re: Anyone recall the Louisville fan talking trash on this site?

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Then Belle answer me this, where were the black players at UK in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s? Where were they? Adolph Rupp had the chance to recruit them and openly decided not to because he wanted white players only! It wasn't until the 66 NCAA Title Game against Texas Western that Rupp's stance changed because he knew the days of winning it all with only white players was over.

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Why would the Kentucky Negro Education Association ask him to be their keynote speaker in 1938 if he was such a rampant racist?

In the same year he held a basketball clinic at historically black Kentucky State. He did it multiple years afterward including 1945 (see the article below). Seems kind of counter-productive for someone who was a rampant racist trying to hold African-Americans down.



For a long time the SEC didn't allow the inclusion of black players but he helped kids get on at other Universities.

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In 1950, Rupp attended the Kentucky black high school state tournament, where he noticed a talented black player by the name of Jim Tucker from nearby Paris. After Tucker's team lost in the tournament, Rupp asked for permission to speak with Tucker.

"I knew who he was, and he [Rupp] said to me, 'I'd like you to come to Kentucky, but you know our situation here. But what I'd like to do is contact some of my friends in the coaching community and see if they might have an interest in you because I think you have the ability to become an All-American and a good basketball player."

Rupp did follow through with the offer, and eventually Tucker signed with Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and their coach Donald Moore, who accepted Tucker sight unseen, based solely on Rupp's recommendation. "He said that if Adolph Rupp recommends you, that's the only reason we showed the interest, because if he couldn't have you, then we'd like to."

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When Rupp started the Kentucky All-Star team (that would go on to play Indiana in following years) he named Tucker to that squad. The first african-american player to play with them.



Then you had this as well:

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"When Frank McGuire brought his St. John's team to Lexington in the early '50s, he had a black player named Solly Walker. Walker would be the first black ever to play in Memorial Coliseum. And Adolph called Ed Ashford at the Herald office. I was there at the time. Adolph got Ed to write a column asking people to be tolerant and hospitable to Solly Walker. I can still see Ed typing the story with two fingers. and the St. John's game went just fine." - by Dave Kindred, Lexington Herald Leader, "Calling Rupp a Racist Just Doesn't Ring True," December 22, 1991, pp. F2.

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And that's just a little bit against the bullshite you're touting.