Digging through old UT student papers
- Thread starter BillVol
- Start date
Nice… I see Kentucky kick the **** outta them twice in 1947, good read 
Would make sense. UK was on the verge of dominating college hoops for a while. They already were. It looks like the entire Fab Five was on the '47 team. I wonder why they weren't included in the 8-team NCAA tourney field? I was discussing this recently with some people. As I recall, a committee chose the teams. Didn't matter if you won your league or not. Just looked at Jon Scott's site and noticed UK lost in the NIT final to Utah. The Cats lost only three games that season.
I used to post a lot here. Not for a long time. Putting our rivalry aside, I wanted to say how much we enjoyed our trip to Rupp for the NCAAs. We stayed in Winchester. I'd never been before. Downtown Winchester looked like a movie set. Breathtaking. We ate at Joe Bologna's, which was fantastic. Just the breadstick with garlic butter sauce was all I needed to give it 5 stars. There used to be a book store in Lexington Center where I would buy The Cats' Pause. Sad it is gone. I also miss the UK Basketball Museum. I will never forget the letter on display from John Wooden to Coach Rupp where Wooden said, "I address you as Coach Rupp. Out of respect, I could never call you by your first name." Would be great if that could be started up again. When we got in, we noticed the ushers wearing the blue coats. I told the woman who scanned our tickets that I remembered the coats from my first visit in 1985. She told me about the Committee of 101. Her husband was also an usher and was great. They are more ambassadors for UK than ushers. We got pictures with both of them. Sorry the Parkette closed. And Cliff Hagan's Steak House. OG stuff. Could go on. But it is always nice to be in Lexington. Hoops holy ground.
Interesting reading about Tennessee coach Mauer in that era that he directly preceded Rupp at Kentucky and had decent success, leaving for Miami Ohio right after (definitely a different era with a coach leaving Kentucky for a small school).
Maybe he could be credited for helping set the stage for Rupp?
Maybe he could be credited for helping set the stage for Rupp?
I remember reading a quote from a very elderly UK fan in the Herald-Leader. She said she hated Tennessee because "they stole John Mauer from us." LOL He was a fine coach. We won two SECs under Mauer. BTW Mauer's roommate at the University of Illinois was the great Red Grange.
One last thing. In the link I posted, you'll notice a column written by "Benny" Byrd. That is who became very well known as Ben Byrd, a great sports writer for the Knoxville Journal. Also the father of former Belmont coach Rick Byrd.
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