Oh, Kentucky

A Murray State history professor is writing a book about Adolph Rupp, and I think it sounds like it might turn out to be really quite good.

Leonard Pitts Jr. goes to Booneville, and--no surprise--the result is fantastic.

And here's a great story about a Louisville woman who is the principal dancer in the New York ballet, and the best part is the stuff about her parents' decisions around helping her pursue her dreams.

Hooray for planetariums.

Good jobs news from Leitchfield and Owensboro.

A landmark Greenville store is closing, and the reaction on Facebook is lively.

And now here are 12 photographs I took with my phone out the passenger-side window of my vehicle while driving the Edward T. Breathitt Pennyrile Parkway from Madisonville to Sebree one very early Saturday in September: 

The Baron in 1963

The August 12, 1963 issue of Sports Illustrated featured the following quote from Adolph Rupp:

Any boy born in Kentucky today has two ambitions:  to be President of the United States and to play basketball for the University of Kentucky.

Wildcats Back on Track

Someone on the UK message board pointed out that after last night's game, UK's all-time record is 2,081 and 648, for a winning percentage of 0.763. Interestingly, this is the same winning percentage that UK had when Adolph Rupp retired after the 1972 season:

After Rupp (1972): 1081-336, winning percentage of 0.763
After Joe B. Hall (1985): 1378-436, winning percentage of 0.760
After Eddie Sutton (1989): 1466-475, winning percentage of 0.755
After Rick Pitino (1997): 1685-525, winning percentage of 0.762
After Tubby Smith (2007): 1948-608, winning percentage of 0.762
After Billy Gillispie (2009): 1988-635, winning percentage of 0.758
Today (March 2, 2012): 2081-648, winning percentage of 0.763

So over a 40-year period, UK has done an amazing job of keeping the program where Coach Rupp left it. Now if the Cats can win this year's NCAA tournament, they will have as many championships since Rupp left (four) as they did when he retired. That would be an even more impressive accomplishment.

Happy Chandler Attends a UK Game

This week in 1962, Sports Illustrated did a feature story on the Kentucky Wildcats, who surprised everyone in the 1961-62 season by jumping out to a 17-1 start. The article begins with a great description of why the fans in Lexington are often not as exuberant as those of us from the provinces think they should be:

For at least 487 years -- or so it seems -- canny, cantankerous and superb old Adolph Rupp has been coaching University of Kentucky basketball teams to conference titles and national championships. Rupp has become a Kentucky institution, winning has become a Kentucky tradition, and around the bluegrass and university town of Lexington there has developed a tendency to appreciate Adolph's teams without being so gauche as to get ecstatic about them.

But the article goes on to explain that not all UK fans remain so calm. Here is how SI describes the behavior of Happy Chandler, the Commonwealth's two-time governor:

Chandler, meanwhile, is Adolph's lieutenant coach. He is in his first-row seat at every game, and his cheering is so loud and pointed that a referee once stopped a game, walked all the way around the press table, handed Happy his whistle and said something like, "Here, Governor, use it yourself awhile." Coaches who perpetually stagger out of Lexington in defeat -- Rupp has lost only 12 home games in 20 years -- always recall the band's blaring swing version of Dixie and that second-loudest thing, Happy Chandler.

The Baron

This page has some very good stories about Adolph Rupp.