Years ago I wrote a paper about him and I came across it today. I'm just curious if anybody here ever met him, and if so, what your experience with him was like.
Did anyone here ever meet Coach Rupp?
- Thread starter J_Dee
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anon_9qtxg60vqzy0y
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anon_013cn8yrfncx2
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Coach Rupp use to come in the training room so Roy Don Wilson could work on his diabetic foot. If you were getting your ankles taped and he wanted to sit where you were he wasn't shy about telling you to move. Hell, being a small town Kentucky boy, I couldn't move fast enough.
I think enough time has passed so I'll post it. Only a handful of us know about it.
I was talking to Coach "dolph" (that's what his friends called him) one day in his cigar room. He was telling me stories about different things, started talking about Bear Bryant. He went on and on about how he was gonna make him disappear, by any means necessary. Ended up with a plan to just garner huge support and humiliate him on the way out of town. He said, "and then I said, give him a lighter for winning a title instead of a Cadillac".
We laughed and ate crumpets for an hour talking about it.
I was talking to Coach "dolph" (that's what his friends called him) one day in his cigar room. He was telling me stories about different things, started talking about Bear Bryant. He went on and on about how he was gonna make him disappear, by any means necessary. Ended up with a plan to just garner huge support and humiliate him on the way out of town. He said, "and then I said, give him a lighter for winning a title instead of a Cadillac".
We laughed and ate crumpets for an hour talking about it.
Yes 1948. Coach Rupp visited my High School in Western Tenn. He brought Ralph Beard, Alex Groza and Wa-Wa Jones to my high school and put on a basketball clinic. Coach Rupp was trying to recruit Doug Atkins to play basketball at U.K. Doug ended up at U.T, playing football. He finished as an All-American there and on to the NFL where he now is in the Football Hall of Fame. Doug was all state two years in a row in basketball and football. Just wish he had gone to U.K.
I was in 8th grade at that time and lucky enough to shake Coach Rupp's hand and speak with him for a couple of minutes. That was enough to sell me on U.K. I graduated from U.K. in 1957 with a degree in Civil Engineering and a life long Kentucky Basketball Fan.
Just thought of another time. I was 12 or 13 and went to the Rupp Issel Pratt and Casey basketball camp at Centre College. Never imagined I would play at UK in those days. I remember they were recruiting Jimmy Dan Connor because he was at the camp.
I met him in 1987. He was at a International House of Pancakes in Bowling Green. He liked the all you can eat choc-chip Tuesday's. Very nice fella.
I got Coach Rupp's autograph at the State Tournament in Freedom Hall 1967! Somehow in the last few years I have lost it or misplaced it! Seems like he was either watching Allen County or Covington Catholic!
Was he kinda stiff? Not talkative at all? Thin as a skeleton?
Coach Rupp Passed away December 10, 1977. Maybe it was his son!
I went to his basketball camp at Bellarmine when i was about 11-12 in 1971-72. Rupp and Pratt also ran it. My Dad met him and I never saw him so star struck. Also have a letter from him in reply to one of mine after the Jacksonville tournament loss.
Saw him in front of Memorial Colliseum one afternoon. I asked him like 7 questions, no answer. Just stood there, stoic, very still. Looked to be in deep thought. Went through the next day and he's still standing there, same position! Dude was in deep though for sure. This was in 1993, my freshman year on campus.
Met Coach Rupp after a UK-Notre Dame game in Freedom Hall many years ago. i was about 8 I believe. Was very nervous and excited. Used to go down and get the players autographs after that game every year while growing up. this was probably 1960 or 1961 I guess.
Sat in car next to Mr Wildcat at Parkette, so nervous that I could not eat my hot brown.
They said the same thing about Elvis back in 1977 and we know that was BS. No, I'm sure it was him. He was wearing a brown suit. I never actually asked his name but I am pretty sure it was him. I kept calling him coach and he didn't correct me.
Met Coach Rupp in the 60s on occasion around town. As tough as he was he was at the same time funny as hell. There is no better radio than listening to the Coach Rupp after game radio show with Cawood. Cawood had Coach Rupps total confidence in how he would speak about the team. During games Ralph Hacker was sort of the good cop and Cawood would then proceed to tell fans how bad the team was playing. The best of radio. Many times Coach couldnt remember the names of the players and would just call them by their numbers.
I'm with you. Saw Elvis in the Bryan Station Kroger and told him how big of a fan I was and how much I admired him. Never understood the people who thought he passed away.
Its fairly well documented that Elvis lived well into the late '90s. He like Rupp were tired of all the attention and faked their own deaths to throw the paparazzi off of their trail. The IHop in Bowling Green had a nice Lazyboy recliner installed at his booth. He was a regular. They kept in on the down-low.
I was at that tourney,great time,some great basketball and the players were great.
I did - at the 1963 Sugar Bowl in New Orleans when I was 12 years old. Cotton Nash, my favorite player, was an All American. After the game - a win over Duke and Jeff Mullins - I snuck into the UK locker room and got autographs from Rupp and Nash!!! I figured the Baron would brush me off as just a kid but he was really cool. I was very happy and still have the signed program to this day!
Met "dolph" on the side of the road, their bus was broke down on I75 near Knoxville . Sam Bowie, Mel Turpin, and Jay Shidler were all standing against guardrail smoking cigs. I asked the man in the brown suit if he needed anything, he just looked at me and said nothing.
Many years after that, I was unsure if he could talk. I'll never forget that day, I was in my mid 50s,, but felt like I was 10
Many years after that, I was unsure if he could talk. I'll never forget that day, I was in my mid 50s,, but felt like I was 10
Yes, I met him many mornings as I was walking to my 8:00 class that was held at Memorial Coliseum. His office was there and my class was a swimming class in the coliseum pool. He was very friendly and would smile and ask me how things were going, etc. Then he would tell me to make sure I write my mother and let her know how things were going in college. He loved the university and he loved the students. He was a teacher and educator first and coach second. The man was brilliant
I did in '54 in Lake Tarney. Just south of the Kentucky border. He'd just finished fishing when I threw out my first hook. He and I got into a discussion on team participation. Pretty interesting. One of the best moments of my life other than meeting Al Jolson on Broadway
I met Coach Rupp going to my Physical Education class in Memorial Coliseum in 1971. I tried to strike up a conversation, but he shook his head and wasn't very sociable. He was limping that day because of his bad foot; so I just assumed he was having a bad day. Saw and had a conversation with our Freshman basketball coach Joe Hall the same day, and he was always very nice and friendly!! Saw Coach Hall about 10 years ago at Rupp, and he still remembered me even came over and shook my hand....
1962 at Franklin County HS, he was there with Cotton Nash. Cotton signed some autographs, but I never really knew why they were there. My first year in Frankfort, and when I really started following the Cats.
My experience with the Baron at the IHop was quite different. He was quite the jokester. I recall like it was yesterday. He said...."boy, you don't get down off a ladder. You get down off a duck." He then reached into his pocket and gave me a quarter.
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