Read More About It...the history of UK basketball; what do you guys recommend?

[Estil]

As some of you remember during the 80s and early 90s, whenever CBS would do an education program of some sort, they would do a Read More About It segment like this one. That being said, what would be some great books (besides the runs of Cats Pauses/Media Guides I'm already working on) to help me learn more about this history of UK basketball (pre-Rupp/Rupp/Hall eras in particular)? Here's the ones I already have:

Kentucky Basketball Encyclopedia by Tom Wallace (2002) -- I believe this is the first edition made for the 2003 basketball centennial in 2003...it's a fine UK encyclopedia but it'd be better if they had listed all the players/stats the way the Baseball Encyclopedia used to.

The Rupp Years by Tex Laudeman (1972) -- This was a joint effort by the Louisville Courier-Journal & the Louisville Times commemorating Rupp's 42 years as UK's coach. It has a minimum two page write up for every season, including 1953 explaining why we had no season that year, and in the back has full season by season stats of all the seasons/games that were played from 1931-72.

And ones I already know I should get:

Hello Everybody, This is Cawood Ledford by Billy Reed (1992) -- This was published right after Ledford's retirement and I believe is the flagship bio of Ledford?

Adolph Rupp as I Knew Him by Harry Lancaster (1979) -- I don't know if Rupp ever did his own memoirs/autobiography but this biography written by his "Number One" should be the next best thing?

Adolph Rupp: Kentucky's Basketball Baron by Russel Rice (2004) -- This is a more recent Rupp bio but didn't Mr. Rice do a bunch of other UK books?

Joe B. Hall: My Own Kentucky Home by Russel Rice (1981) -- This is the only Joe B. Hall book I could find.

I think there was also some sort of book covering the pre-Rupp era of UK basketball and other sports?

 

[Indyadolph]

BIG BLUE MACHINE by Russell Rice.
Definitive.
About 400 or more pages. Came out around 1975 or 1976. Russell has updated it several times through the years. I think he stopped updating right around the time of Rex (late 80s)...
Easily the most informative book on UK basketball. Starts with 1903 (or whenever UK started playing b'ball) and all eras are covered in detail. Lots and lots of great Rupp stories.
Thing is, this book is hard to find. At least I haven't had much success. Checked it out of the library several times over the years.
A great read - A MUST read!

GO BIG BLUE!!!

 

[Kentucky fan 1989]

I read a lot of those books. My favorite was the Cawood Ledford book.

 

[Estil]

BIG BLUE MACHINE by Russell Rice.
Definitive.
About 400 or more pages. Came out around 1975 or 1976. Russell has updated it several times through the years. I think he stopped updating right around the time of Rex (late 80s)...
Easily the most informative book on UK basketball. Starts with 1903 (or whenever UK started playing b'ball) and all eras are covered in detail. Lots and lots of great Rupp stories.
Thing is, this book is hard to find. At least I haven't had much success. Checked it out of the library several times over the years.
A great read - A MUST read!

GO BIG BLUE!!!

Luckily I did find a copy here. It's first edition which I hope is best edition.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kentucky-Ba...973326?hash=item3d0d2bb54e:g:VosAAOSw7FRWWoXb

 

[Estil]

Wow; I didn't even realize Mr. Rice passed away last May. I mean I know he was 90 and wasn't a spring chicken and all that but still...

I also see a UK Basketball Valut he did in 2008? I guess I better look up his bibliography.

 

[Blueworld_3.0]

OP, you should spend as much time as possible on Jon Scott's website. You'll find a ton of stats, stories and research there. He updates it pretty regularly too so, it is current. Just an amazing treasure trove of all things UK Basketball related.

http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/statistics/statistics.html

 

[2Adulterers]

The Rupp Years by Tevis Laudeman is really good.Mine is signed by Coach Rupp.I had graduated by the time the book came out.I had called Jane Rollins (Rupp's secretary) and made a appointment to see him..He had been retired.He groused about me making an appointment and signed it..with the trademark Adolph F. Rupp..F.made it genuine..He wrote something humorous..I treasure it..Rest in Peace Coach.

 

[2Adulterers]

Wow; I didn't even realize Mr. Rice passed away last May. I mean I know he was 90 and wasn't a spring chicken and all that but still...

I also see a UK Basketball Valut he did in 2008? I guess I better look up his bibliography.

Russell was working on another book when he died..He was a prolific writer

 

[JPScott]

I would say that between Laudeman's The Rupp Years, Russell Rice's Big Blue Machine and Bert Nelli's Winning Tradition, you should get a pretty good overview of much of the UK program. (and they provide different points of view about various things)

There were a number of books which came out around the time of UK's 100th season (so they cover more recent events than the 3 books above) but they were all pretty superficial IMO.

If you're looking for information on Rupp, Rice's Adolph Rupp Kentucky's Basketball Baron and Harry Lancaster's Adolph Rupp as I Knew Him are both pretty good. You could also find Rupp's own book on basketball entitled Rupp's Championship Basketball which provides his offensive and defensive schemes along with his thoughts on how to have a winning team.

There's a number of other good books related to specific topics or from specific points of view.

If you're interested in anything pre-Rupp, prepare to be disappointed. There's not a lot available. The best book about this early era is Gregory Kent Stanley's Before Big Blue, although it's more academic in nature and cover all sports at UK, not just basketball.

There's many other sources, including my website: http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/Statistics/statistics.html

The UK library has put together a great site for finding primary documents (including things like oral histories) on UK the school and its athletic history at:

Explore UK

Another source of information which is on my site, are various magazine articles which I've collected and made available.

UK-related Magazine Articles through the years

I think there's a lot of really interesting interviews and background information on a number of the players etc.

 

[musrat59]

I have a number of books about UK and The Rupp Years is by far my favorite.

 

[St.PatterSoN-54-]

A bit more recent, and with the wrong outcome ofcourse, but I really enjoyed learning more about the early years of the Pitino era.

The Last Great Game: Duke vs. Kentucky and the 2.1 Seconds That Changed Basketball Paperback – January 29, 2013
by
Gene Wojciechowski (Author)

 

[Estil]

I've seen on Ebay the Lexington Herald-Leader (or whatever it was called then) from when Rupp passed away and even did a special 12 page tribute insert...does that newspaper or anywhere else let you view microfilm/archives or whatever or articles like that? I wouldn't mind being able to do that for my local paper (Messenger-Inquirer) as well

 

[JPScott]

I've seen on Ebay the Lexington Herald-Leader (or whatever it was called then) from when Rupp passed away and even did a special 12 page tribute insert...does that newspaper or anywhere else let you view microfilm/archives or whatever or articles like that? I wouldn't mind being able to do that for my local paper (Messenger-Inquirer) as well

Rupp died on December 10, 1977 which was a Saturday. The notice of his death was published in the Sunday paper, which meant it was under the Lexington Herald-Leader.

At that time the Lexington Herald and Lexington Leader were two different papers, although they were owned by the same company and they published their Sunday edition jointly.

The Herald-Leader has searchable archives back to 1983 (when the Herald and Leader merged) and you can order individual articles, although it's expensive and doesn't include any graphics etc.

As far as looking through microfilm, sure it's available. If you travel to Lexington you can access either paper at the Lexington public library or at UK's William T. Young library on the second floor. They also have many other KY papers including the Messenger-Inquirer.

If you can't make it to Lexington you can try your local library or college, or try interlibrary loan. (But even with interlibrary loan you'll still need to have access to a working microfilm reader, something which can be difficult given that most libraries today don't put much money into keeping or maintaining them.)

 

[Ripcord65]

There is a surprising amount of text in Jon Scott's site. Go to the team schedule for any given year, and then look at the end. Same for the team statistics (or roster). There may be nothing for some years, but for some years there's a lot of great information. And of course John thoroughly covers the 1952-53 "non-season" and the following season when Hagan and Ramsey et al went 25-0 and then the NCAA told them they couldn't play in the NCAA tournament because they were graduate students. Etc., etc.

And, Jon's commentary is not for the purpose of trying to sell books or to blow smoke up parts of people's anatomy. Lots of just good hard facts. Lots of commentary on the individual players. Lots of obituaries on the really early players. Etc., etc.

 

[Mook1978]

BIG BLUE MACHINE by Russell Rice.
Definitive.
About 400 or more pages. Came out around 1975 or 1976. Russell has updated it several times through the years. I think he stopped updating right around the time of Rex (late 80s)...
Easily the most informative book on UK basketball. Starts with 1903 (or whenever UK started playing b'ball) and all eras are covered in detail. Lots and lots of great Rupp stories.
Thing is, this book is hard to find. At least I haven't had much success. Checked it out of the library several times over the years.
A great read - A MUST read!

GO BIG BLUE!!!

There is a surprising amount of text in Jon Scott's site. Go to the team schedule for any given year, and then look at the end. Same for the team statistics (or roster). There may be nothing for some years, but for some years there's a lot of great information. And of course John thoroughly covers the 1952-53 "non-season" and the following season when Hagan and Ramsey et al went 25-0 and then the NCAA told them they couldn't play in the NCAA tournament because they were graduate students. Etc., etc.

And, Jon's commentary is not for the purpose of trying to sell books or to blow smoke up parts of people's anatomy. Lots of just good hard facts. Lots of commentary on the individual players. Lots of obituaries on the really early players. Etc., etc.

A few years ago my wife and I were out towards Central City I believe looking for some kitchen chairs at an antique shop and seen what looked to me like a brand new book on the history of UK in a case. When I opened it up and looked at it, the date was 1978! It is in mint condition and you can tell it had never been read or maybe opened. The lady said it came from a house in Louisville from a couple that collected a whole lot of books and she said they sold them all and maybe hadn't even read it. I gave 15 bucks for it. This is the book you are talking about. I haven't even read it yet. I have it in my UK case

 

[Estil]

There is a surprising amount of text in Jon Scott's site. Go to the team schedule for any given year, and then look at the end. Same for the team statistics (or roster). There may be nothing for some years, but for some years there's a lot of great information. And of course John thoroughly covers the 1952-53 "non-season" and the following season when Hagan and Ramsey et al went 25-0 and then the NCAA told them they couldn't play in the NCAA tournament because they were graduate students. Etc., etc.

And, Jon's commentary is not for the purpose of trying to sell books or to blow smoke up parts of people's anatomy. Lots of just good hard facts. Lots of commentary on the individual players. Lots of obituaries on the really early players. Etc., etc.

Oh you don't have to convince me of how wonderful Jon's site is...it's the undisputed encyclopedia of UK basketball (especially in terms of stats). I just want to look for other things also like books and so on. Unfortunately I have no way of getting to Lexington (no vehicle) and I'm not sure if our local public library would go far enough.

One thing my HS library used to have though is a huge blue book with laminated pages and includes b/w copies of all UK games/articles for the 1996 season...wonder if they made books like that for other seasons?

 

[littlecreek]

There is a book called "Basketball: the dream game in Kentucky". I got it back in the late seventies. It tells alot about UK's start with Rupp and his success and Hall's start as well. It also has some about the other state schools that is very interesting. It also has some about the KY Colonels and high school ball as well.

 

[Estil]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/371538789384

Well I managed to pick up this one and on the Big Blue Machine book I'm now at the part about our most famous team, the 1948 Fab Five...the real Fab Five, not those plagiarists from Michigan It was quite interesting among other things hearing about how in the early days of basketball you often had to "make do", if you get what I mean.

It was kinda interesting I picked a CBS Read About It PSA from Walter Cronkite seeing as how both he and Rupp were forced to retire at 70. And while we're on the subject of reading (hey we're reading about Cats aren't we? ):

 

[J_Dee]

I've seen on Ebay the Lexington Herald-Leader (or whatever it was called then) from when Rupp passed away and even did a special 12 page tribute insert...does that newspaper or anywhere else let you view microfilm/archives or whatever or articles like that? I wouldn't mind being able to do that for my local paper (Messenger-Inquirer) as well

I wrote a paper on Rupp's passing when I was an undergrad at EKU. If you're close to Richmond, EKU's library has tons of microfilm from newspapers all over the state covering his death, including the December 11 Herald-Leader.

 

[KWilt43atbuzz]

Just pull up a listing of Final Four participants and champions...that just about covers UK.

 

[Estil]

But that only covers 17 out of what, 113 seasons? Not to mention it'd be leaving out the 1992 Unforgettables, the 1954 Undefeateds, the 1946 and 1976 NIT champs, the pre-Rupp era...