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.

Funny Flickr Photos

7/31/1953. The multi-headed cabbage, John C. Wyatt photographs: 2004AV001

Every archives sees its fair share of funny, or just plain odd, photos. Now there is a place to share them: the Funny Photos From the Archives group on Flickr. UK is now participating in this photo group, as are 19 other archives. Tag a photo, let us know what you think, and be sure to bookmark the site as we'll continue adding to our photostream.

A Quiet Day At The Ostrich Races

That's University of Kentucky sports legend Wallace "Wah Wah" Jones urging the giant bird to victory with a broom.

Does this thing have a USB port?

Altec computer in Memorial Coliseum, ca. 1950. Mack Hughes negatives. 2006ua052

Feast your eyes on the state-of-the-art (circa 1950) Altec computer. This high-tech gadget was the brains behind the sound system in Memorial Coliseum, the then-newly built home for the UK men' s basketball team. It may not be compatible with today's technology, but it does have an FM radio!

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.

UK Blog Wins Web Award

A big pat on the back to Jason Flahardy, UK's Audio Visual archivist and a winner of the ArchivesNext "Most Whimsical Archives-Related Website" award. Winners were nominated by readers of the ArchivesNext blog, then voted on by a panel of judges. Flahardy's Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century blog brings together a virtual collection of photographs showing 19th century men and their mustaches and provides a running waggish commentary to which other "mustache lovers" often respond. As Kate Theimer (creator of the ArchivesNext blog) puts it, Mustaches is "a masterful re-purposing of something almost every archives has a lot of–unidentified photographs." Take a break in your day to have a laugh at Jason's insightful comments, gather ideas for your own mustache-growing experiments, or learn the technical terms of mustachery by browsing through the glossary linked from the front page of the blog. Congratulations, Jason!