Posts Tagged "Denny Crum"

Kentucky Basketball: 30th Anniversary of the Dream Game

Kentucky Basketball comes down to one thing: the Dream Game.

Without the Dream Game, the best rivalry in college hoops might not exist today. For years, the University of Kentucky refused to play the Louisville Cardinals or any other in-state rivals. The policy was established by legendary Kentucky Basketball coach Adolf Rupp and was continued by his successor, Joe B. Hall.

But the 1983 NCAA tournament ended the stand-off. Bracket play resulted in a Round of Sixteen clash between UK and UofL in nearby Knoxville, TN. Kentucky state governor John Y. Brown was infamously in attendance in a half-red, half-blue blazer. After forty minutes of thrilling, back-and-forth basketball, Louisville ran away with the game in overtime. Following the game, Governor Brown gave an impassioned speech to the Kentucky legislature, and the result was an annual rivalry game between the two schools.

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the original Dream Game between the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky in the 1983 NCAA Tournament. We celebrated by shooting some update interviews with Matt Jones and Denny Crum. Yesterday we took the pulse at Wags barbershop in downtown Louisville regarding the Cardinals current tournament run. Boone was in rare form following UK’s disastrous first-round NIT loss to Robert Morris!

If you want more Kentucky Basketball goodness, check out our boy Mike Rutherford’s post on Card Chronicle. Make sure to check out our Kentucky Basketball blog to follow the progress of our one-of-a-kind sports documentary. To subscribe to the newsletter for our one-of-a-kind basketball movie, please visit our homepage.

Denny Crum, Joe B. Hall + Adam Lefkoe

Last week’s Red V Blue production shoot couldn’t have been more fruitful. The week started out with an interview with Coach Denny Crum, who led the Louisville Cardinals to two national championships. The next day we sat down with Coach Joe B. Hall, who led the Kentucky Wild Cat to a national championship both as a coach and a player. Then we were off to Paintsville in eastern Kentucky where we interviewed some local diehard fans. Friday night we finished off the trip by interviewing WHAS sports anchor Adam Lefkoe in Louisville, who rocked out some great stories in between his TV spots. Stay tuned for further developments.

Kentucky Basketball

Wade came across this cool compilation of facts about Kentucky basketball on ESPN Classic’s website. Here I have picked out some of my favorites. Did you know that the state of Kentucky is second only to California among states with NCAA championships? California has 15; Kentucky 9.

The Louisville List

1) Louisville is undefeated when it scores a 100 points or more. They are 88-0.

2) The Cardinals scored a school-record 132 points against George Mason in 1994, posting a 132-87 win.

3) Freedom Hall was named “Best floor to play on” by ESPN’s College Basketball magazine in 1995.

4) Did you know that Denny Crum is an avid reader and collector of Louis L’Amour westerns?

5) Pervis “Never Nervous” Ellison holds the school record for dunks in a game. He slammed it through seven times against South Alabama in 1988.

6) Louisville has had two players go in the first round of the NBA draft twice — in 1989 with Pervis Ellison (1st overall) and Kenny Payne (19th) and in 1994 with Clifford Rozier (16th) and Greg Minor, 25th.

The Kentucky List

1) Basketball at Kentucky reportedly started when W.W.H. Mustaine called together some students, took up a collection totaling $3 for a ball and told them to start playing. There was no official coach from 1903 until 1910. Managers ran the team.

2) The Wildcats have the unique distinction of having a tie on their all-time record. In 1918, a game was ruled a tie after a scorer’s error was discovered after the game.

3) Kentucky longest home-winning streak is 129 games. It started in 1943 and ended in 1955. Since then, the longest home streak has been a mere 33 games from 1992 to 1994.

4) The Wildcats have had just one losing record in 72 seasons. Kentucky went 13-19 in 1989, its first losing mark in 61 seasons.

5) Kentucky had five players selected in the first rounds of the 1996 and 1997 NBA drafts. Antoine Walker (6th), Tony Delk (16th) and Walter McCarty (19th) went in 1996 while Ron Mercer (6th) and Derek Anderson (13th) were selected in 1997.

6) Long-time Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp is second on the all-time win list with 876. Only North Carolina’s Dean Smith has more victories with 879.

Denny Crum Interview

Big News: We are interviewing the one and only Denny Crum this July! During his reign Coach Crum guided the Louisville Cardinals to 2 NCAA championships (1980, 1986) and 6 Final Fours. Do y’all have any questions for the legend?