PAGE 3    THE CATS'  PAUSE,  JANUARY 8, 1977
Goose Receives 53 Of 54 MVP Votes Against Notre Dame
There's a lot to talk about, so without wasting any of your previous time or our precious space, here goes.
Kentucky's defense the final four games of the 1976 season shaped up like something John Ray (remember him?) would have been proud of. The Cats shut out three opponents, Vand-erbilt, Tennessee and North Carolina and limited high-scoring Florida to only nine points.
Prior to the Vanderbilt shutout, the Wildcats had not put a collar on an opponent in over 110 games dating back almost ten years when the Cats whipped (guess who?) North Carolina 10-0 in 1966 season opener.
It was some sight at the Marriott Inn in Atlanta last Thursday evening when some 10,000 Kentucky fans jammed the   place   to   see   a closed-circuit
telecast of the Kentucky-Notre Dame basketball game.
Tickets sold for $2.50 each but scalpers were getting as much as $10 each. The demand was so high UK Alumni director Jay Brumfield managed to get the game piped into all the rooms on television.
Fans swarmed the hotel and knocked on strangers' doors, hoping to get an invitation to watch the game in their rooms.
Kentucky football players were caught up in the excitement and almost evicted by fans wanting to watch the game.
One Letcher County, Kentucky, coal operator became so excited with a James Lee dunk in the contest, he ordered free drinks for everyone in the hotel bar where he was watching the game.
His tab for the round of drinks came to more than $350 according to one official.
Those 10,000 Blue and White pom poms purchased by the UK athletic department and distributed free to fans at the game was quite a hit with everyone.
"I've never felt so proud of Kentucky in all my life than when all those blue and white pom poms were waved as Kentucky raced onto the field," said one unidentified UK fan
Well over 35,000 Kentuckians were on hand for the event, but Atlanta officials said as many as 2,000 Kentucky fans probably missed the
game after being snowbound in Tennessee.
By the way, guess where the Kentucky players stopped to eat dinner on the return trip from Atlanta. You guessed it, good ole Knoxville, Tennessee.
ABC-TV's Jim Lampley, who has had his problems with the law as well as other people recently, must have ate his heart out if he watched his alma mater take on Kentucky in the Peach Bowl.
Lampley said on national television (just before he was arrested by police on an old drug charge) at the Gator Bowl that Kentucky got off light with the NCAA and indicated the basketball program should have been penalized more, and the football team was still able to play in the Peach Bowl. We know why the sour grapes now.
Can you imagine anyone not voting for Jack "Goose" Givens as the Most Valuable Player of the recent Notre Dame game in Louisville?
After scoring 30 points on fifteen of nineteen attempts, one would figure his selection to be near unanimous.
It was close to unanimous, but one member of the press decided not to cast his vote for the Goose. Jack received only 53 of the possible 54 votes.
After suffering through the 1976 season with little last half scoring, Kentucky exploded for 14 points in the final period after having scored only 27 points in all previous eleven games during the final fifteen minutes. With the full totals now in, Kentucky was outscored only in the fourth period, losing that quarter to the opponents by a final tally of 42-41.
Kentucky won the first quarter during the season by 55-28, the second period by 53-44 and the third period by 60-37.
Although Kentucky will be on probation next season and won't be eligible to play in a bowl game, senior-to-be Jim Kovach says the possibility of finishing first (won-loss record) in the SEC will be ample incentive to get the Wildcats fired up for 1977.
One has to look at the Mississippi State program this past season to agree with Kovach. The Bulldogs were
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going nowhere but finished with a brilliant 9-2 mark, one of the best in the school's history.
Kentucky has an excellent opportunity to match that mark.
When Florida State takes on Kentucky in Louisville next month, there will be more than casual incentive for the Seminoles than just another game.
Coach Hugh Durham is from Kentucky and he called his team's victory over Kentucky in the NCAA a few years ago one of his greatest thrills.
There's another reason for the importance to this year's game. Florida State had joined the Metro Seven Conference which include such schools as Louisville, Cincinnati, Memphis State, St. Louis and others.
Since Florida State's schedule was long booked up, several games outside the conference had to be selected as conference games.
Just so happens, league officials penciled in the Kentucky game to count as a conference battle.
Sometimes the best football stories don't come from the players, nor the coaches nor even the long-time fans.
Sometimes it's nice to talk with someone honest and innocent, like a nine-year-old son of a coach.
Derrek Bailey is such a likeable fella. He's the youngest of two sons of Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Bailey. Charlie is a defensive coach with the University of Kentucky.
Derrek, while riding back on a team bus to the Marriott from the Peach Bowl game Friday, talked about the life of a coach's son.
"It's not bad, I get to go to a lot of games, places like Florida and West Virginia," said the youngster who attends Cassidy Elementary in Lexington.
Derrek says his favorite heros are Jim Kovach and Rod Stewart. Why Kovach and Stewart?
"I like Kovach because my dad coaches him," said Derrek, "and I like Rod cause he's good." How honest can one be !
Does dad bring his coaching problems home with him?
"He always talks about the mistakes when Kentucky gets beat," said the fourth grade student who likes both football and basketball, "but he gets real excited when we win."
Do the kids on the block look upon Derrek with envy?
"Sometimes they want me to get autographs of the players and things like that," said Derrek, ' T tell them I'll
try to but they usually forget about it and I just don't mention it anymore."
While Derrek may be only nine years old, he's been around Kentucky football long enough to know which are the important games.
"My biggest thrill?" asked Derrek, "has to be this game, the Peach Bowl and then the win over Tennessee. That was really neat.
While the usually five-minute bus ride from the stadium to the hotel was taking fifty-five minutes because the city bus driver got lost twice, Derrek was prompted to comment:
"I don't know who the driver is but I'm sure glad he wasn't driving when we left Lexington or we would've never gotten to the Peach bowl."
Just telling it like it is, man, just telling it like it is.
If you're still wondering about our article on the NCAA investigation of
the UK basketball program, there's little more to report. We have learned from a very reliable source, however, that the reason Joe Hall has not commented is because he's been told not to. It's certainly unfair to both Hall and his program. . .Remember Mark Soderburg who transferred to Utah from UK back in the early 1970s. He's now   playing   in   Europe   with the Florence, Italy, team. . .Answering Jeffery Phillips of Nashville, Tennessee, who wrote and asked if Ernie Grunfield was one of those players who received a free UK T-shirt and turned  UK  into   the   NCAA. Your source is a pretty good one. . .Rick Robey has been swamped with people asking him if he had received a race horse to attend UK.  You can rest assured Rick loves horses but he has never  received  a horse   free from anyone. The racehorse offer mentioned in the NCAA report had nothing to do with the UK basketball program. . .Kentucky's basketball players spent the latter part of Sunday afternoon viewing the UCLA-Houston basketball game on television in the training room at Memorial Coliseum. James Lee's mouth watered every time a player went in for the slam dunk. . .The players were quite awed with the Grandstand Top 15 at halftime which showed ucla ranked above Kentucky. Players weren't overly impressed with Billy Packer's comment that Michigan would definitely be in the final four come March. For Michigan to be there as a Big Ten Champion, the Wolverines would have to get by the SEC champ at Rupp Arena.  .   .Look for football coach Fran Curci to come up with some blue-chip high schoolers during the next couple months.