This week in 1962, Sports Illustrated did a feature story on the Kentucky Wildcats, who surprised everyone in the 1961-62 season by jumping out to a 17-1 start. The article begins with a great description of why the fans in Lexington are often not as exuberant as those of us from the provinces think they should be:
For at least 487 years -- or so it seems -- canny, cantankerous and superb old Adolph Rupp has been coaching University of Kentucky basketball teams to conference titles and national championships. Rupp has become a Kentucky institution, winning has become a Kentucky tradition, and around the bluegrass and university town of Lexington there has developed a tendency to appreciate Adolph's teams without being so gauche as to get ecstatic about them.
But the article goes on to explain that not all UK fans remain so calm. Here is how SI describes the behavior of Happy Chandler, the Commonwealth's two-time governor:
Chandler, meanwhile, is Adolph's lieutenant coach. He is in his first-row seat at every game, and his cheering is so loud and pointed that a referee once stopped a game, walked all the way around the press table, handed Happy his whistle and said something like, "Here, Governor, use it yourself awhile." Coaches who perpetually stagger out of Lexington in defeat -- Rupp has lost only 12 home games in 20 years -- always recall the band's blaring swing version of Dixie and that second-loudest thing, Happy Chandler.
The article also reports that Larry Pursiful, a guard on the 1961-62 team, came from the Kentucky community of Four Mile:
ReplyDelete"His home town got that name, they say, because it is four miles from a big town, Pineville (pop. 3,181). Rupp is very proud that 85% of his players have come from Kentucky, and many of those from such hamlets as Four Mile. He enjoys quoting the Bible: 'I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.'"
The First Lady Attends a UK Rally.
ReplyDeletePretty interesting story behind this application. Or, as we say around the HP: TECH NOTE!