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(Continued from page 11)
Curci had entered that season under the shadow of a movement by then-Gov. John Y. Brown Jr., to replace him with former Washington Redskins coach George Allen.
The irony of the situation was that Brown was a prime mover in bringing Curci to UK from the University of Tampa. The breach apparently came when Brown announced late for the Democratic nomination for governor and wanted Curci to head up a committee of sports people for the former UK golfer. Caught between a rock and a hard place because he already had committed to Terry McBrayer, Curci declined Brown's offer.
During the previous eight years, Curci had given UK three winning seasons6-5 in 1974, 9-3 and a Peach Bowl victory in '76, and 10-1 in '77, when UK's best team in decades was under NCAA sanctions and unable to go bowling.
The Wildcats opened the '81 season with a 28-6 victory over weak North Texas State and then lost seven in a row before defeating Vanderbilt, 17-10, at Nashville.
The most embarrassing loss was to Virginia Tech, 29-3, in Lexington on Nov. 3, the Saturday before the Vanderbilt game. By midway of the fourth quarter, fewer than 5,000 fans remained in the 58,000-seat Commonwealth Stadium.
I was reminded of a saying during Blanton Collier's final season at UK: "It's
empty seats, not losing games, that get coaches fired."
I recall the lengthy letter than Curci and Miller prepared and sent to UK president Otis Singletary and hand-delivered prior to the action of the Athletics Board before it met to act on the ad hoc committee's recommendation that Curci be fired.
Curci voiced resentment of the fact that he had dedicated nine years to UK, improving its football program, only to be fired "for no apparent reason." He pointed out that the Athletic Department had made $30 million in football alone during his tenure.
I thought at the time it was a mistake that he attacked the Wildcat basketball program, the most sacred of cows, but it gave an indication of the true relationship between the two programs.
He reminded the ad hoc committee and the board that one of the worst NCAA punishments inflicted on a school was given to the UK basketball program for point shaving (actually, it was for violating rules concerning recruiting and subsidizing players) in the '50s.
"UK was not allowed to compete for an entire basketball season," he wrote. "I know that two members of the ad hoc committee were members of that team."
Among other things, he pointed out that a former UK basketball player (Tom Payne) was convicted of rape and still in jail at that time, and that UK managed to quickly run Dwight Anderson out of town for questionable activities, but "they didn't fire Joe Hall."
"People can understand firing a coach
for losing football games," Curci said, "but using some other obviously phony justification that board members seem to need to make an important decision, appears to be gutless."
In closing, Curci wrote:
"So now that I have been buried in that famous graveyard at UK along with some other wonderful coaches, I hope they say on my tombstone that while he was at UK he was a decent person who twice was SEC coach of the year, Playboy coach of the year, Peach Bowl champion, twice was SEC co-champion, ranked sixth in the country, only UK coach to win all his conference games (1977), coach of the East-West game, Hula Bowl twice, first coach of the Japan Bowl, ABC radio color man for the Sugar Bowl three years.
"Before the burial is complete, Fran Curci wants to thank sincerely all loyal and dedicated fans and players, many of whom are now in the professional ranks and wish all my former players and coaches my sincere appreciation for their loyalty and hard work.
"Curci does hope to find out if there is life after football."
That was just before the Thanksgiving holidays. On the day after Thanksgiving, I went to my office in the deserted football complex in Commonwealth Stadium. Fran Curci's office door was open. Everything had been cleaned out.
Another UK football coach had bit the dust.
?IT'S NOW EIGHT later, and you know the rest of the story.
Curci, pictured above on the sidelines during his final game (21-10 upset of Tennessee), was particularly upset with way he and UK parted ways.
Larry Vaught
(Continued from page 17)
The intensity shown in the opener was refreshing and one could only wonder what some previous UK teams that were loaded with talent might have done if they had played just as hard.
? ? ?
MR. FOOTBALL nominees will be made this Saturday by The Associated Press Sports Editors Association.
Leading contenders appear to be Donnie Redd of Danville, Pookie Jones of Calloway County, Tony Edelen of Fairdale, Mark Askin
of St. Xavier, Steve Bailey of Pikeville, Zane Beehn of Owensboro Apollo and Randy Wyatt of Paducah Tilghman.
The preseason favorites were Askin and Beehn. Now Redd and Jones look like the two favorites.
Kentucky had been recruiting all the Mr. Football candidates. Claiborne's resignation, though-, puts all that on hold.
UK needs a new coach by Christmas to make sure it signs its share of talent in mid-February. And it sure would be nice to see the new coach convince a Mr. Football to become a Wildcat.
Indiana 71, Kentucky 69
(Continued from page 7)
stood, hands-on-hips, at center court; then when Knight became angry, Pitino walked over to the other two referees and got into a heated discussion. He still was challenging the officials after Knight had left the scene. That was followed by another discussion in the final seconds of the game when an IU in-bounds pass went out of bounds three-quarters of the length of the court. Knight thought UK should inbounds at the far end of the court because the ball was touched. However, it was ruled that the ball was touched by a UK player already out of bounds.
Du ring the entire discussion between Knight and the officials, Pitino stood close by, letting them feel his presence.
"He's from New York," Wildcat guard Derrick Miller said of his coach. "You've got to be competitive up there."
Miller had an off-shooting day, hitting only four of 14 (two of seven from three-point range) and two of two from the line for 12 points) while senior forward Reggie Hanson had a 13 points and a game-high 11 rebound.
Freshman Lawrence Funderburke, one of the high school players who figured in the NCAA's investigation of UK, led the Hoosiers with 16 points and tied for the rebound lead
"This game showed everybody what type of coach Pitino is. It's not just talk. He's going to turn this program around and it's not just talk. That was evident today."
Derrick Miller
(10) with Eric Anderson.
In the final analysis, Pitino and the Wildcats got an A for their effort, which was summed up as follows by Miller:
"I think we're getting the general idea of what he wants. He kept telling us, 'Fellas, you're playing hard but you're nowhere near as good as I think you're going to be.' And he's made believers out of us.
"This game showed everybody what type of coach Pitino is. It's not just talk. He's going to turn this program around and it's not just talk. That was evident today."
Johnathon Davis: "Get that shot out of here.'
Indiana-Kentucky photo by Steve McFarland