Rupp, Adolph F.
Basketball
b. Sept. 2, 1901, Halstead, KS
d. Dec. 10, 1977
Rupp played basketball for the great "Phog" Allen at the University of Kansas and he eventually broke Allen's record for most college coaching victories. After graduating in 1923, he coached high school basketball for seven years and then took over at the University of Kentucky in 1930.
Stern and often outspoken, Rupp once said, "I know I have plenty of enemies, but I'd rather be the most hated winning coach in the country than the most popular losing one." He became known as the "Baron of the Bluegrass" at Kentucky, where he developed one of the most successful basketball programs in history.
Using the fast break and a tenacious man-to-man defense, Kentucky teams won 874 games and lost only 190 during his 41-year tenure. His .822 winning percentage is third all-time. Rupp won 27 Southeastern Conference championships and four NCAA tournaments, in 1948, 1949, 1951, and 1958.
When the college basketball point-shaving scandal broke in 1950, Rupp snarled, "Gamblers couldn't get at our players with a ten-foot pole." However, five of his players were eventually implicated and Kentucky was put on probation for the 1952-53 season. The school dropped basketball entirely, but Rupp held practices throughout the season and Kentucky won all 25 of its games in 1953-54, led by Cliff Hagan, Frank Ramsay, and Lou Tsioropoulos.
The three were ruled ineligible for post-season play because they had completed their degree requirements the previous year, so Kentucky didn't compete in the 1954 NCAA tournament.
Rupp was forced to retire after the 1971-72 season because of his age. He commented, "If they don't let me coach, they might as well take me to the Lexington Cemetery." However, he became an executive with the Memphis Tams and the Kentucky Colonels in the American Basketball Association before his death.
Named the college coach of the year by United Press International in 1959, Rupp was a consensus choice for the honor in 1966. He was voted coach of the century by the Columbus, OH, Touchdown Club in 1967.