As an early supporter of Keith's tenure at UK, supplementing his $17,500/yr "salary", along with other baseball supporters, donating work and money on stadium renovations,its ironic that Cliff Hagans name was put on our current stadium! Cliff was the AD ,that relegated Keith Madison to a basement office in old Alumni Gym, and paid him part time money,for a full time job! Keith did field maintenance ,due to lack of funds ,for the baseball program. Keith basically built the modern UK baseball program,from the ground up! His won /loss record ,under these circumstances, is exceptional. His recruiting ,also was exceptional, considering the limitations imposed on his budget! Therefore his name ,should be prominently displayed on the new stadium,to reflect his efforts,in establishing a modern, competitive baseball program,that we enjoy now!
Keith Madison name on new stadium
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I will say that I love the idea of "the Cliff." However, I don't mind naming it after Keith Madison... we could call it, "The Mad House!" We could also incorporate some sort of "cliff" element, like the porch we have now, and we could still call it the Cliff. "The Cliff, at Keith Madison Stadium." I like it.
Madison was a good coach and a good guy. Back in the days when I was engaged in Little League baseball he came to our fields several times to put on coaching clinics.
Peace
Peace
Why would you be surprised? He was a star basketball player at UK, right? More good ole boy bs just like Newton.
Only like to see names on things for people when they are earned!!! Just like CMN'S name has no business on KCWS, neither does CH's belong the baseball field...drain the swamp!
This in a big way. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the next president of UK was a former basketball player.
I have mixed feelings about Keith Madison, he was a mediocre coach that happen to do everything a head coach wasn't suppose to do, but at UK nobody cared about baseball and the team suffered. Madison did improve the team's status in the SEC, however the SEC had no respect for Kentucky baseball or football for years. The highlite of Madison's tenure was in the late 80's when the Cats were needing 1 game to go to Omaha and played Stanford, who had to beat them twice, Stanford won the first game by 1 run behind Mike Mussina. The second game was a blowout as UK ran out of pitchers. Stanford went to Omaha & won the CWS that year. If they don't sell the naming rights, then Keith Madison should be honored someway by UK. John Cohen showed UK that baseball can win in the SEC and with Coach Mingione leading the way, UK will be a force in the SEC in future years.
Gabe ,you have to put in context what Keith did with less than minimal support. He did exceptional with the hand he was dealt!
The man won 737 games, got us closer to Omaha than any UK coach in history, and did it with minimal support from UK athletics, his name should be on the stadium, or at the very least, Keith Madison Field.