13th UK INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT
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The 1965 University of Kentucky Invitational Tournament in its 13th renewal adds to its already great national prestige by offering a high-calibre field truly intersectional in scope with visiting participants from the Far West, Rocky Mountains and the Midwest joining the host Kentucky Wildcats of the Southeast in a bid for the coveted title.
Kentucky Athletic Director Bernie A. Shively, tournament manager, has announced the visiting teams for this year's UKIT as the Golden Bears of University of California, U.S. Air Force Academy's Falcons and the Hoosiers of Indiana University. Site of the tournament, inaugurated in 1953, again will be Kentucky's 1 1,500-seat Memorial Coliseum with double-headers each night leading to the championship and third place honors.
Pairings for the nation's richest and most prestige-packed regular season cage classic will pit the Golden Bears of Cal, in their second UKIT try, against Indiana's Big Ten Hoosiers in the first night opener followed by an engagement between budding Air Force and Kentucky's seven-time champions.
At stake, in addition to the title and a pair of important early victories, are an imposing trophy, a record-sized share of the net proceeds   and   significant   national prestige which has resulted in a major climb in the national rankings.  Twice in recent years, the UKIT champ has vaulted all the way to the top spot in the polls and often the winner has uset its early success as a springboard to posting good seasons.   Illinois, which copped the title a year ago, jumped to seventh. The monetary dividend has mounted steadily over the years since inception of the UKIT in 1 953, increasing from $8,200 paid the four teams the first year to a  national  record $15,420 awarded teams in 1959.  Last year, each participant picked up a share amounting to $14,368.30 (second highest in tournament history) as the highest paid attendance (22,804 for two nights) witnessed the action.
Public acceptance of the UKIT reflects the high calibre of the fields that have participated in the pre-Christmas classic. Twenty-three cage powers from every section of the nation have joined the host Wildcats in the previous dozen tournaments. Prime aim of Athletic Director Shively and UK Coach Adolph Rupp in inaugurating the UK Invitational was to return big-time basketball, beset by scandal hatched in big city arenas, to the campus and to provide the public with a view of top-flight basketball as it is played in different sections of the country. Furthering the high ideals of an on-cam-pus tournament and rejecting overemphasis of commercialism, net proceeds of the UKIT are divided equally among participants.
This year's participants are noteworthy in that three of the four schools are past NCAA champions.   Kentucky leads with four wins, Indiana has two wins, and Calfornia has won once.