UK Finishes 8-3 By Winning Three Of Last Four
[Continued From Page 5]
Kentucky had pulled within 25-17 thanks to a fake punt by Calhoun. On the play, he completed a 17-yard pass to Cornell Burbage that moved UK to the Florida 28-yard line. Following a 20-yard pass from Ransdell to Burbage, Phillips scored again on an eight-yard pass to cut the Florida lead to eight in the fourth quarter.
Earlier in the second half, with UK trailing 12-10, Brian Williams and Hare stopped Florida's John Williams on consecutive third-and-fourth-down plays to give UK the ball deep in Florida territory. But a Ransdell pass soon thereafter was intercepted by Florida's Jarvis Williams, and Florida scored three plays later on a pass from Kerwin Bell to Frank Neal to push the Gators to a 19-10 advantage.
Regardless, Claiborne bespoke the proud thoughts of many UK fans in praising the team's performance.
"I thought we played about as well as we can play today," Claiborne said. "I can't be prouder of a group of kids than I am of this group. The effort was there. I'm proud of them."
November 24 -- Kentucky at Tennessee (Neyland Stadium) -- The 80th meeting of the fierce border rivals started and ended in bizarre fashion.
UT's Charles Wilson fumbled to UK
on the first play from scrimmage. Then, with three seconds to play, and Tennessee in possession on the Kentucky 13-yard line, UT quarterback Tony Robinson drew a desperation pass out of bounds to try and stop the clock. But the clock stopped itself, running out and denying UT another play.
Between those odd occurrences, Kentucky put together enough conventional offense -- and inspired defense -- to allow Adams to join the 1,000-yard rushing club, and earn UK both a 17-12 victory and an invitation to meet Wisconsin Dec. 29 in the Hall of Fame Bowl in Birmingham, Ala.
Adams also scored both of Kentucky's touchdowns as UK finished the regular season with an 8-3 record, its best since 1977 when UK finished 10-1 but was ineligible to play in a bowl game.
Adams' first score resulted from Tennessee's game-opening turnover, which was recovered by Hare after a hit by Thompson. Ransdell passes to Derry and Pitts set up the score. The 16-yard reception by Pitts moved the ball to the UT two-yard line, and Adams dove into the end zone on the ensuing play to give Kentucky a 7-0 lead.
Both defenses took command until halftime, the only scored coming on field goals of 37 and 36 yards by Tennessee's redoubtable kicker, Fuad Reveiz. Redoubtable, that is, until the 26-second mark of the half, when he missed from 57 yards out (though not by much) to end his personal streak of 18 straight field goals, a Southeastern Conference record.
Kentucky then scored off the second half's opening kickoff. Passes from Ransdell to Phillips and Bryant helped advance the ball to the UT 26-yard line. Later, Adams took the ball the final eight yards, the second run taking him into the end zone from a yard out to move UK to a 14-6 lead.
Claiborne intimated that his club would miss Adams sorely next season. "George has been our leader," Claiborne said. "The players have great respect for him. They want to give it to the big man. I'm happy he got over the 1,000-yard mark. He deserves it. He's one great gentleman."
But Tennessee wasn't done. Johnnie Jones set up UT's only touchdown with five runs early in the fourth quarter, the longest going for 17 yards. Shortly thereafter, Robinson threw an 11-yard scoring pass to Eric Swanson to pull UT within 14-12.
UT coach Johnny Majors then gambled, telling his team to go for a two-point conversion and a tie. But UK thwarted the plan when Robinson was tackled by Hare on a rollout.
Kentucky then got a break late in the fourth quarter when Tennessee's Reggie McKenzie was called for roughing Calhoun. That gave Kentucky a first down on the UT 47-yard line. Seven plays later, Worley kicked what proved to be a big insurance field goal. His 34-yard kick produced the final margin with 2:09 to play.
Tennessee's gallant "two-minute drill" fell just short. Robinson converted a big fourth-down play on the drive when, faced with a fourth-and-11 situation, he hit Tim McGee on a 17-yard pass play. Seven plays later, Robinson found McGee again on the UK 13. But Robinson was tripped, and couldn't get out of bounds to stop the clock. Since UT was out of timeouts, Robinson hurried the play and tried unsuccessfully to give Tennessee another chance to win the game.
"When he (Robinson) threw it out of bounds and I saw a :00 on the clock --(my reaction) was one of great elation," Claiborne said. "It was a tremendous effort by our players. It's a whole lot more fun to accept the bowl bid when you win the last game."
Claiborne Heads To HOF
[Continued From Page 2]
were plentiful, the "no vacancy" sign has been prominent this year.
A multitude of festivities has been lined up for bowl fans and a complete schedule is published elsewhere in this issue. The Kentucky team will be headquartered at the Hyatt in Birmingham.
-+++ 
Bowl teams are permitted ten practice sessions between their final regular season game and the bowl game itself as permitted by NCAA regulations.
For Kentucky and Wisconsin, it's been as much a challenge to work in practice sessions as it has been to prepare for each other.
Both have been caught in poor weather conditions.
Rain forced UK inside last Friday and Claiborne said the indoor Seaton Center isn't very practical for 130 football players. At Wisconsin, coach Dave McClain doesn't have any kind of an indoor facility.
As for working indoors, Claiborne added, "you can't work on the passing game, either your own passing or pass defense, and the kicking game."
Even the outside artifical turf has been made unfit for practice with standing water, "but you can't worry about things you can't control, you get old too fast, anyway," shrugged Claiborne.
Still, the atmosphere had been very upbeat.
"The attitude's been gbod," the UK boss said, "up until Wednesday, we had good practices. I think the players were tired from studying and from practicing the same things. It's mental fatigue."
Meanwhile, back in Wisconsin, McClain is thankful, even with the poor weather because it could be worst than what it was last week when the temperatures hoovered around twenty degrees.
"We've been very lucky," said McClain via telephone last week, "last year at this time it was 25 below zero.''
Blackmon Returns To UK Camp
Kentucky guard James Blackmon returned to the Wildcat basketball squad after a one day's absence and a trip back home to Marion, Indiana.
Blackmon, a prep All-American, apparently took his final exams on Monday and then went home sometime Tuesday. Blackmon's roommate, Winston Bennett, told a radio talk show that when he returned to the dorm after classes on Tuesday that Blackmon and his personal belongings were gone.
He returned to Lexington early Wednesday and practiced that afternoon. As is customary with team rules, Blackmon did not play against East Tennessee State for having missed the practice.
Blackmon had become frustrated in recent games. Because so much had been expected of him coming out of high school, some of his friends had been constantly badgering him with questions.
After scoreless performances against Indiana and Louisville, Blackmon became even more frustrated and unhappy with his playing role at UK according to sources close to the scene.
Oscar L. Combs
[Continued From Page 3]
season. The one big difference this time will be the 19,000 or so fans will be of the Wildcat variety instead of the opponents'.
Kentucky did what it had to do over the weekend by winning its own UKIT. It defeated East Tennessee State and Cincinnati and perhaps built up some confidence which has been lacking in recent games. A win over Kansas could put the Cats on the way to a good comeback this season.
Some tickets remain for the Kansas game at presstime and they are on sale at the Freedom Hall ticket office.
Likewise, tickets are on sale at the Rupp Arena ticket office for home games with Auburn, North Carolina State and Vanderbilt. Students did not pick up their allotment for those games because they are on semester break.
+
NOTES   AND   QUOTES   .   . .
Kentucky football coach Jerry Claiborne got a big ovation from the UKIT crowd Friday night when he was introduced as Division I Regional Coach of the Year as voted by his peers . . . For the first time in a long, long time, the Wildcats wore road uniforms for a home contest (other than the NCAA tourney) at Rupp Arena. In fact, it may have been a first according to local officials, the Reason why the Cats wore road uniforms was because East Tennessee State lost their away uniforms in the fiery crash of their chartered airplane two weeks ago . . . Kentucky was glad to oblige by wearing the blue. Kentucky was also thankful the Wildcats were playing only in Louisville the week
before when they used a bus for transportation. The airplane which crash-landed with ETSU's players and coaches aboard was the same aircraft and crew which flew Kentucky to West Lafayette for the Purdue game three weeks earlier . . . The crowd at the opening round of the UKIT was one of the smallest ever. One Rupp Arena official said the actual head-count was less than 15,000 for the night. Over 3,000 unsold tickets were turned over to the Arena box office for sale the day of the game. Television is being blamed by many basketball experts as part of the reason for sudden attendance problems around the country . . . Brad Davis, the new assistant sports information director in charge of basketball at UK, is a big hit with media people with his expanded news information and availability to provide that little extra which makes the job easier for writers . . . UK assistant coach Jim Hatfield last week received a Christmas card from one Gunther Behnke. No, there was no mention of Behnke returning to the USA . . . The Kentucky coaching staff got some good looks last week' at top-notch prepsters at the King of the Bluegrass Tournament in Louisville and the Hillbrook Classic in Lexington. Wooing the scouts in Louisville were a couple Kentucky juniors, Felton Spencer of Louisville Eastern and Rex Chapman of Owensboro Apollo. Both were brilliant and the two should be among the nation's best seniors next year. We'll have some special coverage of those two events in our next issue. Happy New Year everyone!