Joe B. Hall's 10-year record establishes him as one of the finest coaches in college basketball.
While leading the Wildcats to a 22-8 record last year, Hall upped his UK record to 227-74, an average of 22.7 wins per season, to keep ahead of the pace set by his former coach, Adolph Rupp. Rupp averaged 21.5 victories per season over a 41-season span to become the winningest colege basketball coach of all time.
One of the finest compliments Hall has received during his coaching career came from Rupp, who died in 1977.
"A good coach," Rupp said, "is a person who can take good material and win with it. Joe has done that."
Judging from Hall's coaching honors, Rupp was as usual, right on target with his evaluation.
Hall has won such honors as Kellogg's 1978 National" Coach of the Year," three Southeastern Conference "Coach of the Year awards (1973, '75 and 78) and
nomination for Kodak's 1975, '76 and '78 (finalist) "Coach of the Year" awards.
"A good coach," Rupp said, "is a person who can take good material and win with it. Joe has done that."
In 1978 when Kentucky won its fifth NCAA title, Hall was also presented the Rupp Cup (presented to the SEC Coach of the Year by the Birmingham Tipoff Club) and Hall's most coveted personal award, the Dr. James Naismith "Peachbasket" award. The Peach-basket has previously been given to UCLA's John Wooden, Oklahoma State's Hank Iba, Kentucky's Rupp and Red Auerbach of the Boston Celtics.
The 1978 national champs, which had a 30-2 record, became the sixth Wildcat team to win 30 or more games, joining such HI us-
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trious company as the 1947 NIT runner-up (34-3), the 1948 Olympic Champions (36-3), the 1949 NCAA champions (32-2), the '51 NCAA champs (32-2) and the '66 NCAA runner-up (32-2).
The Hall Era has produced five All-Americans and seven All-Southeastern Conference players. Kevin Grevey, Jack Givens, Rick Robey, Kyle Macy and Sam Bowie were selected a total of 10 times.
Hall began his tour as UK head coach in rather auspicious fashion in 1973, becoming the first rookie coach in league history to be designated Coach of the Year by his peers.
Gathering such honors has been one of Hall's trademarks during a career that began at Shep-herdsville (Ky.) High School in 1956 and continued through Regis College before he returned to Kentucky, July 1, 1965, as an assistant to his former coach, Adolph Rupp.
An outstanding athlete at Cyn-
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