ADVERTISEMENT

Old timers

My favorite player on that team

IMG-6472.jpg
 
My dad used to play against Larry Stamper in some rec leagues. When I was a teenager, Larry was in Morehead with some other former Cats playing and being seen. I went with my dad, after the event, dad went up to Larry and introduced himself, Larry remembered him well. Seemed like such a nice man
 
Glad to see Larry healthy again he had a long bout with cancer Larry is from my neck of the woods
 
Remember the 78 team as a kid but that's as far back as I can recall. I want that jacket Andrews has on!
Unless you're 6'11" that jacket's not going to fit you.

Jim Andrews, probably the most underrated big man to ever play here
Larry Stamper, one of the roughest, toughest most physical players to ever play here
Jerry Hale, a member of our 71-72 undefeated freshman team that went 22-0 & was named by either Basketball Times or Basketball Weekly as the Freshman national champions.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BC_Wader
Cool photo OP.


I was 10 when these guys played for UK, and they're the first that I remember as I began really following the Big Blue. Ronnie ;Lyons was my favorites player at that time.

I was 15 when UK won it all in '78, and that entire year, already epic, reached pure bliss. After all these years I still have the scrapbook I made from the start of the year until the championship.
 
These guys were a little before my time, but I know the names... I just turned 11 when the Cats beat Duke in St. Louis in 78 ... learned to hate UNC and Dean Smith in 77... went to my first game in 76 in Memorial and wondered why the fans kept booing one of our players until my Dad explained they were all chanting "Goose! Goose!" not "Boo!" I guess I watched some of the 75 team on TV, remember asking what UCLA stood for.
 
These guys were a little before my time, but I know the names... I just turned 11 when the Cats beat Duke in St. Louis in 78 ... learned to hate UNC and Dean Smith in 77... went to my first game in 76 in Memorial and wondered why the fans kept booing one of our players until my Dad explained they were all chanting "Goose! Goose!" not "Boo!" I guess I watched some of the 75 team on TV, remember asking what UCLA stood for.
You're bout the same age as me. 75 is the first team I can remember much about. I learned about the players before that from my dad and reading "The Rupp Years" and "Basketball: The Dream Game in Kentucky" during the winters of 77 and 78 while we were snowed out of school for a month.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kritikalcat
My friends ... "old-timers" is a relative term ! It pleases me to no end to see some of you who were really too young to remember the '78 National Champs refer to yourselves as "old-timers." ! I, too, feel obligated to click whenever I see a reference to "old-timers" ... but that might be because I first saw a U.K. basketball game in person on January 30, 1954. I was 7 years old. U.K. beat Vandy in Nashville, 85-63. Frank Ramsey had 24 and Cliff Hagan had 22 ! Great stuff ! ! !

That was the year that U.K. went 25-0, and then declined an invite to the NCAA Tournament because the NCAA wouldn't let Hagan and Ramsey play in the tournament because they were grad students.

I was raised in southern Kentucky and we lived a lot closer to Nashville than to Lexington, so my father took me to several U.K. vs. Vandy games over the years. I remember the U.K. - Vandy game the next year, too - because that was Bob Burrow's first year at U.K. Some of y'all will remember that Burrow was a two-time first-team All-American at U.K. in '55 and '56. He transferred to U.K. from Lon Morris Junior College - a little Methodist school in Jacksonville, Texas.

Lots of U.K. memories ! I'm sure glad I've gotten to see Mark Pope take the head coaching job ! ! !
Go 'Cats ! ! !
 
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT