Big Blue Sports Archive

In celebration of the University of Kentucky's appearance in the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament, we are uploading the video created to raise awareness for the Big Blue Sports Archive initiative. Celebrate the tradition of Kentucky basketball.

Go Cats!

Adrian "Odie" Smith

Former UK men's basketball standout, and member of Adolph Rupp's 1958 Fiddlin' Five National Championship team, Adrian “Odie” Smith was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a member of the 1960 gold-medal winning U.S. Olympic basketball team. The 1960 team was one of two teams and eight individuals honored at this years induction ceremony.

Smith is a native of Farmington, Ky and played two years at a junior college before receiving a scholarship to play at UK. Smith averaged 10.1 ppg in two years at UK. After college Smith joined the Army and played for two Army All-Star teams. While in the Army, Smith won gold medals for the U.S. in the 1959 Pan-American Games in Chicago and the 1960 Rome Olympics.

After his stint in the army Smith played ten years in the NBA with the Cincinnati Royals and the San Francisco Warriors. He was MVP of the 1966 NBA All-Star Game held in Cincinnati, playing with and against players including Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and Rick Barry to win the honors. Photograph digital id [KUKAV-1997AV27-3570].

WUKY: Big Blue Sports Archives Preserves Memory Of "The Shot" (2009-11-05)

WUKY: Big Blue Sports Archives Preserves Memory Of "The Shot" (2009-11-05)
On the cusp of another UK basketball season, we visit with the school's archivists and revisit a Memorial Coliseum Magic Moment featuring the 1958 National Championship Team.

Click on the WUKY link above to listen to Doug Boyd and Deirdre Scaggs talk about one of the great moments in UK basketball history.

Hear more stories and learn more about the history of UK at http://exploreuk.uky.edu

Basketball royalty

Given basketball's place of honor in Kentucky, and the storied tradition of the sport at the University of Kentucky, perhaps it is no wonder that there have been several fathers and sons who have coached or played on the team. In fact, three of the last six UK coaches have coached their own sons on the team.

The "Baron of Basketball," Adolph Rupp coached his son Herky from 1959-1962. Herky was a forward who didn't see a lot of playing time despite being the coach's son. He played in 14 games over those three seasons, and scored a total of 11 points during that time.

Adolph Rupp, 1976 -- 2004ua046_17688_009

Herky Rupp, circa 1959 -- 2004ua046_2020_002

Eddie Sutton's son Sean joined the team just two years after Sutton became coach. Sean played for two years before transferring to Oklahoma State after his father resigned as coach at UK. Sean went on to follow in his father's coaching footsteps, as did his brother Scott.

Eddie Sutton, circa 1988 -- 2009ua017_02_035

Sean Sutton, circa 1988 -- 2007ua023_325_006_05

Tubby Smith's sons G.G. and Saul both played college basketball, but only Saul played at UK. Saul played his entire college career at Kentucky, from 1997-2001. Saul is currently assistant coach at the University of Minnesota, where his father, Tubby, is head coach. Son G.G. (who played for Georgia) is now assistant coach at Loyola.

Tubby Smith (left) -- 2007ua023_127_039

Saul Smith, 1997 -- 1997 Men's Basketball Media Guide

Father and son players have been rarer than coach and player, but there are at least two fathers who have passed down the UK basketball genes to their sons. Allen Feldhaus was a forward-center at UK from 1959-1962, playing a total of 72 games with 299 total points. Twenty-five years later, his son Deron played as a forward in 124 games with a total of 1232 points.

Allen Feldhaus -- 2007ua023_156_080a

Deron Feldhaus -- 2007ua023_079_006_05

Joe and Joey Holland are another father and son team. Joe Sr. played forward from 1945-1948, playing in 105 games with 504 total points. Son Joey was a guard from 1974-1976, playing in 17 games with 14 total points.

Joe Holland -- 2006ua056_01_111

Joey Holland -- 2007ua023_228_018_02

They don't make them like they used to

We have all heard the line they just don't make them like they used to. Well it certainly applies to former University of Kentucky Men's Basketball player Vernon Hatton. During the 1956-57 season Hatton overcame considerable adversity to help UK win the Sugar Bowl Tournament. The adversity was an inflamed appendicitis, which was misdiagnosed before the final two games of the tournament. Despite feeling ill Hatton added 12 points against a troublesome Virginia Tech and 17 points against Houston in the Championship game.

Upon returning to Lexington following the tournament "the attacks began anew and an immediate operation was ordered to remove his appendix, which doctors said was acutely inflamed and in a condition that should have prevented him from seeing action for at least a week previously," reported Ken Kuhn of the Sports Publicity Office on July 2, 1957.

Hatton returned to action a month after his surgery helping prevent an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Mississippi. A reporter was so impressed with Hatton's performance that he wrote, "It may become standard procedure for Rupp players to have appendix operations in mid-season." Vernon scored 14 points in less than twelve minutes for the Cats that day.

What's wrong with this picture?

UK vs. Georgia Tech, 3/6/48 - Cliff Barker, Jim Line, Ken Rollins, Alex Groza. University of Kentucky basketball and football negatives: 2006ua56

Harold Ross Hickman, 1955. Mack Hughes negatives: 2006ua052

Sometimes you look at a photo and recognize that something is wrong, but you just can't put your finger on it.
Spotted it yet?
At least twice during UK basketball history, the name "Kentucky" was misspelled on the uniforms. In the 1948 photo, you can clearly see from Jim Line's (25) and Cliff Barker's (23) jerseys that the "c" and "k" in Kentucky are transposed. Another misspelling occurred in 1955, seen in Harold Ross Hickman's jersey which inexplicably includes the letter "t" in Kentucky. Hickman was most likely a freshman, so perhaps the misspelled jerseys were relegated to freshmen that year while the varsity uniforms were correct?
Theories welcome.

March Madness

1904 University of Kentucky Men's Basketball Team -- 2001ua025:0023

Head to the Hub in W.T. Young Library to see the exhibit "March Madness: A History of UK Basketball in Images." In addition, other screens in the Hub will be showing historic games in UK Men's Basketball, including the entire 1978 NCAA Championship game against Duke. The exhibit runs through March.

About athletics materials in the University of Kentucky Archives:

Since its creation in the 1930s, the University Archives has endeavored to preserve the history of UK athletics. During these 60 years, the Archives has amassed one of the finest athletics collections in the United States, which now includes over 5000 videotapes, 1500 audiotapes, 1500 films, 3000 photographs, 30 scrapbooks, and 250 boxes of clippings, programs, and media guides. The collection is heavily used by researchers, often requiring reproductions of films, videotapes, and photographs.

Sports are a part of our collective popular culture and also connected to the tradition of excellence at the University of Kentucky. Long after sporting events have faded from recent history the images, the accomplishments, and the records set continue to live in our collective memories. The University Archives has the important role of ensuring that the sights, the sounds, the facts, and goals are more than a memory.

Later this year, Explore UK will launch an amazing online resource for Kentucky basketball fans and researchers including basketball programs, Cats Pause, ephemera, and photographs!

Keightley Oral History Project Launches Online

The University of Kentucky's Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History has begun providing online access to interviews with beloved UK basketball manager Bill Keightley, also known to many basketball fans as “Mr. Wildcat. We are excited to get these interviews online as the UK men’s basketball season begins, giving the public a unique opportunity to not only hear Keightley's interviews but to search transcripts of the interviews for specific memories that most interest the fan or the online user.

The Keightley project contains 20 interviews, conducted between 2005 and 2007, includes conversations about Keightley’s life experiences; experiences working with coaches and players, including recordings about coaches Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall, Eddie Sutton, Rick Pitino, Orlando "Tubby" Smith and Billy Gillispie; UK Athletics; changes in college athletics, equipment and style of play; and growing up in his hometown of Lawrenceburg, Ky. We will be adding more interviews as the season progresses.

Over the past few months, the Nunn Center has worked with the Kentuckiana Digital Library, to design an original interface to more intuitively present oral histories online. Our goal was to construct a better interface that enables users to search by keyword and then link to that specific moment in the audio interview. Users will be able to search through hours of interviews and find exactly the topic they wish to hear Bill Keightley discuss, and then click on that moment in the audio to hear him tell his story. I am hoping that this new interface will serve as a model for how to present oral histories online.

--Doug Boyd