THE TRADITION
KENTUCKY BASKETBALL  THE TRADITION
The dull thump-thumping of a basketball on a dirt, backyard court. Sneakers squeaking on a gym floor in the dead of summer. An automobile parked in just the right spot, its radio straining to bring in a distant signal. The deafening roar of 23.000 voices screaming their hearts out to somehow help their young, blue-and-white clad heroes pull out another victory. Five extraordinary athletes racing for the easy two points at the end of a trademark fast break. A veritable parade of former Ail-Americans returning to honor their old coach. Kentucky basketball. Not just basketball, Kentucky basketball.
No other college has won as many basketball games as the University of Ken-
tS Members of the first University of Kentucky basketball team (1903) chipped in a total of $3 and purchased their own ball. They also bought their own shoes and uniforms. Walter H. Mus-taine, new director of the Department of Physical Culture at the University, threw out the ball, told the boys to elect a captain and start playing. They played their first game Feb. 6, 1903, losing to Georgetown College, 15-6, in Lexington.
t/" Early basketball games at the University of Kentucky, then known as State College, were played on the gym floor in Barker Hall, which, in 1903, was a new three-story structure with broad lower wings on each side. The south wing housed what since has become known as Buell Armory, where the cadets drilled on a dirt floor. In the other wing was a shiny new gymnasium, described as a "splendid room with a ground floor, an elevated running track and all the apparatus necessary for complete gymnastics training."
is John Maurer, University of Kentucky basketball coach during the 1927-28, 1928-29, and 1929-30 seasons,
tucky. Likely as not, none ever will. The count now stands at 1,376 games, and there is no end in sight. Joe B. Hall coached the Wildcats to 297 victories in his 13 years. His predecessor, the legendary Adolph Rupp, compiled more victories than any coach in the history of college basketball  880. Rupp took a good basketball program and put it on a pedestal from which it never has fallen. Yes, it has lost its balance a time or two, but only temporarily.
Winning, then, is an evident characteristic of Kentucky basketball. Rupp demanded it. By example he taught Kentucky fans to demand it. Certainly this put pressure on Joe Hall when he succeeded a legend, but Hall would have
played halfback at the University of Illinois in the same backfield with the immortal Red Grange and was a teammate of All-American guard Bernie Shively, who later became UK's athletic director. In basketball, Maurer was an All-Western Conference forward two years and captain of the Illinois team his senior year.
Basil Hayden, who became the University of Kentucky's first basketball All-American in 1921, coached the Wildcats during the 1926-27 season, becoming the first UK alumnus to return as coach. Forty-six years later, Joe B. Hall, who was on the 1948-49 UK squad, became the second alumnus coach of UK.
The University has had only two undefeated seasons in its illustrious basketball history. The first was 9-0 in 1911-12, and other 25-0 in 1953-54.
Kentucky currently sports the longest string of non-losing seasons in NCAA college basketball. The Wildcats have not had a losing season in 57 years. The last time Kentucky finished on the minus side of the ledger was in 1927, when UK was 3-13.
Stories of the dedication of Kentucky fans are legend in the Commonwealth, but none of UK's super fans can top the mark held by Lexington's Steve Rardin. When Kentucky bowed out of the NCAA tournament with a loss to St. John's last March, it marked the 501st consecutive game that Rardin has watched in person.
The last time Rardin missed a Kentucky game (home or away) was on New Year's Eve, 1968, when UK lost to Wisconsin in Chicago. "My wife had a New Year's Eve party and wouldn't let me out of it," said Rardin. "We've made sure that hasn't happened again, though."
had it no other way. He and his players responded with the SEC championship his first year, a trip to the NCAA finals his third and the national championship in his sixth season.
There is something else, though, that comes along with the wins and trophies. It is a spirit that has infected practically all of Kentucky. Indeed, the term "Kentucky basketball" refers as much to the state as to the school. With all due respect to the excellent programs at Louisville, Western Kentucky and other fine schools in the state, there is nothing quite like Kentucky basketball. You have to see it to believe it.
From the Wildcat Legacy
IMOTEBOOKIIMG THE TRADITION
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