re: The Chitown Massacre: UCLA - 42 vs. Kentucky - 83 | CBS | FINAL

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Cards will be interesting. If UK is beating the other big boys by 30 pt avg then they need to beat the Cards by 50 just to make some in the state happy.

That would be the greatest Christmas gift to many in the state. That ticket is hard to come by this year.

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FIFY, capitalized Christmas.

True story ...

When I was a young man, my Dad became a Kentucky Colonel (long story, but it was really an honor for an out-of-stater at the time ... Dad had rescued a Kentucky man in Vietnam.)

So the night of the big party, my Dad came to the man's house where we were staying as guests (he was also a KY Colonel), they were drunk, told me to get dressed we were going to a basketball game. (We were in Louisville at the time, for the ceremony, and they put-us-up out in Pleasure Ridge Park near the Waterson Expressway if this rings a bell to anyone.)

So we go to this Louisville basketball game and what I remember most about the game is Wes Unseld. But what I remember most about the whole night was, I was a teenager mind you, this was 1967, and during the game, which was supposed to be this celebration of Dad becoming a Kentucky Colonel among a bunch of other hard corp Vietnam active duty soldiers and sailors and at least two pilots I remember at the time ... this fight broke-out between Wildcat supporters and Cardinal Supporters over basketball, why they refused to play one another at the time, etc., who would win, something about coaches and players and then someone insulted someone's hooer wife and ... talked to Dad about this the other day. He's still not sure who said what between the two factions, but it was a throw-down. Wildcat fans were sorta pissed about the party ending-up there ... I dunno. One of the girls claimed someone grabbed a tit or something. It was the first drink of hard liquor I had ever had that night, on the sligh.

I still remember a lot of things.

First, I remember how viscous the rivalry was back then even though it wasn't being played and I remember thinking, damn, this is crazy. Why is everyone yelling and screaming and pushing and then wham ...

Secondly, I remember the exact address of the house, because Dad has been hit over the left eye with a liquor bottle and he was having a major problem and they called emergency help through the operator and the lady of the house kept telling them "corner of Benny and Madrone, corner of Benny and Madrone."

So this big round white ambulance shows up with cops, and they take my Dad to this hospital - well, what I remember was him telling them he wanted his Son to ride with him and we go out a few blocks down Madrone and then we take a left and go up this sort of main thoroughfare and there was a hospital there, up on a hill, and some people were riding cardboard down the snow on the hill, that looked like a mountain to me, in the dark with candles.

Dad had a fractured skull from his right eye socket up his forehead.

There's a lot more to this story, but Dad still has the scar. He's an old man now. He was a mean SOB back then, still is. It wasn't the only fight I saw him get into, not counting the ones with my brothers and me.

He told me the other night that he still gets stuff in the mail from the Kentucky Colonels.

No charges were ever filed, he never paid a dime in hospital bills and it was never reported to the Army when he reported back for duty. He got shot again, about two months later, and they finally sent him home for good that last time.

Those were different days ... except Kentucky and Louisville still hated one another. Why they didn't play for all those years has always made me wonder as my life has progressed. It had so much potential - I dunno.