If that happened to other players, what did Rex get to stay out of Louisville? Did Denny ever accuse us of wrongdoing? Based on what he saw at UCLA, he could have easily been involved in that ‘open’ package.
For those who remember the Sutton scandel in the 80's
- Thread starter Ryan Lemonds Diary
- Start date
If that happened to other players, what did Rex get to stay out of Louisville? Did Denny ever accuse us of wrongdoing? Based on what he saw at UCLA, he could have easily been involved in that ‘open’ package.
Lots of details in Raw Recruits that you never hear about, like when Kemps’s mother came to campus and paid cash for the hotel and plane ticket and according to the authors, shortly after receiving an Emery envelope from Dwayne Casey. Kemp’s mom defended Casey on that one.
Even a quote from Scott Courts about the luxuries that come with playing at UK.
Even a quote from Scott Courts about the luxuries that come with playing at UK.
The name of the real sender of that envelope was mentioned several months ago on this board. He threatened a lawsuit if his name got published . Happy digging
Chris himself signed for the package unaware of what had transpired earlier in the am with Emery and Dad.
Slander, I guess. Ask the HL.
Believe me, he is a powerful guy. Even into the realm of politics
He's have a hard time making the case. But "winning" such a suit is often not the point. You do that even though you're not likely to win, because you know litigation is expensive, and psychologically and emotionally draining, and often the other guy will simply give up, even if he knows that he'll ultimately prevail. Anyway, I wonder if the guy you reference and the guy I referenced earlier are the same. Like I said, the name meant nothing to me, but I think I've seen it on this board and elsewhere. Given the story and story-teller, he's probably a big hitter of some sort. may be the same dude....
Don't know. I've always imagined the staff knew, that this booster and others had free reign but were under the watchful eyes of those in the basketball offices - but that was a guess. See the post a couple above - maybe those truly were the cowboy days, when boosters came and went and did pretty much what they pleased, including walking into the basketball offices, putting money in a mailer, and sending it out.
I don't have any trouble believing that, by the way. The University of Kentucky Wildcats basketball team is so important to this state that it is ingrained in its culture. It matters to people, very much. Look at this board after a loss - heck, after a win! It's not life and death, it's much more important than that. Which means, people would do confounding things to help insure success, and two, people want to be associated with the program. For someone with a lot of disposable income, the allure is irresistible, at least to some - and if you don't have adequate rules and controls in place, like for instance when a guy with a drinking problem is running things, I don't have any trouble believing that John Doe$ is walking around mailing money to recruits and giving $100 handshakes.....
I have no inside info, but from everything I've read, this is pretty much right. That was the culture of UK basketball from the mid 70's through the 80's. Cliff Hagan wasn't against it, Joe B created an aura of "you help me, I'll let you get as close to the program as you want", and Eddie Sutton was unable (for a variety of reasons), and probably unwilling, to do anything about it.
UK wasn't alone on this, BTW. Everyone should watch the 30 for 30 about SMU football. SMU was more extreme than most schools (having the Board of Governors tell the football coaches to keep paying players AFTER THE SCHOOL WAS ALREADY ON PROBATION is truly special), but there were a WHOLE lot of places operating with the idea that NCAA rules were a petty nuisance.
I have a good friend that played for SMU when that went down. He lost eligibility due to the death penalty that was imposed. Make no mistake, Texas, Oklahoma and others in that conference (and elsewhere for that matter) were doing the same thing to get players. For whatever reason the NCAA targeted SMU when it became too big to hide anymore.
My friend wrote a book about it called "The Pony Trap." Interesting read for sure.
My friend wrote a book about it called "The Pony Trap." Interesting read for sure.
There are always casualties in war but the key is to limit them to expendable people...SMU was expendable.
What was going around back in the day was that Kemp ended up pawning it but he may not have been the one to take them. There was a rumor it was a hanger on that was visiting the room, and then told SK that he found them and would split the money if he would pawn them. Sutton thought it was someone else and filed a police report. When the police started checking pawn shops and found the picture of a black guy with two gold chains reported stolen and released a warrant. The part I don't believe is that the cop got fired for releasing the picture before he escalated it to his superiors. Anyway, it hit the news before they could get their hands on it and blew up. Sutton didn't press charges, but it was enough to run Kemp out of town.
https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/08/sports/sports-people-kemp-leaves-kentucky.html
While it sucked at the time, hindsight this brought in great changes for UK, the big one getting rid of Sutton, who I was never a fan of his hire and bringing in Pitino.
I was never a fan of Sutton. He should never have been given another chance to coach on the D-1 level. My biggest regret in what happened in the fallout is that Sutton didn't get barred from ever coaching again.
Sue for a boy? A boy named sue? Trying to get some Cash,you know Johnny Cash.A boy?![[winking]](http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/classic/wink.r191677.gif "Winking [winking]")
Agree,you know we got lucky in a way,if things had gone on for another year or two we would have won big but probably got the death penalty when it fell apart.Like UNC should have gotten this year.
Looking at the excellent shape the program was in I can now see why many of you hate Mitch Barnhart. He's running a clean profitable program that wins. It's also puts into perspective the "Tubby almost destroyed the program" narrative after 22-13 and 22-12 seasons.
