Kentucky fans have all heard of legendary men’s basketball coach Adolph Rupp. His teams won four national championships during his tenure from 1930-1972.
But few fans living today ever met Rupp in person. The coach died in 1977.
A college professor who portrays the coach for Kentucky Chautauqua will offer the next best thing to meeting Rupp when he comes to Hopkinsville next week.
Dr. Edward B. Smith, who teaches theater and film at Georgetown College, will portray Rupp at 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 11, at the Hopkinsville-Christian County Public Library.
Chautauqua performers work with Kentucky Humanities to bring to life people from the past whose stories illuminate the state’s history.
The Kentucky Humanities website describes Rupp’s influence:
“During the 42 years he coached the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team, Adolph Rupp raised the game to near-religious status in the Commonwealth. Rupp’s teams won 880 games, four national championships, and one Olympic gold medal. There was a flip side to all this success — the team was suspended for the 1952-53 season after a point-shaving scandal, and Rupp was heavily criticized for taking too long to integrate the Kentucky basketball program.
“Adolph Rupp grew up in Kansas, the son of immigrant farmers. He played three years of varsity basketball at the University of Kansas, but never scored a point. He began his coaching career in Kansas, but soon moved on to high schools in Iowa and Illinois. The University of Kentucky hired him in 1930. Rupp’s genius for public relations and his team’s winning ways combined to make Kentucky basketball a statewide phenomenon, a point of pride around which Kentuckians of all stripes still rally.”
The Friends of the Library and the local University of Kentucky Alumni Association are sponsoring the program in Hopkinsville. There’s no admission fee, and refreshments will be served.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
