Butch Beard’s 1965 recruiting visit to UK
- Thread starter Smashcat
- Start date
Hey, l heard something about this, but honestly I didn’t think it was real. My grandfather told me there was a time (many, many years ago) when boys that played high school ball in the state could attend the University of Kentucky and actually PLAY basketball for the school...on scholarship.
Supposedly, they got playing time and everything.
Supposedly, they got playing time and everything.
The Rupp was racist boys aren’t gonna like this one.
Interesting sentence from the report:
"Beard and Ratliff were guided around most of the campus and ate lunch with UK basketball players and Steve Beshear, president of the Student Congress."
Former KY Governor Steve Beshear.
How come he remained silent when a certain few dragged Coach Rupp's name through the mud again and were hell-bent on renaming Rupp Arena?
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Because people are afraid to speak up...they fear being cancelled. The truth doesn’t seem to matter these days.Interesting sentence from the report:
"Beard and Ratliff were guided around most of the campus and ate lunch with UK basketball players and Steve Beshear, president of the Student Congress."
Former KY Governor Steve Beshear.
How come he remained silent when a certain few dragged Coach Rupp's name through the mud again and were hell-bent on renaming Rupp Arena?
Butch Beard wasn't the first black player recruited by Rupp. I don't know whether Unseld made a trip to the U.K. campus, but Rupp tried every way in the world to get Wes Unseld to come to U.K. in 1964.
I was a 7th-grader when we recruited Wes Unseld and was crushed when he didn’t pick KY. I felt the same way about Beard.
The article said Beard was the first invited on campus. Doesn’t appear Unseld made the visit.
I was at UK from 1961-65 and know how hard UK was trying to recruit blacks. Wes Unseld was wanted and welcomed but I don't even know if he hung around when Rupp went to his house for an in home visit. He was UL all the way or Kansas where his brother played.
I thought we had Butch Beard. I was shocked and really had a pain in the gut when he picked UL. He would have been great at UK under Coach Rupp. But it was not to be .
H
Appreciate the insight. If we could only have the what’s could have beens.
One of the biggest drawbacks they would have faced in going to UK would not have been UK or the campus, it would have been going on the road to other SEC schools. And probably the reason we didn't integrate any earlier than we did. And the crowd is a lot closer to the floor in basketball than in football.
I’ve read plenty centered around that. The treatment in the south would have been brutal. Have to appreciate Rupp for not wanting to submit someone to that type of treatment.
He would have just been flat out lying to recruits if he had told them it wouldn't be a problem.
I believe I’ve seen quotes of Rupp where he couldn’t guarantee the safety of black players in the south during away games and that was a reason we lost a lot of them. At least he didn’t lie and cheat the young men and their families.
Respectfully ... this post is a contradiction. Coach Rupp was not a racist. He did recruit black players. But by recruiting them he was, by definition, willing to expose the black players to the type of treatment to which they would have been subjected on the road in the SEC. If they had signed with U.K. at that time, that's what would have happened, and everybody, including Coach Rupp, knew that. Wes Unseld knew it too. I've always heard that he, or his parents, told Coach Rupp, point blank, that that was the reason Wes wasn't interested in signing with U.K.
Here's the first picture in the report and tweet. Note prep star Alvin Ratliff (left). He played on UK freshman team.
Two years after the above picture is taken, Alvin Ratliff carries an M-60 machine gun through the jungles of Vietnam. He earned a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts. Ratliff later went on to become an All-American at Delta State University where some of his records still stand. He was also a great prep basketball coach.
Two years after the above picture is taken, Alvin Ratliff carries an M-60 machine gun through the jungles of Vietnam. He earned a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts. Ratliff later went on to become an All-American at Delta State University where some of his records still stand. He was also a great prep basketball coach.
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