2 Louis McGinnis

Nickname:  “Little” McGinnis or Lil Mack
Legal Name:  Wallace Louis McGinnis
Date of Death:  August 23, 2003

From the March 1931 edition of the Kentucky Alumnus:

 ‘Lil’ Mack was top scorer for the tournament and the Southerners put him on the mythical all-Southern team. Moreover, his many sympathizers will wager that he was knocked down oftener and had more black spots on his anatomy than any other player in the tourney, but mere trifles like that never daunted Louis McGinnis. That lad broke into basketball, as a hip pocket edition of his famous athletic brother, when he was a sophomore in the University and if memory is not playing a trick on an ardent enthusiast he has not been out of the playing as much as a half game from the time he hit the hardwood the first time until he was awarded his silver trophy as a runner-up at the 1931 conference battle. He was never flattered by the sports writers and even when he made the remarkable score of 18 points against Duke his feat was not commented until the sportswriter got to the fourth paragraph of his daily report. Eighteen points at the moment was a record individual score; 18 points was but one less than was made by the runners up in the game that nearly gave Kentucky heart disease in the 1921 tussle and yet that didn’t get the scare headlines for ‘Lil’ Mack, and did he stop? Not Mack, he knew the Southern writers would have better eyesight and he had heard the story of Pete Drury who played star football all around the lot for a season in Lexington and had to go to Alabama (where they make ’em) to get his all-Southern title. ‘Lil’ Mack was not a high school star. He was discovered by Johnny Mauer, basketball coach in 1928.”

McGinnis was a player on Adolph Rupp’s first University of Kentucky basketball team and a retired general manager of W.R. Milward Funeral Directors, in Lexington, Kentucky.

Mr. McGinnis was a Lexington native and a graduate of UK. He was a forward, and lettered at UK in 1929, 1930 and 1931. He was also named to the All-Southeastern Conference basketball team.

His brother, Lawrence L. McGinnis, played basketball with him for a time at UK. Lawrence McGinnis and W. Louis McGinnis were known as “Big McGinnis” and “Little McGinnis,” respectively, when they played for UK.

According to Russell Rice, a former sports information director at UK, McGinnis was “a steady player. He was the glue that held the team together.”

Career High Points: 18 – | Duke – 2/28/1931 |

1930-31 Senior Season

1929-30 Junior Season

1928-29 Sophomore Season