THE DARK SIDE OF KENTUCKY BASKETBALL
PROLOGUE
This is
the first of a series of articles I am writing about the longtime ugly aspect of
Kentucky basketball, so often ignored by the media, and usually avoided by the
NCAA. In historical realty
though, the University of Kentucky basketball program has continuously been one
of the most criminal of all NCAA Division 1 schools.
In each decade since the 1940’s, UK has been involved in at least one
scandal of major proportions, and until the 1970’s were a major force against
the integration of blacks in basketball.
Recently,
in the course of researching for this story about the longtime ugly aspect of
Kentucky basketball, I started to reread James Michener’s Sports in
America, which was published back in 1976.
I remembered that he had addressed the issue of race in sports so looked
through the index and found his comments about the 1966 NCAA championship battle
between all-white Kentucky and all-black Texas Western, a memorable watershed of
racial relations in college basketball.
I
expected to find that Michener would excoriate Adolph Rupp, the Wildcats
longtime head coach. I was stunned
to read, however, that he felt that the victory by Texas Western wasn’t the
real story, but rather that the Miner players had been treated quite poorly in
school, and few remained in college the next year. “The blacks had been imported from New York and had been
treated as poorly paid gladiators, and of the seven black champions, none had
graduated. They had no social
privileges, were threatened with loss of their scholarships if they dated white
or Mexican girls – there were no
black girls – and were discriminated against in every particular.”
He went on to say that the El Paso story is one of the most wretched in
the history of sports.
Not once did Michener mention anything about Rupp’s highly publicized racism, a bias that not only pervaded the Kentucky program, but which had influence thoughout the Southeastern Conference and beyond. Rather, he said “In reflecting upon the El Paso incident, I have often thought how much luckier the white players were under Coach Adolph Rupp. He looked after his players; they had a shot at a real education; and they were secure within the traditions of the university, their community, and their state. They may have lost the playoff, but they were winners in every other respect, and their black opponents from El Paso were losers.” 1
While
this was an astute observation of the white-black disparity caused by racism,
isn’t it very strange that Michener completely missed the other half of this
most wretched story? That very Rupp,
who looked after his white players, gave them a shot at a real education,
and made them feel secure, was the very same man who flaunted his utter
disregard for the rules of fair play in matters of recruiting, regularly paid
his players, and refused to recruit blacks, kept them from getting a shot at
education, and proudly made sure that all blacks (and whites, for that matter)
knew about the segregationist traditions of his university.
In subsequent issues of KJ’s BB Newsletter, I’ll tell
the other side of the story -- the one that addresses those Wildcat dark
traditions. The first chapter will address the initiation of Kentucky
basketball’s criminal traditions, followed by the second chapter which looks
in depth at the virulence and influence of the earlier years of it’s racist
tradition. Subsequent chapters
reflect that those sinister practices have continued through the many changes in
coaches and administrators at the University.
___________________
1 Sports In America, A Fawcett Crest Book, by James A, Michener, p. 189.
CHAPTER 1
THE DEATH SENTENCE
The
warning signs of gambling were there in the mid-40’s, particularly in the New
York area. The Illustrated
History of Basketball mentioned that “Out in Kansas, Phog Allen warned of
additional skullduggery at the Garden, and he even sent Ned Irish (the Madison
Square Garden promoter) the name of a player he felt was doing business with
gamblers. But he was ignored.” 1
Allegations
of point-shaving and game-dumping came to light when a Manhatten player, Junious
Kellogg, reported having been contacted by gamblers and the New York District
Attorney's office was called in to investigate. While
the investigation started with those associated with and around Madison Square
Garden, the investigation eventually spread to Kentucky, where it was proven
that former players, All-Americans Alex Groza and Ralph Beard, had been given
money to shave points in the 1948-49 season.
Originally the players agreed, for $100 each, to beat their upcoming
opponent by more than the point spread. They
beat the spread and the dye was cast.
"Those guys were smooth talkers. They should have been
salesmen. They took us out for a stroll, treated us to a meal, and before we
knew anything, we were right in the middle of it. They said we didn't have to
dump the game. They said nobody would get hurt except other gamblers. They said
everybody was doing it. And they asked what was wrong with winning a game by as
many points as we could. We just didn't think." 2
After
successfully doing it again, they then agreed to play under the point spread.
They won that game, under the spread, and entered the NIT Tournament
29-1. The heavily-favored Wildcats
then took a dive, losing to Loyola of Chicago, the lowest seeded team.
Rupp was devastated after the loss. “I don’t know….Lordy. but I think there’s something wrong with this team.”
The players were paid $1500 for their work.
The team then went on to the NCAA Tournament where they beat the Oklahoma
Aggies for Kentucky’s second national title.
The
scandal publicly broke early in 1951, when the New York District Attorney’s
office indicted CCNY and several other New York colleges for fixing games.
Kentucky's involvement in the point-shaving mess was still to be
uncovered when the #1 ranked Wildcats arrived in Minneapolis in search of their
third NCAA championship in four years. There they met No.4 Kansas State,
champion of the Big Seven. Led by 7-foot junior All-America Bill Spivey and
sophomore Cliff Hagan, the Kentucky Cats won, 68-58, and coach Rupp had his
third title.
In
response to media questions during the tourney, UK coach Adolph Rupp boasted
“The gamblers couldn't touch my boys with a 10-foot pole.”
The victory celebration didn't last long, however.
Shortly after winning the title, the scandal overtook the Cats.
Obviously some gambler had found an eleven-foot pole, as five Kentucky
players, over three season, were implicated. An Assistant DA said that
practically every game Kentucky played in the 1951 season involved gambling.
Groza and Beard, stars of the 1948 U.S. Olympic basketball team and now
professionals, were thrown out of the NBA. Spivey fought the charges, but never
played another game in college, was banned from the NBA, and his dreams of a
rich pro career ended.
When
handing down the sentences of the Kentucky players, Judge Saul Streit unleashed
a blast against the school and Rupp, calling Kentucky “the acme of
commercialization and overemphasis.” He further said “I found covert subsidization of
players, ruthless exploitation of athletes, cribbing at examinations,
‘illegal’ recruiting, a reckless disregard of the physical welfare,
matriculation of unqualified students, demoralization of the athletes by the
coach, alumni, and townspeople and the flagrant abuse of the athletic
scholarship.” He said that Rupp "failed
in his duty to observe the amateur rules, to build character, and to protect the
morals and health of his charges." And
he especially reprimanded Rupp for his association with Ed Curd, acknowledged as
the biggest bookmaker in Lexington.
Never
in the history of the sport had there been such wholesale revelations of
corruption. But, although the players were punished, the NCAA didn’t do a
thing to Kentucky or Rupp. However,
when the charges of recruiting violations and payments to players were proven
the next year, and the SEC voted to ban UK from any conference games, three
months later the NCAA was left with no choice but to put the Wildcats on
probation and canceled their entire 1952-53 season.
"Kentucky's basketball history is as
much about NCAA investigations and allegations of payoffs
and being shut down for an entire season for point shaving as it is about
winning championships." 3
__________________
1 Illustrated
History of Basketball, by Larry Fox, Grosset & Dunlap, 1974, p. 97.
2 Quote
from Dale Barnstable, in Scandals of '51, by Charley Rosen, reprinted by
Seven Stories Press, 1999, pg. 182.
3 A March to Madness, by John Feinstein, Little Brown and Company, 1998, pg. 420.
CHAPTER 2
Coach
Adolph Rupp was a bigot who barred the door to blacks at Kentucky and throughout
the SEC for many years. A Bull
Conner look-alike and a George Wallace act-alike, he flaunted his racism and
negatively influenced the racial nature of college basketball from the 1930’s
and into the 60’s.
Here
are four quotes (among hundreds) which illustrate his virulent racism.
"He said, ‘You've got to beat those coons,’
He turned to (center)Thad Jaracz. 'You go after that big coon.' . . . He talked
that way all the time. . . A chill went through me. I was standing in the back
of the room, and I looked around at the players. They all kind of ducked their
heads. They were embarrassed. This was clearly the type of thing that went over
the line." Frank Deford,
Sports Illustrated, reporting on Coach Adolph Rupp’s halftime
exhortations in the UK Wildcat’s locker room.
"Harry, that son of a bitch
is ordering me to get some niggers in here. What am I going to do ? He's the
boss." Harry Lancaster,
long-time assistant to Rupp, in his book Adolph Rupp As I Knew Him
(Lexington Productions, 1979), quoting Rupp on Dr. John Oswald, UK President.
“Once, I was on a flight with Rupp and sat with him
in the first-class section. He had about six Kentucky bourbons in less than an
hour and was about halfway to the wind. I told him that I was an attorney who
represented some basketball players. Now, I had never met the man, and the first
significant thing he said to me was, ‘The trouble with the ABA is that there
are too many nigger boys in it now.’ I
sat there just stunned. That just killed my image of Adolph Rupp the great
coach. Maybe it was because he had too much to drink, but even so...” - Loose
Balls by Terry Pluto, Simon & Schuster, 1990, pg. 241.
"Rupp liked to say he had tried to recruit Wilt
Chamberlain in the mid-1950s, when the 7-foot Philadelphia phenom was the talk
of basketball. 'But could I take him to Atlanta, New Orleans, or Starkville ?'
Rupp asked rhetorically.” And
the Walls Came Tumbling Down (1999, Simon & Schuster) by journalist
Frank Fitzpatrick, a long-time staffer at the Philadelphia Inquirer.
By
the mid-1960’s, racial barriers had been torn down for the most part, in other
areas of the country, and in most other sports. "In the spring of 1966, Bill Russell and Wilt
Chamberlain were dominating the National Basketball Association; Hank Aaron,
Willie Mays and Frank Robinson were among Major League Baseball's brightest
stars; Gale Sayers was preparing to replace Jim Brown as the National Football
League's leading rusher; and Muhammad Ali was the world heavyweight boxing
champion. In college basketball, every NCAA champion since 1961 had been built
around black stars. Loyola of Chicago, the 1963 champion, had four black
starters." 1
Not so in Kentucky.
Rupp took his all-white team to the 1966 NCAA championship game where
they faced the all-black Texas Western team coached by Don Haskins. “Rupp’s
Runts”, featuring Pat Riley (now coach of the Miami Heat), Louie Dampier and
Larry Conley, were ranked number 1. Adolph had publicly declared that he would
never let a black wear the Kentucky blue and he was primed to set things right.
As fate would have it though, no-name Texas Western (now the University
of Texas, El Paso), with an upstart squad of inner-city blacks led by 5’9
sparkplug Bobby Joe Hill and 245 lb.center David “Big Daddy” Lattin, whipped
the big-name monarch of southern basketball and his all-pale squad.
The final score of 72-65 hardly reflected the Miner’s superiority.
"So visible was The Baron, and so racist were his views, that he was the
predominant reason why Texas Western's victory is remembered a watershed moment
in sports history." 2
“Kentucky’s appearance in the final turned out to be Rupp’s last shot at the championship; he retired six years later without ever again taking a Wildcat team past the second round. It was also the last time a segregated southern school mounted a serious challenge for the NCAA title. Within the next few years, “white” colleges throughout the south began to actively recruit black players” 3
Preceding the 1970 season, Rupp finally gave in to pressure by UK President Oswald and alumni to bring the program back to a competitive level, and signed Tom Payne, a 7’ center from Louisville. Payne was the one and only black he ever recruited in his 42 years as coach of the Wildcats. Payne stayed one year.
"And even with his four national championships Rupp
will always be viewed in the mirror of the Texas Western game, where he was on
the wrong side of history. Rupp never recovered from that. And for many black
Americans, neither did Kentucky." 4
Isn’t it poetic that Rupp is recalled as a villain in a
sport now dominated by a race he excluded?
It’s also ironic that Rupp’s ultimate legacy was that the 1966 game
did more than anything else to integrate the sport. "You guys got a lot of black kids scholarships around
this country," Miners coach Don Haskins said in an emotional address at the
[25th Anniversary] reunion. "You can be proud of that. I guess you helped
change the world a little bit." 5
His epitaph?
“For 42 years it was his way of dealing with defeat. Acerbic, arrogant, defiant, Adolph Rupp won 875 games and lost none. It was his players who lost those 190.” 6
1 "Dribbling
on Rupp's grave. Author shoots an Airball with Bogus Analysis of Famous UK
Game," by Billy
Reed, Lexington Herald Leader, February 28, 1999.
2
Bergen Record, by Dave D'Alessandro, March 3,1996.
3
The Encyclopedia of the NCAA Basketball Tournament, page 266, by Jim
Savage.
4
“To Tubby: May the Best Man Win,” by Tony Kornheiser, Washington
Post, My 15, 1997.
5 By Jack Wilkinson, Atlanta Journal and Constitution,
April 1, 1991.
6 Calling Rupp a Racist Just Doesn’t Ring True, by David Kindred, Lexington Herald Leader, December 22, 1991.
CHAPTER 3
THE TRADITION CONTINUES UNDER HALL & SUTTON
Except for a hand slap in 1976, the NCAA had looked the
other way and studiously avoided any investigations into Kentucky basketball
during Joe B. Hall’s tenure as head coach, 1973-85. However, shortly after Eddie Sutton took over the program,
the Lexington Herald-Leader reported a blockbuster expose’ series about UK
paying former players and recruits.
“For years, ordinary fans have rewarded University of Kentucky basketball players with a loyalty that is nationally known. What is less known is that a small group of boosters has been giving the players something extra: a steady stream of cash. The cash has come in various amounts - as little as $20 and as much as $4,000 or more - and it has come often. UK players have received what they call ‘hundred-dollar handshakes’ in the Rupp Arena locker room after games.” 1
“Mary Wilson shifted uneasily
on a couch when asked about improper recruiting offers made to her son Ben, who
before his death last year was widely considered the nation's top high school
basketball prospect. It was the same couch in her South Side bungalow where Mrs.
Wilson had listened intently as Ben wavered between picking a school that
offered the most money or a school that offered the most in education and
basketball."We're talking about a lot of money," Mrs. Wilson said
recently.” 2
In
spite of all the damaging evidence presented by the Herald-Leader, with public
coverage of admissions by over 31 former UK players and some recruits, the NCAA
continued to sidestep doing anything to the sacred Wildcats.
So, Kentucky basketball being what it was, and given apparent immunity by
the NCAA, the tradition of breaking the rules continued under the Sutton regime.
Their
misdeeds started publicly emerging in a couple of years, though.
It started with Eric Manual, a Wildcat recruit who apparently had copied
“answer for answer” from another student while taking the ACT.
He was a top recruit in the 1987-88 class and had failed his ACT test a
number of times. On his final
attempt, taking the test at Lexington High School (even though he was from
Georgia), his score dramatically jumped from 14 to 23, making him eligible.
Although never proven, evidence suggested that Manual had been helped by
the UK coaching staff.
"We know there were lots of people with an
interest in him being eligible," said Mark Hammons, the Oklahoma City attorney who
argued Manuel's court case pro bono. "UK and its boosters and affiliates
-- they had much more to gain by altering his test score than Eric did."
3
Manuel
was barred from ever playing in Division 1, but again the NCAA let Kentucky off
the hook.
The
next incident was harder for the NCAA to overlook, however, when it was found
that a package from the University of Kentucky basketball offices to Claude
Mills, Chris Mills’ father, contained approximately $1,000 in cash. Kentucky
had been heavily recruiting the highly acclaimed Mills, and the NCAA determined
that the package was sent by UK Assistant Coach and former player Dwayne Casey.
The book Raw Recruits by Alexander Wolff and Armen Keteyian
(Pocket Books, 1991) has a fascinating and detailed account of what went on in
this whole situation.
“Now, the NCAA was faced with Kentucky being caught
once again red-handed and, naturally, denying, denying, denying. What would it
[the NCAA] do ? Rex
Chapman, the Boy King decided not to wait for an answer. On May 13th, he
announced he was passing up his last two years of eligibility to turn pro.
Chapman insisted the Mills investigation had nothing to do with his decision. If
you believe in that then you believe in Santa Claus."
4
Many
questioned whether the NCAA would do anything to the Wildcats.
Jerry Tarkanian, then coach of UNLV astutely cracked that “they’re
going to find them guilty and then give Cleveland State three more years of
probation.” Despite that and
despite an ineffectual investigation, the NCAA stripped UK of several
scholarships, banned them from television and postseason play.
Head coach Eddie Sutton and Casey were forced to resign, and Casey was
banned from coaching in the NCAA for five years.
Strangely enough, they didn’t do a thing to Mills, who transferred to
Arizona.
In
the aftermath, LeRon Ellis, Sean Sutton, Rex Chapman and Shawn Kemp all left the
program over the next two years, leaving the school’s basketball program in
shambles.
Given
his record before and after his tenure at Kentucky, Sutton has run clean
programs, notably at Arkansas and currently at Oklahoma State, so you have to
give him some benefit of the doubt that he really didn’t know what was going
on. Clearly, though, his assistants
did and were the definite perpetrators of the payoffs, and Sutton was
responsible for the program. More
likely, Sutton chose to put on blindfolds at Kentucky, where the pressures to
win at all costs were ingrained. It’s
a shame that the criminal traditions at Kentucky could override the principles of
a fine man like Sutton.
1 Lexington Herald-Leader, October 27, 1985.
2 Lexington Herald-Leader, October 28, 1985.
3 "Odd Man Out," Sports Illustrated, February 11, 1991, Vol. 74, No. 5 pg. 175.
4 A Season Inside, by John Feinstein, Villard Books, 1988, pg. 460.