For you old timers, whatever happened to Chuck Verderber ?
- Thread starter Uncle Adolph
- Start date
Sounds like a dish the swedish chef would cook.
If I remember correctly he is a dentist in Illinois. I also seem to remember in the annual blue/white game his freshman year he scored something like 30 points. He was going head to head with Chuck Aleksinas. Was always a good steady player but never scored anywhere near that again.
He was a traitor. He told the Herald Leader during their investigation of the $100 handshakes that it was embarrassing. He said the money giving was so ridiculous. He said he was happy to finally leave UK because he was sickened by all the greed. Of course, he also says he took money.
He might be more persona non grata for UK athletics than any former player.
He might be more persona non grata for UK athletics than any former player.
He and his wife are dentists in Vermont. Based on their website it seems he’s proud of his time as a UK basketball player. https://www.fiddleheaddental.com/about-our-doctors
I don't recall that at all. Not saying I don't believe you. I just don't remember any comments from him.
Of course, when all that came out, I was so devastated that I probably erased most of it from my memory.
I assume you are jokingI think "Uncle Adolph" is Chuck. Good way to get your name out there
I promise you I am not Chuck
I believe you must be thinking of Scott Courts who transferred back to a school in Colorado. I remember something about him admitting to the stuff.
Truthfully, I have never heard of a former player trashing his time at Kentucky. They all seem to cherish it, even ones who transferred.
It was definitely Verderber who was the worst during the investigation. Courts admitted to it but Verderber was the one who said he couldn’t stand it. Like I said, he admitted to getting the money even though he was so put off by it.
I remember it clearly, and also just found it in the book Kentucky’s Domain of Power, Greed and Corruption by Betty Ellison.
Courts has returned to UK multiple times, but Verderber was never welcomed back after the investigation.
Read his site man they sound smart and their kids sound super smart. Glad to see him being successful and enjoying life.
If he was telling the truth about what happened, why would anyone still have a problem with him. If he lied about the 100 dollar handshakes, I definitely get the dislike. I love UK but I would not lie knowing my words would be for always, in print. He seems successful as a dentist and seems to have a great family. I am happy for him.
Welp, if that's true, he's dead to me! Stupid last name anyway...
Well, in his defense, he wasn’t the only one. There were others who talked.
Our boosters were indeed out of control back during that era, in part because they were Cliff Hagan’s buddies and he thus made no effort to rein them in. It was just a matter of time before players started spilling the beans.
Funny the way $100 handshakes was considered a huge scandalous news back then. In today’s world of NIL and shoe company money, that seems like meaningless chump change.
I always admired Chuck Verderber. Undersized dude who wasn't blessed with any blazing quickness or a great shot, but busted his hump on the court and in the classroom while at UofK. My memory is he tore up a knee or a shoulder his junior year, worked his butt off in rehab, and made it back to play a full season his senior year. So what if he told the truth during the investigation...
I am almost certain the HL sent reporters out. They got some players to talk they told the players other players were saying they got money. I under stood the reporters were lying about this and got the players to admit this was true because they thought it was old news. Great for your home town paper to try to destroy the hometown team!!
One of my favorite players. Around 6'6" and did all the little nasty stuff most players didn't like to do.
CV spoke at my YBA/YBL basketball banquet while he was still at UK. I guess I would have been about 11 or 12 years old. I remember him being a really cool guy, posed for pics with every kid. I wore his old number 33 during my middle school years. Lol.
That book was a poorly written piece of trash that took every rumor and printed it as fact. She wanted to put out something salacious to try and sell books but it had a lot of stuff just wrong from dates, games, names, etc.. Every assumption was something malicious or negative. I would not base anything Chuck Verderber said or didn't on that book. No legitimate publisher would touch it so she had paid a vanity service so she could just try to sell copies herself.
Verderber was grit and hustle. Not overly athletic, but played hard.
Furrrst ya put yer burrrrdy in da pot....
REPORT PLAYERS PAID AT KENTUCKY
Several former Kentucky basketball players say they did a thriving business selling complimentary tickets at inflated prices to boosters and received cash and other improper gifts from supporters, …
www.chicagotribune.com
I would never consider the Lexington Herald Leader as the home town paper. I'm sure they were happy when we got put on probation. Jerry Tipton would do anything to find out something negative about the team even if he had to stir the pot.
He's not a traitor ... that crap would be something that should be "cleaned up", if true. Who knows? Another reason NIL is the right thing to do as removes some of that incentive to break rules. Again ... assuming any of it was true because we don't know.
He said he was disgusted with what went on even though he participated in it. Said he was so happy to finally get out of here.
You can like him, but good riddance to him.
Again ... if any of this was true, you can't blame someone for not wanting to lie down and wallowing in the rule breaking. UK paid for his education and if he took this money under the table, I could see where he would take the money but not really like it and yes ... that makes him a hypocrite, but he was a young kid then. I would think this was common among many programs ... the dirty underbelly. Kids would find it difficult to see their roommate take the money and refuse it themselves. He maybe took the money but preferred it was never offered. I'm not going to denigrate the guy for doing what his teammates were doing. If we denigrate him, we should denigrate the whole team. Not a big deal now and ancient history. I can see where you would consider what he said as some type of betrayal to the UK program, but if UK was complicit, UK was also wrong which is why I don't really blame him. He apparently has character and something we don't see enough of anymore.
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I don’t have a problem with him being honest. In fact, I encourage it. However, I do take issue with him claiming to be disgusted by all the money handouts and greed while taking the money himself. Why are you taking the money you’re complaining of others taking and handing out?
It just seems dishonest on his part. If he was so disgusted with it then he wouldn’t have accepted the money. Seems pretty simple why people don’t like him- has nothing to do with what he did or didn’t do on the course and entirely with what he chose to do and say off of it.
My question to you is why you admire someone who says one thing but does what they say they stand against? I know we’re all hypocrites at one point or another but that’s a pretty big thing to be hypocritical of, and certainly not someone I would deem worthy of being admired.
Great article and doesn't seem like someone else who hated his time at UK! Also , touching story about the birth of their daughter. Gives a little to...well I sobriety go there!
I didn’t get the info on Verderber from the book. It was in the original piece and subsequent interviews.
The book is what I found to refresh the memory.
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