I've been reading the thread regarding some of the players who didn't live up to expectations and I admittedly don't recognize some because they were before my time. I was born in 1982 so I remember watching the Cats in the late 80s. Guys like Hanson, Rob Lock, etc. But my real fandom really began in the early 90s. The Pitino Era is the where I go back for nostalgia. What about some of you all? I know we have some young guys and some old-timers in here too. I'd love to know what Memorial was like back in the day!
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I went to a game in Rupp with my dad once in the Bowie/Turpin era. Unfortunately that isn't my first memory, because I don't remember the game. All I remember is that we ate in the Hyatt restaurant and it took so long for my food to come out an older lady sitting beside us offered me her fries lol.
My first real concrete memory was March 22, 1986. I would've been 8. Kentucky lost to LSU. IIRC we led for much of that game and I kept thinking we were going to win, but it turned at the end. Little did my dumb little kid brain know that over the next 15 years, Dale Brown would figure in to a LOT of UK memories. -
I have some early, foggy memories of watching games with my dad, but probably the clearest that comes to mind is the ‘95 SEC Championship game against Arkansas. Dad was losing his mind, and I wasn’t sure our living room was going to withstand the carnage. I can still hear him dog cussing Rhodes.Comment
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I moved to KY when I was in middle school in the mid-80s. My earliest memories are from Eddie Sutton's first year. The one that sticks out the most is losing to LSU in the tournament when we had to play them for the 4th time that year.
As I've mentioned, my first in person game at Rupp was the game vs Navy and David Robinson in 1987.Comment
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The blue and white game for the 1994 season was my first in-person experience . Got a high five from Walter McCarty.
Roderick Rhodes helped me learn how to curse, as my parents watched the games on separate televisions .Comment
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My Daddy had a good friend from Mason County that he bought cattle from whose brother was on the UK Ag faculty. Back in the 60's faculty got free tickets to UK basketball games. Several times a year he would leave tickets for my Daddy at the Campbell House for him. I just remember how thrilled I was to go with to the front desk and pick them up there....back then hotels had real keys and they had a big slot wall behind the desk for keys and mail etc. Of course those slots are no longer behind the front desk but the memory is. We would always go over and eat at the Student Center before the game because that is where the pre-game meal for the players was and every once in a while you would see one of them. My fondest memory was coming up the stairwell at the Student Center , looking up, and here comes Mike Pratt down the stairs in a tan 3/4 length rain coat...He said, "hey little fella." I was speechless...but I bothered my mother for it seemed like months about getting a raincoat just like Pratt's. She finally gave in and bought me one.... Games at Memorial Coliseum were magical and I am sorry so many never got to witness a game there in the pre-1976 configuration. The lighting was so special because when the game started the only lights that were on were on the court...it was like a performing arts theatre...perfecet acoustics, best home court in America.Comment
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Remember when they used to do the post-season barn storming tour? Right after they lost to Duke in 1992 they came to Summit Junior High (now Boyd County Middle School) and I got to play a pickup game at halftime with Feldhaus and Sean Woods. Pretty cool for a 10 year old kid!Comment
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Nice!
I played (very sparingly iirc) against Chris Harrison and I believe Andre Riddick. And also, weirdly, a couple of the guys from the country group Sawyer Brown (I played against them a few times, as my middle school coach was friends with them and they'd come down sometimes and play pick-up; one of them was very good and had played college ball somewhere).Comment
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Watching Sam Bowie handle the basketball like a guard at a prior to Kentucky at a allstar game in Louisville.Comment
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The 1970 team is where it starts for me. I remember Issel's 53 point game at Ole Miss. The loss to Jacksonville to end the season was my first sports heartbreak.Comment
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Listening to Claude Sullivan with.my older brothers On an old floor model philco. Radio reception.was terrible.
waH Wah was all American and the cats were national champions.
My interest really peaked with Hagan and Ramsey and has not slowed down
GO CATS!
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Pretty much a Cat since birth. My earlier memories might be around the 96 team. I was about 8, and I still have my old Tony Delk Converse jersey. Dad and I went out back and cut the net off our hoop and lit fireworks off after beating Syracuse.
I do still remember crying with my dad after the 97 title game.Comment
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The Kentucky/UCLA championship. Grevey, Flynn, Connor, Robert Phiilips Lee and Givens.
Over time I got over it. Maybe because as Wooden said in a friendlier reunion years later : 'if you had played defense, Mr Grevey things may have worked out more like you wanted'.Comment
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Remember '75 team, but '77 and on are more clearer. Do Remember the '76 NIT team.Comment
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I remember not watching them. When I was a kid, my ole man bought everything used and broken. Our TVs always did the thing where the picture rolled repeatedly, plus he never put an antenna on it. He would wad up a piece of Reynolds's wrap and try to make an antenna. It looked like a rolling snowstorm. We watched the games like that for years. i was born in the 50',s but never knew what Rupp looked like until we got a decent TV in the early seventies.The value of time is beyond computation. Life is too short to be trifled away. We have but a few days of probation in which to prepare for eternity.Comment
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