The more I look at the new stadium, specifically the new press box and suites, the more I think that is the perfect spot for a more fitting ring of honor for retired jerseys and to honor our bowl wins. What do you all think? I would like to have it permanently out there than on the pillars in the concourse and occasionally scrolled across the video ribbons.
We actually have a lot stronger football history than many of our own fans even realize. We've had some of the best players & coaches to ever set foot on a football field, college or pro. Bear Bryant, Don Shula, Howard Schnellenberger, Jerry Claiborne, George Blanda..I mean some of the biggest names in football have coached and played here. We have names that not even teams with quite a bit of tradition can match.
I'm a strong proponent of recognizing the GREAT players and coaches that have been here. I mean, the most successful coach in the history of college football coached here for almost a decade; won an SEC title and a national title, and we don't even have a single thing inside or outside of the stadium recognizing him. Come on. I mean the "ring of honor" is a nice start, but there needs to be more for guys like Bear Bryant or Tim Couch. For a school that's supposedly now "serious" about football not to recognize its program's second-longest tenured & most successful coach (who just happens to be the best college FB coach of all time) is beyond ridiculous.
Recruits, fans, the media, the players, the coaches..they all love recognizing the program's history, especially when you have big-time names like Bear Bryant. It adds a lot of character to a stadium to recognize your program's greats if nothing else.
It's actually kind of mind-boggling that the only thing that has ever been done to recognize Bear Bryant is the "ring of honor"--which is barely even noticeable. The guy had the most successful tenure of any Kentucky football coach in history; won the program's only national title, and one of the program's two SEC titles--that needs to be recognized. Bear Bryant was here for almost a decade..that's longer than any HC in UK football history besides Fran Curci. That needs to be recognized, and it's frankly a little ridiculous that it hasn't been.
Most people would be pretty shocked to hear of some of the football names that have been associated with Kentucky football over the years. It would do nothing but help the football program to recognize this program's successes over the years. We have more football history than "football" schools like South Carolina and Mississippi State, yet few would even know that because of the lack of interest our administration has shown in promoting the greats this program has had.
It's beyond time for that to change. There are programs that don't have half of the tradition of our program, yet have built statues and memorials outside their stadium recognizing their great coaches, players and teams.
No one is going to laugh at us for recognizing our greats. What they will do is say "wow, I didn't realize _____ played/coached at Kentucky" or "I didn't realize Kentucky won a national title", or "I didn't know Kentucky had more tradition than some of the best "football" schools in the country".
There are a whole lot of good football programs out there that haven't even sniffed a national title or had multiple Hall of Fame head coaches. There are really good programs that have never had a #1 pick in the NFL draft. There are some really good programs that don't have the number of All-Americans and NFL draft picks that we've had. There are only a handful of teams in the nation that can claim EVER having a head coach even close to being as good as Bear Bryant.
