Would Adolf Rupp have been a good UK football coach?

Bryo72

Junior
Jun 12, 2016
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He in a way, would have had this "Vince Lombardi" ( look/drive about him!) Think about it....
 

genghis_card

Sophomore
Sep 19, 2005
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I don't think Rupp could touch Bear Bryant (in football) but the OP posits an interesting question. I bet Rupp would be better than half the college football coaches out there.
 

IHATEUAVEL

All-American
Aug 11, 2015
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I don't think Rupp could touch Bear Bryant (in football) but the OP posits an interesting question. I bet Rupp would be better than half the college football coaches out there.
I worked under Adolph at UK 1970-72 Student Manager he was a brilliant man with a Masters degree from Columbia University ,he could do anything he tried.He had a Million dolar cattle and tobacco farm in Bourbon County.When he graduated from Kansas he took a Coaching job in Iowa and also was required to coach High School Wrestling. He won the State Championship...but he had never coached wrestling before..go figure..
 

ORCAT

Heisman
Jan 6, 2003
24,485
11,585
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Wow, this is the second thread I've read in the past few minutes by this poster and he follows the same routine with talking and answering his own posts. Very weird day on the board today, to say the least. This guy is just a very strange type of poster.
 

Cilohatac

Redshirt
Oct 22, 2002
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Fun Fact: Rupp's first job title at UK was "Assistant Football Coach". That's how meaningless the basketball program was at least from a financial standpoint.
 

WeepNoMore

Junior
Jan 2, 2005
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OP has taken a lot of flack for raising this question. But I, for one, think it is interesting to contemplate. At least as interesting, if not more so, than the hackneyed "Who will be our biggest upset this year?" or the old faithful "Project our wins and losses this year."

IMHO, Rupp was a man who would have been successful at nearly anything he decided to do. Bright, innovative, hard working, plenty of swag and, as it relates to athletics, a keen eye for athletic ability.

Again IMHO, had Rupp chosen FB, he would have been a Hall of Fame FB coach!
 

Xception

Heisman
Apr 17, 2007
26,407
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I don't know if Rupp had the knowledge to be the football coach but he had the ability . He was the kind of leader that would have built a very good football program had he pursued it .
 

ORCAT

Heisman
Jan 6, 2003
24,485
11,585
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OP has taken a lot of flack for raising this question. But I, for one, think it is interesting to contemplate.

Actually, if you look at the two threads the OP started, I believe he is taking more flack for his style of posting more than the topic he started with. He starts a thread and then immediately starts answering his own posts and almost arguing with himself. He even quotes his own posts when making another statement. Just a bizarre little guy. But, somewhat entertaining as we all try to fill gaps of time before the season actually begins.
 

John Henry

Hall of Famer
Aug 18, 2007
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Rupp was the most intelligent coach UK has had in any sport. Rupp was at a high school in Marshalltown, Iowa and they wanted a wrestling program. So he became their coach, a sport he knew nothing about at the time and learned from a book. He lead the Marshalltown team to a state wrestling title. (Taken from Russell Rice's book: .Adolph Rupp: Kentucky's Basketball Baron.) Rupp was a man of many talents. He was an athlete with a brain and had advanced degrees from Ivy League Schools. He was an educator and that was his first love but he also was a rancher (farmer in Kentucky language) and raised prize winning cattle. If he had chosen the military he would have been a general. If he had chosen business he would have been a CEO of a major company or he would have started his own company and made it a mult-million dollar company. So yes he would have excelled as a football coach. As UK fans we can all be thankful he loved basketball because he laid the foundation for the greatest college basketball team in history. The Big Blue Nation. Thank you Coach Rupp.
 

IHATEUAVEL

All-American
Aug 11, 2015
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Coach raised Polled Herford Cattle and was very proud of his stud bull.He also raised tobacco ,the basketball team had to go out in August and helped hang it.No we didn't get paid,,Funny Rupp was the President of American Cancer Society yet he raised tobacco..Go figure..
 
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12375CAT

All-Conference
Feb 15, 2012
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Imagine what UK would have been had BEAR stayed. UK fumbled the ball on that opportunity.
 

Poetax

Heisman
Apr 4, 2002
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Coach raised Polled Herford Cattle and was very proud of his stud bull.He also raised tobacco ,the basketball team had to go out in August and helped hang it.No we didn't get paid,,Funny Rupp was the President of American Cancer Society yet he raised tobacco..Go figure..

Back then when you raised tobacco you didn't use the chemicals that they used later. My Dad was a farmer and owned a pool hall, as a little one I remember old farmers in their 80s and 90s, rolling their own and chewing tobacco that they had made. Killing bugs, suckers, and weeds with chemicals did them in.
 
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