14 Bill Busey

Bill Busey was born William M. Busey on October 8, 1948, in Bagdad, Kentucky.  Busey was a 5’10” guard who played for the Kentucky Wildcats basketball team during the 1967-69 seasons.

Busey was a guard with small stature, good speed, and ball handling ability plus fine outside shooting accuracy.  He was All-State at Shelby County High where he teamed with UK signee Mike Casey to aid the Rockets in posting a 33-1 record en route to capturing the state championship.  Busey was a three-year regular in basketball, a quarterback in football, an outfielder in baseball, a dashman and a broad jumper on the track team.  He averaged 16.9 points per game as a senior for the Rockets.

Adolph Rupp, on April 12, 1966, while speaking at a banquet honoring the 1966 Shelby County High School state championship team, announced that Busey and his teammate, Mike Casey, would be playing at Kentucky.  He joined a recruiting class that included Dan Issel, Mike Pratt, Jim Dinwiddie, Terry Mills, Clint Wheeler, and Randy Pool.

As a freshman, Busey averaged 9.4 points per game on a team that featured Dan Issel, Mike Pratt, and Mike Casey.

His sophomore and junior years were spent in a reserve role.  In 1967-68, Busey played in 12 games scoring a total of 21 points.  He played in 10 games in 1968-69, again scoring a total of 21 points.  The Lexington Herald-Leader once described him as the “little fellow who does big things in just about every game he enters.”  He found himself in trouble with Rupp during his junior year for what Rupp said were violations of the team curfew and was off the team briefly.  He was reinstated and finished out the season.

One game into Busey’s senior season, on December 7, 1969, Rupp announced that Busey was no longer on the team and would not return.  Rupp refused any further comment.

During his time at the University of Kentucky, Busey played in 33 games over three seasons. He had a field goal percentage of 53 and a free throw percentage of 80.  In terms of statistics, he scored a total of 21 points, with 8 assists and 8 rebounds.