College Basketball: Adolph Rupp

[JohnBM01]

Ever wondered where the name "Rupp Arena" got its name? The arena got its name after the great Adolph Rupp. The Wikipedia entry on Adolph Rupp { http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolph_Rupp } tells me that he is called the "Baron of the Blue Grass." That couldn't be any more true considering how he coached his Kentucky Wildcats to National Championship status in 1948, 1949, 1951, and 1958. Kentucky would no longer see a men's National Championship under Rupp until 1978 when Joe Hall was the new coach for the Kentucky Wildcats. In 1969, Rupp was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. College basketball would lose the Baron of the Blue Grass in December of 1977 when he died at the age of 76. Rupp was the Baron of the Blue Grass, but he also coached for Iowa, Illinois, and Kansas (the state he was born in from Mennonite German immigrants).

I'm pretty sure Rupp Arena's Wildcat faithful still keep up the good spirits of Mr. Rupp. It still remains one of the toughest places to play other than at Florida, Louisville, North Carolina, Duke, Oklahoma State, Wichita State, and plenty of other tough places to play in Division 1 basketball. The last time Kentucky won the National Championship was back in 1998 under current coach Tubby Smith. Two years prior to 1998, Kentucky won the title under Rick Pitino's coaching.

Care to keep this thread rolling? Be sure to read the Wikipedia entry I found on Mr. Rupp for more information.

 

[FoolKiller]

I'll necromance just because I didn't see this one until now and the basketball forum is dead today anyway.

The Wiki article only slightly touches on the racial controversy surrounding Rupp. Rupp has supposedly said that if he were allowed to recruit African-American players he could have built an even better team. The movie Glory Road originally depicted him as racist until outrage caused them to reshoot some scenes. The SEC did not allow black players, not Rupp. Once he was allowed to use black players he did.

Wildcat fans will never forget Adolph Rupp and the fact that he took a team to the NCAA championship and the Olympics. To this day he is still the greatest coach in Kentucky history. He was good at coaching, he was loyal to the school (I mean, he was there over 40 years), and he could take local nobodies and make them into stars.

He was a caliber of coach that you do not see today.