Leta Andrews, wearing dress pants, a flowery shirt, and high heels, sprints through a Granbury High School hall, down a flight of stairs, around a corner, and into her office — a small room adjacent to the school’s basketball court. She is 72, but she still lives, and coaches, at hyper speed. As she sits…
Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Leta Andrews learned from Adolph Rupp
How I Helped Cornell Beat Kentucky in 1966
From Hall of Fame journalist Billy Reed: “On the day of the first basketball game between Kentucky and Cornell since Dec. 28, 1966, I might as well tell you about why Adolph Rupp accused me of helping the Ivy League school shock the mighty Wildcats, 92-77, in Memorial Coliseum. That was the season after the…
On this day in history: Fab Five wins Kentucky it’s first NCAA title
From This Season Never Ends 2010 Calendar: “Before a crowd of over 16,000 in New York’s Madison Square Garden, #1 Kentucky gave Adolph Rupp his first NCAA Championship, 58-42 over Baylor. The outcome of this one was never in question. Kentucky had the tallest man on the floor, 6-7 Alex Groza, who led all scorers…
Kentucky brings the legacy of Adolph Rupp to New Orleans
Just when our town needed a March Madness spike in ticket sales, the NCAA came through. It sent us the Kentucky Wildcats. Or, to be more accurate, it sent us the “legacy” of a man named Adolph Rupp. It’s a legacy carved in concrete. You leave such a legacy when you’re around long enough to…
Adolph Rupp liked to get Sweet 16 stars for Wildcats
The Sweet 16 and Adolph Rupp are a good fit because the great coach always tried to get at least one standout player from each State Tournament, preferably from the championship team, for his University of Kentucky team. “Coach Rupp’s thinking,” said Guy Strong, who played two years for him, “was that he wanted proven…
A video tribute to the Adolph Rupp Era
This is a video tribute to Adolph Rupp Era at Kentucky featuring the coach Adolph Rupp himself and many of the great players that played under him: Dan Issel, Alex Groza, Cotton Nash, Larry Conley, Mike Pratt, Pat Riley, Vernon Hatton, John Crigler, Adrian Smith, Johnny Cox, Ed Beck, Tommy Kron, Thad Jaracz, Louie Dampier,…
In duel for the ages, Kentucky’s Dan Issel outshot Pistol Pete
As Feb. 21, 1970 dawned in Baton Rouge, La., LSU’s Pistol Pete Maravich was 0-5 against Kentucky in his career. Now came this, the Pistol’s final chance to beat the Wildcats in the final game of his extraordinary career. Jubilant LSU fans who’d recently finished celebrating Mardi Gras began to arrive at the 9,000-seat…
Ghost of Adolph Rupp haunts, retains record
Rarely do records linger in sports for 60 years – with or without steroids. Even more unlikely is a former nemesis doing the record preservation. But on Wednesday night, the team that beat Kentucky in the historic 1966 NCAA Championship, Texas-El Paso (formerly Texas Western), prevented Memphis from topping the Wildcats for an NCAA-record 65th…
Former Cat, radio pioneer Ernest Sparkman dies
Ernest Sparkman, a pioneering Eastern Kentucky broadcaster, died Friday at his home in Hazard. He was 84. Mr. Sparkman was one of the original owners of WSGS-FM 101.1, the first FM radio station in the Eastern Kentucky mountains. It holds distinctions such as being the only station in the commonwealth to broadcast every game of…
Reflecting on greatness: 1969-70 Kentucky Wildcats
From BleacherReport.com, “They were one of the greatest college basketball teams that didn’t reach the Final Four. Need proof? At the end of the 1969-70 season, while UCLA walked away with their sixth NCAA Tournament title, Kentucky walked away with the no.1 ranking in both the AP and UPI polls (remember, this was before ESPN…