BTI's Rants and Ramblings: Friday Summer Fan Stories

Every Friday from now until football season, I give this post up to you.  You give me your favorite, most memorable, funniest, saddest, whatever story related to UK athletics.  It doesn’t have to be any minimum length although the person who send me a 1-sentence post probably will not make it.  But I just want the story that you always tell your friends or means the most to you.  You don’t have to use your name.  Just send it to me at [email protected]. My parents divorced and my mom remarried when I was little girl.  The man she married is the absolute best man in the world and I am privileged every day to call him Dad.  One of the things that we bonded over was UK basketball.  In 1992, I was 11 and watching the UK/Duke game with my new step-dad.  We all know how the story goes... Christian Laettner hit "the shot" and the rest is history.  I remember going into my room and crying like a baby.  I heard my mom say that he started this so he had to go talk to me.  He came in and ask me if I was ok.  I tearfully shook my head and said "I just feel bad for the Seniors."  He hugged me and told me that the good news about being a UK fan is that they seldom break your heart like this. Truer words have never been spoken!  Thanks to UK basketball, my Dad and I have a bond that can never be broken! -Emily

---

This story is about Mike Casey. I'm not  telling this story for my benefit although something very good does happen for me. It was in the 70s I was asked to play in a league in Shelby County. I went to our first game and was on the court warming up when Mike came thru the door. I said to one of my teammates we don't have a chance if we are playing against him. He put his shoes on and came out and started talking to our coach and the next thing we know he is warming up with us. Our coach was his friend which we didn't know. We all figured he would be scoring all the points. Mike seamed to get all the rebounds and was not worried about scoring . He passed the ball all day long. when the game was over I had scored 48 points. Playing with him was as much fun as I have ever had on a basketball court. He was a very good guy to be around. Mike Casey will always be one of my favorites. -Mitchell

---