
The day Adolph Rupp won his 1,234th college basketball game, it rained all day. Inside Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gymnasium, the drops thumped away like a drumline, perhaps a subtle suggestion that time marched on that night. Rupp waited out of sight during warmups as nervous as when he had coached his first game against Georgetown College 42 years earlier. He would describe that pregame feeling often, like a sudden hook to the belly.
