How Many Here Remember Jock Sutherland?
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Of all the people in the world who can get my blood boiling it is and was the mention of Jock Sutherland. He is a pitiful soul and was consumed with hatred during the Joe B days. Every night on WHAS he had a platform that blasted around half of the United States with nothing but put downs of Joe B and UK basketball. And people wonder why we dislike UL.
Yes he is still alive. I run into him at Frisches restaurant on Harrodsburg Rd every once in awhile when his health permits. I enjoy sitting at the counter talking to him and listening to him talk about his past. He is a great story teller.
He is actually a good dude and does not appear to be a bitter old man.
Meeners flunked out and became a jock..He was eat up with UK until SEXtino switched sides.The UK Alumni went after his advertisers when he called UK Alumni Hillbillies and BlackLung Benefit collectors.He actually called my cell and threatened me with "bad things" He said Pitino could have me taken care of.Like a horses head in my bed..lol. I hung up on Meeners. He used to host our Alumni Luncheons..we blackballed him and ran him out of one at Galt House.He's had his nose up Pitino's bung hole ever since Good Riddance..
Paul Rogers is a great guy..UK Graduate..He wanted the UK job when Tom Leach was hired.
Jock Sutherland (basketball)
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Charles "Jock" Sutherland (born March 14, 1928) is a basketball coach from Lexington, Kentucky, who was inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame.[1]
Biography[edit]
Jock Sutherland was born and grew up in the shadows of the University of Kentucky's Alumni Gym and Memorial Coliseum. From an early age basketball was his first love. As a youngster he sneaked into the gym to watch Kentucky basketball practices under the legendary coach Adolph Rupp. He played high school basketball at Lafayette (Lexington, KY) for Coach Ralph Carlisle, and as a senior was the team's leading scorer. With Carlisle's encouragement he developed an ambition to become a high school coach.
During Sutherland's high school coaching career he took teams from three different schools to Kentucky's state high school basketball tournament (the Sweet Sixteen): Gallatin County in 1959, Harrison County in 1966, and Lexington Lafayette in 1979.
After his Lafayette team won the state tournament in 1979 Sutherland retired from coaching, and for twenty years worked as a color man and analyst for University of Louisville basketball broadcasts on WHAS Radio in Louisville. He remains a longtime Cardinal favorite in retirement.
As an Alabama assistant coach under C. M. Newton, he was a groundbreaker in the integration of college sports in 1969 when he recruited Wendell Hudson, the first black to participate in varsity sports for the University of Alabama.
In 1958 Reader's Digest designated Sutherland "The Quickest Thinking Coach in America."
In 1999 Sutherland was inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame.
Never understood a single word he said. Worse than BobDylan.
The great Wendell Hudson was the first black scholarship athlete at Alabama and Jock secured his commitment when Jock attended a play at the high school and actually acted a role in the all-black cast impromptu.
Jock always said it was true. I know he and Coach Hall were not on good terms for several years, but they let "bygones be bygones" later in life. Derrick Minniefield was one of the best high school guards I ever saw. I watched him single-handed beat Shelby County in the second half. He looked like a man playing with boys.
OLD STOLL FIELD GUY!
jock also coached at Madisonville high school. I don;t remember the dates
Yes. If I remember correctly, the quote was more along the line of, "If you drilled a hole to the center of the earth, and you found two people there, one of them would be a UK fan".
[roll]
I graduated from Lafayette in 78. I played football and ran track but was tight with the Basketball team. Jock was just a middle aged guy that was failing in his career. Like the football coach, a complete *** and sadist named Jim Poynter (who I honestly hope has died an agonizing death), Jock had tasted a tiny morsal of division one coaching at Alabama. His career was spiraling down.
My Junior year Dirk arrived. I talked him out of playing football the following year. He would have been a monster WR or DB, but you could tell he was so gifted in Basketball that playing football would have been foolish. A friend of mine from my neighborhood of Meadowthorpe, Tony Wilson had matured into a beast. When Junior Johnson arrived for their senior year Jock suddenly had one of the most gifted teams in the United States on the floor. They made a mockery of Sam Bowie and his high school team.Jock rode that team to the sweet 16 title, and it seemed like that was it for his career.
I am no fan of Louisville, or the words Jock spewed out for all those years calling their games, but I will be a son of a ***** if that was not one of the single most improbable and exciting second careers any man could ever have. I thought it was great for him, and that he deserved it. Any of us could only dream to ever achieve that kind of an enjoyable second career.
My Junior year Dirk arrived. I talked him out of playing football the following year. He would have been a monster WR or DB, but you could tell he was so gifted in Basketball that playing football would have been foolish. A friend of mine from my neighborhood of Meadowthorpe, Tony Wilson had matured into a beast. When Junior Johnson arrived for their senior year Jock suddenly had one of the most gifted teams in the United States on the floor. They made a mockery of Sam Bowie and his high school team.Jock rode that team to the sweet 16 title, and it seemed like that was it for his career.
I am no fan of Louisville, or the words Jock spewed out for all those years calling their games, but I will be a son of a ***** if that was not one of the single most improbable and exciting second careers any man could ever have. I thought it was great for him, and that he deserved it. Any of us could only dream to ever achieve that kind of an enjoyable second career.
I have told this story on here before but I still chuckle when I think about it.
Jock was on with Van Vance and they were taking callers and I decided to give Jock a little of his own medicine. As others have said he liked to rile up the UK fans with all of his negative comments.
Jock had spent a big portion of the show talking about the state championship he had coached and bragging about what a wonderful job he had done with Dirk and how he had molded him into the player he was at UK. I called in and kept Jock talking about himself and I asked him about another player who went to Cincinnati ( names are escaping me now )
that started on that team and then I asked him about another starter who went Division 1.
Then I told Jock with three Division one players a trained monkey could have coached that team and won the championship. Van Vance started laughing out loud and of course Jock got mad and attacked me asking me where I had coached. I don't remember how the conversation ended but when I got off the phone Van was still laughing and told Jock that I had gotten to him and Jock said " I hate UK fans.
Jock was on with Van Vance and they were taking callers and I decided to give Jock a little of his own medicine. As others have said he liked to rile up the UK fans with all of his negative comments.
Jock had spent a big portion of the show talking about the state championship he had coached and bragging about what a wonderful job he had done with Dirk and how he had molded him into the player he was at UK. I called in and kept Jock talking about himself and I asked him about another player who went to Cincinnati ( names are escaping me now )
that started on that team and then I asked him about another starter who went Division 1.
Then I told Jock with three Division one players a trained monkey could have coached that team and won the championship. Van Vance started laughing out loud and of course Jock got mad and attacked me asking me where I had coached. I don't remember how the conversation ended but when I got off the phone Van was still laughing and told Jock that I had gotten to him and Jock said " I hate UK fans.
Jock won a state title in 1979 at Lafayette while full court pressing most of the game. They called their press the ' Jail house Junk ' Great HS Basketball team.
If Wikipedia is correct, John Lucas played the biggest role in Dirk turning his life around. His latter employment has revolved around Lucas as well.
Junior Johnson and Tony Wilson. Every starter on that team got a college scholarship. Kurt Rose, another Meadowthorpe guy, went to Transylvania. The fifth starters name escapes me now, but I think it was Giles.
That story wouldn't surprise me one bit based on an event that I personally know of. Jock was coaching Lafayette in 1976. My school ... Elizabethtown ... was whipping up on his team pretty good in Lexington one night. Jock actually got up off the Lafayette bench and came up and sat and talked with four of us students from E'town for about four minutes during the third quarter of the game. Never saw anything like it.
He should have passed the ball to Jim Master like the play called for and there wouldn't have been an overtime! Masters then hit the shot to tie the game and send it to o.t.
That actually happened. I was raised in Cynthiana and grew up with Jock's two sons Charlie and Glenn. He coached Harrsion Co. in the early to mid '60's after leaving Gallatin Co. It was a nice family to be around then. I left Kentucky for the USAF in 72 during the tailend of the Vietnam War and lost touch and my dad told me about the Jock UK/UL rif.
A long time business partner of mine, Terry Hatton was on that team I think, although not sure he was a starter on the Sweet 16 team. He spoke fondly of all of those guys.
I was a junior at Lafayette during the 79 season. Terry (son of Vernon) was my age although we didn't really know each other.
The '79 team, and that season, was freaking unbelievable. Most games were over after the first quarter. We were so talented, and Dirk was the star and centerpiece. Like the other poster mentioned, we pressed the living **** out of other teams with the "Jail House Junk" defense. Dirk and Junior Johnson used to eat the other team's guards alive.
Other than the blemish of losing to rival Tates Creek in the District finals, I don't remember any game ever really being in doubt by the 4th quarter. The school would blast Queen's "We Will Rock You" and "We are the Champions" over the intercom on game days. LOL!
I seem to remember a guy named Jeff Stakelin as the other starting forward opposite Kurt Rose. Harry Giles played a lot, and Kenny Minnifield, Dirk's cousin (I think), also was in the rotation.
Lafayette was so talented that year that a guy I grew up down the street from, Jeff Parrot, was about the 3rd or 4th guy off the bench IIRC. Jeff was also a tremendous athlete, he played baseball at UK and then about 10 years or so in the majors. Jeff was also a very good basketball player and probably would have started on just about any other team in the city.
Jock lived right around the corner from me and would occasionally give me a ride to school in his El Camino. He was also my Health and PE teacher my freshman year in 1980. The Hattons lived in our neighborhood as did the Wise's, another family rich in UK basketball history. Jock was very critical of Hall but he really didn't like C.M. He told our class that Newton had fired him and another assistant, maybe Wimp Sanderson, to save his own job. His health class was a riot. He traded all of the females in the class for the males out of another class so he could talk freely and talk freely he did. The class would argue with him all the time about UK basketball and he gave us hell when UofL won the National Championship later that year. He was the stereotypical SOB and he would tell you that himself. However, I think most of his students and those who know him well would tell you that despite his bitterness toward UK and his Trump like say whatever is on your mind demeanor, that he is a great guy and a guy that we are glad we got to know.
CAT06 - I grew up in Meadowthorpe also - Leestown Road (now Old Leestown Road) . Kurt Rose was my neighbor, he was also on those teams with Jr, Dirk and Tony. What a great time to be a General.
Had Jeff Hatton played that year, his senior season, Jock and Lafayette would have never lost to Tates Creek in the 43rd district tournament at the Coliseum - and more than likely won the "mythical" national championship instead of Macon Southwest. Nothing against Jeff Stakelin, but Jeff Hatton would have been a load along with Kurt and Tony up front. I had the opportunity to announce every Lafayette game that year and two all-star games thanks to Jock and UK.
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Jeff was built like a linebacker. Terry and Steve are slender but Jeff is a truck.
That's correct - the 5th starter on that team seemed to be on rotation. It was either Stakelin, K Minniefield or Giles. It's night and day comparing today's high school talent with some of the players back then. Turpin and Byrd were at BS, Guy Minniefield at HC. Vince Taylor was at TC (I think). All good to great players.
He was hilariously awdult calling games. Serious case of gravel mouth, he sounded like the mumbling guy from King of the Hill.
Jock was a bitter old Cat hating jerk.
Dirk Minniefield was going to be his ticket to a big time coaching job at a major school, which was quite common in those days.
A school almost had to hire a star player's coach in some capacity to sign the player.
Joe B. did not like Jock and refused to hire him.
When he became the voice of UL basketball. he single handedly fueled the hatred of all things UK that many UL fans still harbor toward UK today.
These things are true..... and also
Vince Marrow
Vince Marrow
Vince Marrow
No. We were in our stall offense at the time, there was no play set up until after U6 went ahead.