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Head Coach William Walter Henry Mustain

William Walter Henry Mustain is noted as Kentucky’s first basketball coach.

Birthday
January 11, 2022

Overall Kentucky Record: 1 – 2
Years Coached:
Date of Death: January 4, 1937
Hometown: Horse Cave, KY
Alma Mater: Centre College [1899]
Notes: Administrator of Men’s Physical Education at UK; did not actually coach

Season Won Lost Rank Notes
1902-03 1 2 First Season

Born December 4, 1878 in Horse Cave (Hart County), Kentucky and died January 4, 1937 in Albany (Albany County), New York at the age of 58.

William Walter Henry Mustain is noted as Kentucky’s first basketball coach.  On January 24, 1903, as chairman of the Male Department of Kentucky State College’s School of Physical Culture, he presented a group of players a $3 ball and told them to begin practicing.  They played their first game just two weeks later against Georgetown College losing 15-6.

Mustaine, a native of Horse Cave, Ky., was graduate of Centre College (1899), Yale University and the University of Kentucky. Following his graduation from Centre College, he received a degree in physical education from Yale University. For 10 years he was director of physical education at UK.

Mustaine was associated with the University of Montana for eight years as director of physical education after leaving the University of Kentucky. 

He came to Albany in 1917 as a supervisor for the State military training commission and remained when the commission was absorbed two years later by the State Education Department.

Professor Mustaine was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon social fraternity.

In 1999, Mustain was inducted into the Centre College Hall of Fame.  He founded and was president of the Kentucky Association of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation

W W H Mustaine in his office

W. W. H. Mustaine in his office

 

W. W. H. Mustaine

W. W. H. Mustaine from the Blue and White, 1903

Walter Cornett, of Glendale, Kentucky, is the owner and operator of Walter’s Wildcat World. He founded WildcatWorld.com in 1998 making it one of the oldest Kentucky basketball fan sites in operation today.

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Alabama vs Kentucky (On time)

On This Day in UK Basketball History

On March 15, 1973, No. 17 Kentucky defeated Austin Peay, 106-100 in overtime in the 1973 NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen.  In UK’s first NCAA Tournament game without Adolph Rupp as its coach, senior center Jim Andrews scored 30 points, but it was senior reserve Larry Stamper who tallied the final six points in overtime as the Wildcats outlasted Austin Peay and its charismatic star, James “Fly” Williams (26 points), before 15,581 fans in Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gym.  This was Joe B. Hall’s first NCAA tourney win.

 

On March 15, 1992, eligible for postseason play for the first time in three years, Kentucky dominates Alabama, 80-54, to take its 16th SEC Tournament Championship.

 

Wildcats Born on This Date

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