Interesting article in the Courier today by Jon Hale detailing the day Bear left Kentucky. Sheds a little more light on one the many ways basketball has really killed our football program through the years. Here’s some quotes from the article I found interesting:
“The popular story that Bryant left Kentucky due to the perception of the university as a “basketball school” is supported by the reporting of the Courier Journal the day he announced he was headed to Texas A&M.
“Paul and his family love the state of Kentucky, the Bluegrass area, and the university,” Courier Journal sports editor Early Ruby wrote in the Feb. 5, 1954 edition. “But Paul is leaving for a job that pays him less money and will afford him less chance for outside income.
“Paul has been extremely unhappy since the basketball scandals rocked the nation and centered unsavory attention on Kentucky.
“Paul is a comparatively young man in the game. He is a genius as a football strategist and as a leader of boys. He has tremendous enthusiasm and ambition. It has been his hope to remain in Kentucky the rest of his life. He would make his name, and a name for Kentucky right here in Lexington.
“But every time he hurdled one backwash from the scandals, he encountered another. Most of the publicity has been undeserved. Much of it has been grossly unfair. But deserved or not it has caused innumerable boys to turn elsewhere for athletics. In addition to this deplorable state of affairs, Paul has come to realize that the University of Kentucky is governed by basketball, at the expense of football. This and the scandal brought him to the decision that he never could achieve here the success he wants and feels will be his in football.”
The Kentucky basketball team had been put on probation in the early 1950s as part of a point-shaving scandal, and its entire 1952-53 season was canceled.
As Bryant was pondering his move, Adolph Rupp was coaching the 1953-54 Kentucky men’s basketball team to a perfect 25-0 record.
While acknowledging the relationship between Bryant and Rupp was “not cordial,” Ruby discounted the argument the situation in the athletics department had necessitated one of the two star coaches to leave.
“Bryant would be the first to concede that Rupp is a brilliant basketball coach,” Ruby wrote. “But Rupp’s very poor relationship with fellow coaches and with the press definitely was a factor.
“As long as basketball rules the campus and the administration, these relations hardly can be expected to improve.”
It’s crazy flashing forward to today how little has changed. The administration, while more invested in football than ever, is still basketball-crazy, even during an undefeated run with one of the hottest football teams in the nation. The face and voice of Kentucky sports, Matt Jones, has spent the entire day tweeting and urging Kentucky fans to go buy tickets for the Duke-Kentucky basketball matchup instead of hyping up a chance at Kentucky’s best football start in over 50 years and a massive showdown in College Station. It’s just sad to see how little things have changed through the years. We had the best coach in the history of the sport who left because of basketball. We have the 13th ranked team in the nation and the voice of our fan base is talking about Kentucky-Duke basketball tickets. Sure, he’ll do the whole song and dance and get excited when we win because he knows it’s good for business, but it’s just sad to sit back and think about where this program would be at right now had Kentucky never become a “basketball school”.
“The popular story that Bryant left Kentucky due to the perception of the university as a “basketball school” is supported by the reporting of the Courier Journal the day he announced he was headed to Texas A&M.
“Paul and his family love the state of Kentucky, the Bluegrass area, and the university,” Courier Journal sports editor Early Ruby wrote in the Feb. 5, 1954 edition. “But Paul is leaving for a job that pays him less money and will afford him less chance for outside income.
“Paul has been extremely unhappy since the basketball scandals rocked the nation and centered unsavory attention on Kentucky.
“Paul is a comparatively young man in the game. He is a genius as a football strategist and as a leader of boys. He has tremendous enthusiasm and ambition. It has been his hope to remain in Kentucky the rest of his life. He would make his name, and a name for Kentucky right here in Lexington.
“But every time he hurdled one backwash from the scandals, he encountered another. Most of the publicity has been undeserved. Much of it has been grossly unfair. But deserved or not it has caused innumerable boys to turn elsewhere for athletics. In addition to this deplorable state of affairs, Paul has come to realize that the University of Kentucky is governed by basketball, at the expense of football. This and the scandal brought him to the decision that he never could achieve here the success he wants and feels will be his in football.”
The Kentucky basketball team had been put on probation in the early 1950s as part of a point-shaving scandal, and its entire 1952-53 season was canceled.
As Bryant was pondering his move, Adolph Rupp was coaching the 1953-54 Kentucky men’s basketball team to a perfect 25-0 record.
While acknowledging the relationship between Bryant and Rupp was “not cordial,” Ruby discounted the argument the situation in the athletics department had necessitated one of the two star coaches to leave.
“Bryant would be the first to concede that Rupp is a brilliant basketball coach,” Ruby wrote. “But Rupp’s very poor relationship with fellow coaches and with the press definitely was a factor.
“As long as basketball rules the campus and the administration, these relations hardly can be expected to improve.”
It’s crazy flashing forward to today how little has changed. The administration, while more invested in football than ever, is still basketball-crazy, even during an undefeated run with one of the hottest football teams in the nation. The face and voice of Kentucky sports, Matt Jones, has spent the entire day tweeting and urging Kentucky fans to go buy tickets for the Duke-Kentucky basketball matchup instead of hyping up a chance at Kentucky’s best football start in over 50 years and a massive showdown in College Station. It’s just sad to see how little things have changed through the years. We had the best coach in the history of the sport who left because of basketball. We have the 13th ranked team in the nation and the voice of our fan base is talking about Kentucky-Duke basketball tickets. Sure, he’ll do the whole song and dance and get excited when we win because he knows it’s good for business, but it’s just sad to sit back and think about where this program would be at right now had Kentucky never become a “basketball school”.
![[laughing]](http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/classic/laugh.r191677.gif "Laughing [laughing]")
