
- Name
- Jack Tingle
- Position
- Forward
- Class
- Senior
- Hometown (Last School)
- Bedford, KY (Trimble High)
- Ht
- 6'3"
- Wt
- 185
- Seasons
- 1943-44, 1944-45, 1945-46, 1946-47
- Birthday
- December 30, 1924
Jack Tingle was born Robert Jackson “Jack” Tingle on December 30, 1924, in Trimble County, Kentucky to Robert Howard Tingle and Mary Yeager Jackson Tingle.
When basketball is spoken of in Bedford, Kentucky the name of Jack Tingle is mentioned, always.
Recognized for natural ability, Tingle was playing varsity basketball for Trimble High while an eighth grader, even then clicking in the spectacular which was so much his stock in trade. The frail built lad that he was then was more than offset by his ability to score at precisely the right time. Fans in Trimble County will remember those flings from center court, when he nearly threw himself along with the ball to gain momentum enough to hit the hoop “Dead Center.”
Commencing as a freshman, he was named to the all-star team of the North Central Kentucky Conference, and he received that honor four straight years while in high school. In 1941 he was the sparkplug of the Trimble County team that went to the final of the regional tournament, losing out by only two points to Valley High School. Again in 1942, the team with Tingle went into the quarter finals of the regional, dropping out in a game with Williamstown – an outfit with 6’8″ Arnold Risen who later was an All-American at Ohio State. In 1943, Tingle’s last year, the then TCHS Blue Demons won their first North-Central Kentucky Conference Championship. His was then a great career, but still destined to become much greater.
Already singled out as a sterling prospect by Coach Adolph Rupp, Tingle entered the University of Kentucky, and while there compiled one of the most enviable records. He became one of only three players in the university’s history to be named to the All-Star team of the Southeastern Conference four years in a single sport, or otherwise. The other players similarly named were Wallace “Wah Wah” Jones, a teammate of Jack, and Ralph Beard.
Fans from the county followed the game rabidly, braving all sorts of winter driving condition to see Tingle play in Louisville and at Lexington. Recalled to mind is the game in Louisville during Tingle’s college sophomore year, when it appeared that the University of Notre Dame had defeated the Wildcats, but in the final minute, the spectacular began to be engineered by Tingle. In a razzle-dazzle spark of showmanship he intercepted and hawked the ball and rolled up eight points for UK on the scoreboard, enough to defeat the Fighting Irish.
Coach Rupp, in praising him called him “One of our battlers always fighting and always in there – an all-round basketball player.”
Rupp’s singled him out as a great prospect when Tingle was only a junior in high school proved compensating to the baron of Kentucky basketball, because in the four years that Tingle played with Kentucky, the Wildcats won the Southeastern title each year. Jack was an All-American selectee still headed for greater things after college.
Tingle played professional ball with the Washington Capitols, the Minneapolis Lakers, and the New York Nationals. He later coached at Hiseville High School.
With the same tenacity that he fought on the hardwood, Tingle battled with cancer, waging a known losing fight for more than a year, not revealing the seriousness of his condition to his family. He was their ideal – a truly great All-American regular fellow.
Tingle passed away at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky on September 22, 1958, at the age of 33 years.
