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<blockquote data-quote="Sultan__of__Swine" data-source="post: 129347655" data-attributes="member: 1084312">I heard an interview with long time UK announcer Dave Baker who said that there was pressure by those in government to renew the series in 1994.&nbsp; However UK's athletic director, C.M. Newton needed the game as much as UofL wanted it.&nbsp; At that time he had hired Bill Curry to be the Wildcats football coach and Curry was struggling.&nbsp; Ticket sales were lagging and Newton felt the game would benefit attendance/season tickets and help Bill Curry's perception with the fanbase by beating Louisville.&nbsp; Newton gambled on two fronts 1) he said that the game HAD to be played at Commonwealth Stadium up and until Louisville built a new football stadium, 2) he fully expected that UK would field an &quot;SEC&quot; caliber teams that would not lose to Louisville.&nbsp; He felt that it was a pretty safe bet that Louisville would never get their stadium before the initial series deal would be completed and that Louisville would never field a team that could beat Curry.&nbsp; Well it blew up in his face, as not only was Louisville competitive against UK they got their stadium built and thus locked UK into the series for the foreseeable future, Curry was fired the next season when Louisville beat UK at Commonwealth in the second game of the series.&nbsp; So UofL can credit C.M. Newton with helping get Papa John's Cardinal Stadium built and elevating the overall perception of the program in the state and now nationally!&nbsp; Thanks UK!!!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Sultan__of__Swine, post: 129347655, member: 1084312"] I heard an interview with long time UK announcer Dave Baker who said that there was pressure by those in government to renew the series in 1994. However UK's athletic director, C.M. Newton needed the game as much as UofL wanted it. At that time he had hired Bill Curry to be the Wildcats football coach and Curry was struggling. Ticket sales were lagging and Newton felt the game would benefit attendance/season tickets and help Bill Curry's perception with the fanbase by beating Louisville. Newton gambled on two fronts 1) he said that the game HAD to be played at Commonwealth Stadium up and until Louisville built a new football stadium, 2) he fully expected that UK would field an "SEC" caliber teams that would not lose to Louisville. He felt that it was a pretty safe bet that Louisville would never get their stadium before the initial series deal would be completed and that Louisville would never field a team that could beat Curry. Well it blew up in his face, as not only was Louisville competitive against UK they got their stadium built and thus locked UK into the series for the foreseeable future, Curry was fired the next season when Louisville beat UK at Commonwealth in the second game of the series. So UofL can credit C.M. Newton with helping get Papa John's Cardinal Stadium built and elevating the overall perception of the program in the state and now nationally! Thanks UK!!! [/QUOTE]

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