Why did Bear Bryant leave?

[PlutoDroid]

Hypothetical question here. Did Adolph Rupp cause Kentucky to become a one sport dynamo at both Kentucky and Alabama being basketball and football powers and how would history be written if the Bear never left?

Would Bama be Bama and Kentucky be a football power? The thought of financial commitment to these two giant coaching legends must have been too large for the school. Was Rupp worried about Bear overshadowing him?

 

[WildCard]

He thought that taking over a aTm program that had not won more than 5 games the previous 3 years was a better opportunity than at UK.

Seriously, his great teams at UK were pretty much built on OH and PA kids. The basketball gambling scandal of the early 50s led to an administrative decision to reduce the number of out of state athletic scholarships (after all, Rupp was winning with KY kids) and that proved to be the straw that broke the Bear's back. I don't think it was as much a clash of egos as it was putting a severe limitation on the continued success of the football program.

Peace

 

[ram1955]

He thought that taking over a aTm program that had not won more than 5 games the previous 3 years was a better opportunity than at UK.

Seriously, his great teams at UK were pretty much built on OH and PA kids. The basketball gambling scandal of the early 50s led to an administrative decision to reduce the number of out of state athletic scholarships (after all, Rupp was winning with KY kids) and that proved to be the straw that broke the Bear's back. I don't think it was as much a clash of egos as it was putting a severe limitation on the continued success of the football program.

Peace

Have a friend that played for B Collier. I'm not sure when the recruiting restrictions were implemented, but he attributes Ky's struggles in Football, in large part, to those years when we couldn't recruit Football players. We had two of the nation's greatest Football coaches in our clutches in Bryant and Collier, but didn't care enough about Football to keep them.

 

[kats23]

 

[jauk11]

Have a friend that played for B Collier. I'm not sure when the recruiting restrictions were implemented, but he attributes Ky's struggles in Football, in large part, to those years when we couldn't recruit Football players. We had two of the nation's greatest Football coaches in our clutches in Bryant and Collier, but didn't care enough about Football to keep them.

And didn't Collier have THREE HOF quality coaches as assistants?

 

[CatsFanGG24]

Bc Rupp was racist against footballers and Bear Bryant stoled Rupps watch and had to get outta town FAST.

 

[Poetax]

He thought that taking over a aTm program that had not won more than 5 games the previous 3 years was a better opportunity than at UK.

Seriously, his great teams at UK were pretty much built on OH and PA kids. The basketball gambling scandal of the early 50s led to an administrative decision to reduce the number of out of state athletic scholarships (after all, Rupp was winning with KY kids) and that proved to be the straw that broke the Bear's back. I don't think it was as much a clash of egos as it was putting a severe limitation on the continued success of the football program.

Peace

Good work wildcard, that is spot on.

 

[Poetax]

Have a friend that played for B Collier. I'm not sure when the recruiting restrictions were implemented, but he attributes Ky's struggles in Football, in large part, to those years when we couldn't recruit Football players. We had two of the nation's greatest Football coaches in our clutches in Bryant and Collier, but didn't care enough about Football to keep them.

It really was a stupid move by govt officials and the U.K. Administration.

 

[CatPowered]

Wildcard is correct.....Rupp got NCAA sanctions imposed on UK. To appease the NCAA, UK restricted out of state recruits for the entire sports program (I think the number was 2 out of state recruits per sports program). In addition, Bryant was promised that Rupp would be terminated. When he heard that Rupp had inked a new contract with UK, he took the A & M job. The only job in the country open at the time.

Bryant would have left UK when the Alabama job opened up.....but he could have had several more years of success. But Rupp would have had to go for Bryant to stay.

 

[Poetax]

Wildcard is correct.....Rupp got NCAA sanctions imposed on UK. To appease the NCAA, UK restricted out of state recruits for the entire sports program (I think the number was 2 out of state recruits per sports program). In addition, Bryant was promised that Rupp would be terminated. When he heard that Rupp had inked a new contract with UK, he took the A & M job. The only job in the country open at the time.

Bryant would have left UK when the Alabama job opened up.....but he could have had several more years of success. But Rupp would have had to go for Bryant to stay.

I would like to read that link if you would post it please.

 

[BARRYBLUE1]

I don't see any mention of a link. I have read Bear Bryant autobiography and he said basically, what was said by above.

 

[WildCard]

I would like to read that link if you would post it please.

I have never seen written verification of this decision. It would be quite a research project to find any documented proof. Probably have to go back to newspaper records or even UK BOT meeting minutes.

However, I have "heard or read" this story from various sources over the years. I think I recall a retired local sportswriter of that era offering this info in a conversational setting. I also heard it directly from a personal friend who was a very highly regarded UK basketball player in those years (but not a part of the point shaving scandal).

Peace

 

[PlutoDroid]

Thanks for the information. The whole thing is really crazy to think of in retrospect. Imagine that story playing out today with Coach K having Nick Saban as Dukes football coach.

Coach K is limited by sanctions from a scandal involving basketball which in turn the school levies recruiting sanctions on Saban causing him to bolt.

I'm not saying coach better than Rupp or Saban is to the Bear. I just used those two as an example.

 

[PlutoDroid]

I have never seen written verification of this decision. It would be quite a research project to find any documented proof. Probably have to go back to newspaper records or even UK BOT meeting minutes.

However, I have "heard or read" this story from various sources over the years. I think I recall a retired local sportswriter of that era offering this info in a conversational setting. I also heard it directly from a personal friend who was a very highly regarded UK basketball player in those years (but not a part of the point shaving scandal).

Peace

Thanks that clears that up. Was there ever any hostility between the Bear and Adolph due to differing social views or did they just stay away from each other?

 

[PlutoDroid]

Wildcard is correct.....Rupp got NCAA sanctions imposed on UK. To appease the NCAA, UK restricted out of state recruits for the entire sports program (I think the number was 2 out of state recruits per sports program). In addition, Bryant was promised that Rupp would be terminated. When he heard that Rupp had inked a new contract with UK, he took the A & M job. The only job in the country open at the time.

Bryant would have left UK when the Alabama job opened up.....but he could have had several more years of success. But Rupp would have had to go for Bryant to stay.

Bear Was told Rupp would be terminated but UK didn't follow through? Was football the BIG revenue winner for UK or was it just casual placeholder until basketball season?

SORRY about asking so many questions. The story just had always fascinated me as I don't know if a pair of coaching icons had ever resided at the same school at the same time. I mean UK had Bear Bryant and Adolph Rupp at the same time!

 

[mktmaker]

Our great UK basketball historian, Jon Scott did research on this topic.

Following is an excerpt and a link:

Below is an excerpt from the second of a four-part interview with Paul Bryant in the August 22, 1966 edition of Sports Illustrated. This passage discusses his leaving Kentucky and the reasons he gave for it.

Well, we won at Kentucky, and I don't think I'd have ever left if I hadn't gotten pigheaded. It was probably the most stupid thing I ever did. I could have had just about anything I wanted, and Mary Harmon loved it. We had a social position coaches seldom have - good friends with Governor Wetherby and all - and we lived right there near the Idle Hour Country Club. Mr. Guy Huguelet got us an honorary membership, and that's a club that some people wait years to get into.

We had built a new house, and I was on the verge of making some real money. I had turned down half a dozen good jobs. A member of the board at LSU said to me, "Dammit, everybody has a price, Bear. What's yours?" And I put it up there pretty good for those days - something like $25,000, a home, a TV program and everything-and he said, "It's a deal." No school could do that, but he said he'd give me a contract through his company. Then I backed out. Alabama people came to see me and I wouldn't even talk to them, and Texas A&M and a couple others also approached me.

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

********

I went off and left Kentucky with the second best squad I ever had. Blanton Collier came in there the next year and had a winner. We had the new home and all those goodies, and it broke Mary Harmon's heart. Worse than that, when she got off the plane at College Station, Texas she turned white.

Texas A&M is a great educational institution with rich traditions, but at that time it was the toughest place in the world to bring players to because nobody wanted to go there. Don Meredith told me before he went to SMU, "Coach, I'd love to play for you if you were only someplace else."

 

[DSmith21]

And didn't Collier have THREE HOF quality coaches as assistants?

Collier's assistants included:

Don Shula
Chuck Knox
Bill Arnsparger
Howard Schnellenberger (Grad. Asst.)

 

[Poetax]

I have never seen written verification of this decision. It would be quite a research project to find any documented proof. Probably have to go back to newspaper records or even UK BOT meeting minutes.

However, I have "heard or read" this story from various sources over the years. I think I recall a retired local sportswriter of that era offering this info in a conversational setting. I also heard it directly from a personal friend who was a very highly regarded UK basketball player in those years (but not a part of the point shaving scandal).

Peace

I know from Jon Scott that you are accurate. It was Carpowered's story that they were going to get rid of Rupp and because they didn't, the Bear left. Rupp and Bryant were closer then most thought. Russell Rice wrote many stories in his books about that. The Bear was not intimidated by Rupp nor was Rupp intimidated by Bryant. I could be wrong, I have just not read anything about that being true. Only the ruling about cutting the number of out of state recruits was the main cause.

 

[BigBluePhantom]

Collier's assistants included:

Don Shula
Chuck Knox
Bill Arnsparger
Howard Schnellenberger (Grad. Asst.)

Wow. We have the greatest basketball program in the country but we sacrificed a lot to be able to say that. We had the Bear and lost him. We had Collier and lost him. We had some of the best coaches in the country through here as assistants and we couldn't get any of them back. Our baseball program was on par with Eastern's until about 10 years ago. And then there is Pat.

Pat Summit was signed on to be our women's basketball coach before she went to UT. She backed out because UK wouldn't pay her $500 moving bill. We could have been the most dominant sports school on earth had we been a little more open minded.

 

[Oldtrainer]

Our great UK basketball historian, Jon Scott did research on this topic.

Following is an excerpt and a link:

Below is an excerpt from the second of a four-part interview with Paul Bryant in the August 22, 1966 edition of Sports Illustrated. This passage discusses his leaving Kentucky and the reasons he gave for it.

Well, we won at Kentucky, and I don't think I'd have ever left if I hadn't gotten pigheaded. It was probably the most stupid thing I ever did. I could have had just about anything I wanted, and Mary Harmon loved it. We had a social position coaches seldom have - good friends with Governor Wetherby and all - and we lived right there near the Idle Hour Country Club. Mr. Guy Huguelet got us an honorary membership, and that's a club that some people wait years to get into.

We had built a new house, and I was on the verge of making some real money. I had turned down half a dozen good jobs. A member of the board at LSU said to me, "Dammit, everybody has a price, Bear. What's yours?" And I put it up there pretty good for those days - something like $25,000, a home, a TV program and everything-and he said, "It's a deal." No school could do that, but he said he'd give me a contract through his company. Then I backed out. Alabama people came to see me and I wouldn't even talk to them, and Texas A&M and a couple others also approached me.

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

********

I went off and left Kentucky with the second best squad I ever had. Blanton Collier came in there the next year and had a winner. We had the new home and all those goodies, and it broke Mary Harmon's heart. Worse than that, when she got off the plane at College Station, Texas she turned white.

Texas A&M is a great educational institution with rich traditions, but at that time it was the toughest place in the world to bring players to because nobody wanted to go there. Don Meredith told me before he went to SMU, "Coach, I'd love to play for you if you were only someplace else."

^^^I think the above quotes by coach Bryant are true.^^^
In 1968 & 69 I occasionally played golf at a 9 hole course near Santa Fe, Texas. Course was managed by a player that was on Bear's first A&M team. In several conversations he said Coach Bryant expressed to them of fond memories of his UK days. Coach Buckshot Underwood a long time assistant for The Bear and was part of his first staff at A&M. As a guest speaker to The Wildcat Club during 1976 season Buckshot said Bryant told him during their first A&M fall camp "we got to be crazy to leave Lexington for this damn place, I left the best prospect I ever recruited in Steve Milienger!"

 

[Smashcat]

Don Meredith told me before he went to SMU, "Coach, I'd love to play for you if you were only someplace else."

 

[SanAntonioCat]

He thought that taking over a aTm program that had not won more than 5 games the previous 3 years was a better opportunity than at UK.

Seriously, his great teams at UK were pretty much built on OH and PA kids. The basketball gambling scandal of the early 50s led to an administrative decision to reduce the number of out of state athletic scholarships (after all, Rupp was winning with KY kids) and that proved to be the straw that broke the Bear's back. I don't think it was as much a clash of egos as it was putting a severe limitation on the continued success of the football program.

Peace

Plus broken promises to Bear on football progress due to (1) limitation of recruiting outside Kentucky and (2) Bear's "slush fund" ( common in 40s, 50s recruiting). President Herman Donovan, a football advocate was also one to uphold rules. Little did Donovan realize he set in motion the downfall of UK football that lasted decades with even more terrible AD decisions haunting us today.

 

[SanAntonioCat]

Wildcard is correct.....Rupp got NCAA sanctions imposed on UK. To appease the NCAA, UK restricted out of state recruits for the entire sports program (I think the number was 2 out of state recruits per sports program). In addition, Bryant was promised that Rupp would be terminated. When he heard that Rupp had inked a new contract with UK, he took the A & M job. The only job in the country open at the time.

Bryant would have left UK when the Alabama job opened up.....but he could have had several more years of success. But Rupp would have had to go for Bryant to stay.

Rupp was going nowhere? Where does that statement come from?

 

[SanAntonioCat]

^^^I think the above quotes by coach Bryant are true.^^^
In 1968 & 69 I occasionally played golf at a 9 hole course near Santa Fe, Texas. Course was managed by a player that was on Bear's first A&M team. In several conversations he said Coach Bryant expressed to them of fond memories of his UK days. Coach Buckshot Underwood a long time assistant for The Bear and was part of his first staff at A&M. As a guest speaker to The Wildcat Club during 1976 season Buckshot said Bryant told him during their first A&M fall camp "we got to be crazy to leave Lexington for this damn place, I left the best prospect I ever recruited in Steve Milienger!"

True.

 

[SanAntonioCat]

Don Meredith told me before he went to SMU, "Coach, I'd love to play for you if you were only someplace else."

Was Dandy sober when he allegedly said that?

 

[SanAntonioCat]

Wow. We have the greatest basketball program in the country but we sacrificed a lot to be able to say that. We had the Bear and lost him. We had Collier and lost him. We had some of the best coaches in the country through here as assistants and we couldn't get any of them back. Our baseball program was on par with Eastern's until about 10 years ago. And then there is Pat.

Pat Summit was signed on to be our women's basketball coach before she went to UT. She backed out because UK wouldn't pay her $500 moving bill. We could have been the most dominant sports school on earth had we been a little more open minded.

That was Larry Ivy, C.M. Newton's top choice to be AD. And, we wonder why UK football continued to spiral downward.

 

[SanAntonioCat]

I know from Jon Scott that you are accurate. It was Carpowered's story that they were going to get rid of Rupp and because they didn't, the Bear left. Rupp and Bryant were closer then most thought. Russell Rice wrote many stories in his books about that. The Bear was not intimidated by Rupp nor was Rupp intimidated by Bryant. I could be wrong, I have just not read anything about that being true. Only the ruling about cutting the number of out of state recruits was the main cause.

True.

 

[SanAntonioCat]

Thanks that clears that up. Was there ever any hostility between the Bear and Adolph due to differing social views or did they just stay away from each other?

They were close friends for years often talking to each other weekly.

 

[PlutoDroid]

They were close friends for years often talking to each other weekly.

Well that takes the animosity aspect of him leaving out. Interesting that he regretted leaving Kentucky for the junction boys.

 

[BigBluePhantom]

Well that takes the animosity aspect of him leaving out. Interesting that he regretted leaving Kentucky for the junction boys.

They were very good friends. In fact, the Bear(I think he was also AD at Bama) needed a basketball coach. He called Rupp and asked his advice. Rupp suggested his former player C.M. Newton and that is who was hired. I think when the Bear says he was bull headed when he left UK that he was referring to his differences with AD Donovan.

I would liked to have had a coaching linage of the Bear until the early 80's, Claiborne or Schellenberger, Brooks and then Butch Jones or Kirby Smart. Nothing against Stoops but I don't think he would have been considered to follow this group and the success that they would have had.

 

[CB3UK]

Why did Bear Bryant leave Kentucky?

Because you touch yourself at night.

















Sorry, couldn't resist. I do enjoy hearing the legitimate answers on this.

 

[Oldtrainer]

They were close friends for years often talking to each other weekly.

Couple years after coach Rupp had to end his UK career he spoke to our WILDCAT CLUB. Said coach Bryant was a friend and kept a seat for him on team plane to away games
After The Bear left rumors abound about his departure. One was failure of not signing Paul Horning!
Think limitations of out of state recruits affected coach Collier leaving more than coach Bryant.

 

[mktmaker]

MARK STORY
AUGUST 22, 2010 12:00 AM

Out-of-state recruiting ban crippled UK football

On Jan. 3, 1952, Paul "Bear" Bryant was the toast of Kentucky.

That day, the University of Kentucky football coach and his team flew home to Lexington from Dallas. Two days before, Bryant's Wildcats had whipped Texas Christian University in the Cotton Bowl.

The victory capped a three-year period (1949-51 football seasons) in which UK went 28-8 and played in the Orange, Sugar and Cotton bowls, winning the latter two.

Yet, rather than issue a triumphant statement over back-to-back victories in New Year's Day bowls, Bryant came home to make a stunning announcement.

"The University of Kentucky surprised the football world yesterday," Larry Boeck reported in the Jan. 4, 1952, edition of The Courier-Journal, "when Coach Paul Bryant announced the school has stopped all recruiting of players outside the state (of Kentucky)."

An out-of-state recruiting ban.

Even 58 years later, some say 1/3/52 is the day the music died for UK football.

Why mess with success?

Bryant built the golden era of Kentucky football with sons of the Pennsylvania coal fields and the industrial cities of the Midwest.

Babe Parilli, the strong-armed quarterback on all three of the New Year's Day bowl teams, came from Rochester, Pa. Bob Gain, the 1950 Outland Trophy winner, called Akron, Ohio, home.

Walt Yowarsky, the MVP of UK's epic 1951 Sugar Bowl upset of No. 1 Oklahoma, was from Cleveland. All-America guard Gene Donaldson came from East Chicago, Ind.; All-America end Steve Meilinger from Bethlehem, Pa.

"Pennsylvania, Chicago, Ohio, we had guys from all over," Meilinger said Friday.

Which is why football observers in 1952 were picking jaws off floors after Bryant proclaimed that he and Kentucky would no longer recruit outside the commonwealth.

********

Bryant said UK would have five scholarships a year available to players from outside the state but those prospects would have to contact UK, not the other way around. The Bear said he envisioned those offers going to sons of either former Kentucky players or other UK alumni.

In a speech to the Louisville Advertising Club, Bryant said "this is strictly my own idea." He told The Courier-Journal that he had been thinking about implementing an out-of-state recruiting ban for years.

"We have confidence in the ability of Kentucky boys to stand toe-to-toe with those of neighboring states and to hold their own in football," Bryant said. "Our big problem is to get all the good boys who are playing in the state. We won't be able to afford to lose any of the top boys."

Was Bryant forced?

Many were skeptical of Bryant's claim that the new policy was his idea.

William Hanna, a longtime Lexington newspaper reporter/editor, was working at the Lexington Leader in 1952.

He says "word on the street" at the time was that then-UK president Herman Donovan had provided the impetus for the change.

To this day, the late 1940s and early 1950s were the era of greatest success in UK sports history.

Besides Bryant's three New Year's Day bowls, Adolph Rupp's basketball program won the 1946 NIT title and NCAA championships in 1948, '49 and '51.

By 1952, however, the luster of UK's sports triumphs was being diminished. After investigations that grew out of the point-shaving scandal that engulfed Kentucky basketball stars Ralph Beard and Alex Groza (and others), UK would stand accused of illegally subsidizing its athletes. Nationally, many charged Kentucky with grossly over-emphasizing sports.

"Some of the (basketball) investigation spilled over into football," said Russell Rice, the former longtime UK athletics publicist and the author of several books on Wildcats sports history.

There were claims at the time that some Kentucky football players had "no-show" jobs in which they were paid but didn't have to work, Rice said.

It was against that backdrop that the ban on out-of-state football recruiting was enacted.

On page 229 of his book The Wildcats: A Story of Kentucky Football, Rice writes that "persons in the know immediately surmised that the plan was not of (Bryant's) own choosing. The university was on the verge of breaking off from its attitude 'of winning at any cost.' And the recruiting plan was just one of many steps."

Rivals gleeful

Other Southeastern Conference schools seemed to have remarkably similar reactions to Bryant's out-of-state recruiting ban: What a splendid thing for Kentucky — but our school has no reason to adopt such a policy.

(More at link)

http://www.kentucky.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/mark-story/article44045568.html

 

[rupp876]

Wildcard is correct.....Rupp got NCAA sanctions imposed on UK. To appease the NCAA, UK restricted out of state recruits for the entire sports program (I think the number was 2 out of state recruits per sports program). In addition, Bryant was promised that Rupp would be terminated. When he heard that Rupp had inked a new contract with UK, he took the A & M job. The only job in the country open at the time.

Bryant would have left UK when the Alabama job opened up.....but he could have had several more years of success. But Rupp would have had to go for Bryant to stay.

Rup had absolutely nothing to do with getting UK put on probation. Unless you somehow believe he was in on the point shaving.

 

[SanAntonioCat]

MARK STORY
AUGUST 22, 2010 12:00 AM

Out-of-state recruiting ban crippled UK football

On Jan. 3, 1952, Paul "Bear" Bryant was the toast of Kentucky.

That day, the University of Kentucky football coach and his team flew home to Lexington from Dallas. Two days before, Bryant's Wildcats had whipped Texas Christian University in the Cotton Bowl.

The victory capped a three-year period (1949-51 football seasons) in which UK went 28-8 and played in the Orange, Sugar and Cotton bowls, winning the latter two.

Yet, rather than issue a triumphant statement over back-to-back victories in New Year's Day bowls, Bryant came home to make a stunning announcement.

"The University of Kentucky surprised the football world yesterday," Larry Boeck reported in the Jan. 4, 1952, edition of The Courier-Journal, "when Coach Paul Bryant announced the school has stopped all recruiting of players outside the state (of Kentucky)."

An out-of-state recruiting ban.

Even 58 years later, some say 1/3/52 is the day the music died for UK football.

Why mess with success?

Bryant built the golden era of Kentucky football with sons of the Pennsylvania coal fields and the industrial cities of the Midwest.

Babe Parilli, the strong-armed quarterback on all three of the New Year's Day bowl teams, came from Rochester, Pa. Bob Gain, the 1950 Outland Trophy winner, called Akron, Ohio, home.

Walt Yowarsky, the MVP of UK's epic 1951 Sugar Bowl upset of No. 1 Oklahoma, was from Cleveland. All-America guard Gene Donaldson came from East Chicago, Ind.; All-America end Steve Meilinger from Bethlehem, Pa.

"Pennsylvania, Chicago, Ohio, we had guys from all over," Meilinger said Friday.

Which is why football observers in 1952 were picking jaws off floors after Bryant proclaimed that he and Kentucky would no longer recruit outside the commonwealth.

********

Bryant said UK would have five scholarships a year available to players from outside the state but those prospects would have to contact UK, not the other way around. The Bear said he envisioned those offers going to sons of either former Kentucky players or other UK alumni.

In a speech to the Louisville Advertising Club, Bryant said "this is strictly my own idea." He told The Courier-Journal that he had been thinking about implementing an out-of-state recruiting ban for years.

"We have confidence in the ability of Kentucky boys to stand toe-to-toe with those of neighboring states and to hold their own in football," Bryant said. "Our big problem is to get all the good boys who are playing in the state. We won't be able to afford to lose any of the top boys."

Was Bryant forced?

Many were skeptical of Bryant's claim that the new policy was his idea.

William Hanna, a longtime Lexington newspaper reporter/editor, was working at the Lexington Leader in 1952.

He says "word on the street" at the time was that then-UK president Herman Donovan had provided the impetus for the change.

To this day, the late 1940s and early 1950s were the era of greatest success in UK sports history.

Besides Bryant's three New Year's Day bowls, Adolph Rupp's basketball program won the 1946 NIT title and NCAA championships in 1948, '49 and '51.

By 1952, however, the luster of UK's sports triumphs was being diminished. After investigations that grew out of the point-shaving scandal that engulfed Kentucky basketball stars Ralph Beard and Alex Groza (and others), UK would stand accused of illegally subsidizing its athletes. Nationally, many charged Kentucky with grossly over-emphasizing sports.

"Some of the (basketball) investigation spilled over into football," said Russell Rice, the former longtime UK athletics publicist and the author of several books on Wildcats sports history.

There were claims at the time that some Kentucky football players had "no-show" jobs in which they were paid but didn't have to work, Rice said.

It was against that backdrop that the ban on out-of-state football recruiting was enacted.

On page 229 of his book The Wildcats: A Story of Kentucky Football, Rice writes that "persons in the know immediately surmised that the plan was not of (Bryant's) own choosing. The university was on the verge of breaking off from its attitude 'of winning at any cost.' And the recruiting plan was just one of many steps."

Rivals gleeful

Other Southeastern Conference schools seemed to have remarkably similar reactions to Bryant's out-of-state recruiting ban: What a splendid thing for Kentucky — but our school has no reason to adopt such a policy.

(More at link)

http://www.kentucky.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/mark-story/article44045568.html

Rup had absolutely nothing to do with getting UK put on probation. Unless you somehow believe he was in on the point shaving.

Rup had absolutely nothing to do with getting UK put on probation. Unless you somehow believe he was in on the point shaving.

True

 

[fuzz77]

Pat Summit was signed on to be our women's basketball coach before she went to UT. She backed out because UK wouldn't pay her $500 moving bill. We could have been the most dominant sports school on earth had we been a little more open minded.

Pat was hired at UT in 1974 when she was 22 yrs old and women's basketball was on par with a club sport. The NCAA didn't recognize it until 1982. Summitt made $250/a month her first year at UT.

UK did not call Summitt until 1976 and offered her $9000, she was making $8,900 at UT.

 

[SanAntonioCat]

And didn't Collier have THREE HOF quality coaches as assistants?

Yes, plus Ermal Allen who spent the majority of his career at Tom Landry's assistant head coach with the Cowboys and Howard Schnellenberger as a graduate assistant. As a footnote, Bryant returned to the Pennsylvania hills for a young quarterback that would propel Alabama in the 60s to national fame. He sent Howard who was on Bryant's staff at Alabama with $10,000 cash from his office drawer to come back with a young and wild Joe Namath. It took longer than anticipated and Howard ended up writing hot checks on the way back with Namath. (Source: Rising Tide, Joe Namath and Dixie's Last Quarter).

 

[jauk11]

Yes, plus Ermal Allen who spent the majority of his career at Tom Landry's assistant head coach with the Cowboys and Howard Schnellenberger as a graduate assistant. As a footnote, Bryant returned to the Pennsylvania hills for a young quarterback that would propel Alabama in the 60s to national fame. He sent Howard who was on Bryant's staff at Alabama with $10,000 cash from his office drawer to come back with a young and wild Joe Namath. It took longer than anticipated and Howard ended up writing hot checks on the way back with Namath. (Source: Rising Tide, Joe Namath and Dixie's Last Quarter).

Forget all this history, just tell me where Alabama's cash drawer is now, and in today's world it has to have hundreds of thousands in it, not tens of thousands. Didn't Bama spend about $50,000,000 on football last year------and still made a fortune.

Maybe just hang out around the local FedEx offices, maybe one of the envelopes will magically pop open-------hey, didn't it happen once before?

 

[Caveman Catfan]

To bad he is not still here.

 

[PlutoDroid]

On a side note since her name was talked about.... R.I.P Pat Summitt . Heaven just got another angel. Prayers and wishes to her family and friends. To UT fans who might read this board "Hang on Rockytop, rockytop Tennessee!". Hope I said it right. God Bless from the Swamp and SEC.