COACH ADOLPH RUPP
Kentucky's legendary "Baron of Basketball" passed his 1,000th game as coach of the Wildcats during the middle of last season and the occasion was duly recorded and celebrated.
During the span which began with a 67-19 victory over Georgetown a week before Christmas in 1930, Rupp has garnered every major honor afforded his profession.
Entering the current season, he reigns as president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches and is a full-fledged member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, having been inducted into that shrine at Springfield, Mass., in the spring of 1969.
It is fitting that Rupp should occupy a hallowed niche in the Hall of Fame. During his collegiate days as a guard in two national championship teams at the University of Kansas, he was personally acquainted with Dr. Naismith, inventor of basketball and a faculty member at Kansas. Rupp's coach was the veteran Forrest Claire (Phog) Allen, who is past 80 and today lives quietly in retirement among his friends, souvenirs and memories in Lawrence, Kansas.
Rupp visited Allen during a weekend stay in Lawrence last spring.
The occasion was Commencement exercises at the University, where alumnus Rupp received the Distinguished Service Citation, highest honor the University and Alumni Association bestow. The citation was presented before a packed house in Allen Field House by Chancellor E. Laurence Chalmers.
The honor undoubtedly was a high point in a star-studded coaching, business and civic career which has elevated Rupp to the loftiest standing ever achieved by a collegiate basketball coach.
During the 1969-70 season, he overcame many unexpected and almost catastrophic setbacks to lead his team to the No. 1 rating in all national basketball polls.
The first blow came in the summer of 1969, when two-time AlI-SEC guard Mike Casey received a broken leg (in three places) in an automobile accident and was out for the season.
Rupp also had foot trouble aggravated by diabetes and was ordered to bed as pre-season practice got under way. He left the bed only to attend practice sessions and utilized a foot rest during early season games.
Also during the season, All-SEC forward Mike Pratt received a broken nose, All-American center Dan Issel received a severe stone bruise which undoubtedly was a factor in the Wildcats' only regular season loss  to Vanderbilt  and two-year starter Larry Steele broke a wrist bone.
Despite the adversities, Rupp coached his team to its 25th SEC
championship since the league was organized in 1933. En route to their record 18th appearance in the NCAA Tournament, the Wildcats set or tied 17 team records and went on the book as the most potent offensive unit in the school's fine basketball history.
The 26-2 record brought Rupp's score to 836 victories against only 177 losses, an amazing 82.5 winning percentage against the best opposition the nation could offer.
The magic of Rupp naturally has resulted in an increasing demand for that most scarce Kentucky product  a ticket to a University of Kentucky basketball game. For the past several years, there has been no public sale of the precious tickets; students, faculty, staff and holders of coveted season priorities are allotted the approximately 11,500 available seats and the waiting list grows longer and longer.
Coach Rupp is active in Shrine affairs, being chosen in 1950 as one of the 10 outstanding Shriners of the nation and holding honorary memberships in temples throughout the country. He is a Past Potentate of the Oleika (Lexington) Temple and serves as vice-chairman of the board for the Shrine Crippled Children's Hospital in Lexington
He has his own television and radio shows during the season, has produced two film shorts ("Basketball: Individual Offense" for Coca-Cola Co. and "Parade to National Championship") and written books on virtually every phase of the game.
WILDCAT COACHING STAFF
JOE B. HALL Assistant Coach
Joe B. Hall moved up as No. 1 varsity assistant to Coach Adolph Rupp after Harry C. Lancaster was named permanent athletic director Feb. 1, 1969.
Additional duties for the versatile Coach Hall include coaching the Wildcat freshman team, composed of players he came to know quite well during the recruiting season.
Coach Hall returned "home" to the University July 1, 1965, with a winning background, 126 victories against 75 losses.
He posted a 19-6 record at Central Missouri in the 1964-65 season and guided the Mules to their first MIAA Conference championship since 1951 and to their first conference Christmas Tournament title in history.
His first full year at the helm of the Kittens produced the third highest scoring freshman team in UK history. The Kittens scored 1,975 points in compiling a 16-6 ledger against the competition and finished with an 11 -3 SEC record.
Hall, who was a 6-foot-1 guard on the 1949 Wildcat team, entered the coaching profession after graduation from UK in 1955. He spent two years at Shepherdsville High School, achieving Coach of the Year honor in the Mid-Kentucky Conference in 1958 as Shepherdsville finished the 12th
in the state.
Moving into the collegiate field, he served one season as freshman coach and then five years as head coach at Regis College in Denver, Colo., where he posted a 57-49 record.
In addition to his duties at Regis, Hall in 1964 coached the Capital Federal Denver post team in the AAU Tournament and was honored by selection as head coach of the AAU Stripes in the Olympic Trials at Jamaica, N. Y.
He is married to the former Katharine Dennis of Harrison County. They have three children  Judy, Kathy and Stephen.
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HALL
PLAIN
T. L. PLAIN
Assistant Coach
The newest member of the Wildcat staff, Plain joined Coach Rupp in July 1969 and is no stranger to the UK scene, having served as a graduate assistant for Rupp after leaving Kentucky Wesleyan College to work on an advance degree here in 1963-64. At Wesleyan, the 44-year-old Navy veteran compiled a 63-34 won-loss record while serving as athletic director, coach and associate professor of physical education from 1959-63.
A native of Sacramento, Ky., he received his B.S. at Western Kentucky University in 1950 and later attended Murray State, Indiana University and UK. He was athletic director, teacher and coach at Breckinridge County High from 1949-53; teacher, athletic director and coach at Henderson City High from 1953-57, and teacher and coach at Lincoln High in Vincennes, Ind., from 1957-59.
Plain returned to Vincennes in 1964 as director of physical education for the Community School Corp. and basketball coach at Lincoln High. He left there in 1967 to become assistant basketball coach and assistant coordinator of the student teaching program at the University of Louisville. He is married to the former Ann Blalock of Murray. They have three children, Tom, 17, Bob, 13, and Patrick, 10.
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