Kentucky - Adolph Rupp

From 3-1-15

The number one ranked Kentucky Wildcats are coming to Athens Tuesday night. They come in with a 29-0 record, and the game is a sell-out. The Big Blue Nation will be a delight for scalpers, as it will assure the highest prices ever paid for a home Bulldog basketball game. The Wildcats bring back a lot of memories for me. My first plane trip was 62 years ago as we traveled to Lexington to play the number one ranked Cats that finished their season with. 25-0 record. For years I had listened to Caywood Ledford announce the Kentucky games, and here as a freshman I was about to play before a sell-out crowd far away from home. Dressed in my uniform ready for the team to leave, a special announcement interrupted the radio music. It was announced that the Kentucky football coach Bear Bryant had just resigned to take the Texas A&M football position. That night I saw a Wildcat warm-up drill that all of my teams would use for my coaching career- called the K.Y. Drill. In our game I set a record that probably still stands. Coach Lawson took me out of the game and said,"Bradley, I've never seen a player bounce the ball on his head 3 times!" He was not amused when I said,"Coach I was reading all those Championship banners!" This was during the time that Kentucky built a 129 game winning streak. (Of course, any good Newton Ram fan knows about our high school national record home winning streak!) During my years playing at UGA all of our games against Kentucky were played in Blue Grass territory that assured a sell-out crowd, a big payday for The University, and a "fanny whipping". The last time I saw Coach Adolph Rupp he came to Athens to speak to the Bulldog Tip-Off Club. When he was introduced we gave him a long standing ovation. After looking around, he said, "I don't know what it did for the ladies, but it gave the men a chance to straighten their undershorts!"