of course, many times, as you will recall. And then, of course, Marquette beat us, and that closed out the season, which with no excuses, no alibis or anything. That was the year, of course, that I spent thirty-one days at one stretch in the hospital, 01:37:00and they just dismissed me in time to let me go to the tournament. And, of course I wasn't much help to them down there because I hadn't been with them, and hadn't seen what they had been doing. Didn't know too much about what was going on anyway. And, then, of course, I was president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and went to and presided at the tournament in--not at the tournament, but at the NCAA meeting at--of the National Association of Basketball Coaches at Houston, Texas. Then went back to the hospital for foot surgery before returning to my office here at the university. Now, that brings us up to the modern times. On this team that's coming back, we do have a 01:38:00nice team in the making, but you can see how these teams now go from- -it just depends on what the material is. If you get a good freshman team, and get a Hagan, Ramsey, Tsioropoulos, and get a Issel, Pratt, and Casey. Of course, that combination was broken up when Casey got hurt. I'm just as confident as I am that I'm alive when I'm speaking into this microphone that if Casey had not received that crushed leg, it wasn't a broken leg, it was a crushed leg, that he would have--that we would have gone all the way in that tournament two years ago. I'm confident of that. But, fate decreed otherwise, as it had in a tournament in 1966 when we all got that throat ailment out at Iowa 01:39:00City, which still affects me to this day, as you can tell from my husky throat that I did not have prior to that time. But, those are things that come up, and those are the sour things that you have to take with the sweet. Everything in basketball is not honey and sugar. It's a lot of fun. Life has been a great adventure to me. And, sport has been a great adventure, and basketball especially has been a tremendous adventure. And, if you will take a sport, don't take it too seriously, but give it the proper attention that you would if you were running a industry. If you were running anything. If you would just tend to 01:40:00your own business, and don't tend to anybody else's business, you get along. These boys that came here that made this glorious history for us that I've talked about. These great athletes, that we have had, that have made these--this record. They were the unselfish boys that got out on the floor, that didn't quibble. When you assigned them a task to do, they performed that task. And that's all you can ask in life. If you get up in the morning, and you've got good health, and you've got a task to do, and you've got the strength to perform that task, then you should be happy.

[End of interview]