Butch Beard's UK Recruitment

[JPS]

I mentioned earlier this Collegebasketballarchive (newspaperlibraryarchive) which allows you to search through literally millions of newspaper articles.

Below is an article which discusses Butch Beard and his desire to play for UK, even though he had already earlier signed a letter of intent with the Missouri Valley Conference to play at Louisville. It's very intersting, and suggests that the Beard family was much more serious about going to UK than even I had thought.

http://www.collegebasketballarchive.com/Viewer.aspx?img=38592231

It also lends some historical context to a comment Neil Reed made in the recent Rupp documentary where he said: "Coach Rupp got on the phone to the Commissioner of the Missouri Valley. He just laughed in Coach Rupp's face and since Coach Rupp was not the most popular guy with the NCAA or anybody else he beat all the time, there was nobody helped him. Nobody helped him. He got no help from the SEC office."

Jon

PS, for those who may have trouble with the link above, here is a copy of the article which I've included on my Rupp (http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/rupp.html) page. (along with a number of articles about Wes Unseld's recruitment.)

http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/Graphics/Articles/19650531LetterofIntent.jpg

[Lost Highway]

In the event someone missed the date of this article, it is May 31, 1965. The Rupp's Runts played in the year 1965-1966. Coach Rupp was recruiting black players before the 1966 championship game.

I really thought we had Butch Beard and I think he would have fit in nice at UK.As students his recruitment was the big topic of talk on campus and most of us were certain he would break the color barrier. It was a HUGE disappointment when it didn't happen. I don't believe the problems some people feared would have occurred if he had signed with the Cats.

If Butch had attended UK he would have made All American under Coach Rupp and history would've been written a little different than it was.

[Wildcat Larry]

In the DVD, Adolph Rupp Myth, Legend and Fact, the Beard recruitment was addressed pretty good, but this attempt by the Beard family to hire an attorney to find a way for him to attend UK didn't come out. This is the first I've even heard of this and it's very interesting.

[JPS]

Wildcat Larry wrote: In the DVD, Adolph Rupp Myth, Legend and Fact, the Beard recruitment was addressed pretty good, but this attempt by the Beard family to hire an attorney to find a way for him to attend UK didn't come out. This is the first I've even heard of this and it's very interesting.

Yeah, the nice thing about newspaperarchive is that although it doesn't currently archive any papers from Lexington, it at least provides some actual dates which can allow people to go back to the local microfilm and zero in on various events.

This is one event that I'll be sure to go back (someday when I get the chance) and check the Lexington and Louisville papers to see what they have to say about this situation.

Jon

PS, when I read about these things, I also have to wonder how big of a story this would have been if there had been an internet in existence at the time. ;)

[Athens2005]

"If Beard received a scholarship to Kentucky, he would be the first Negro athlete to sign a major sport grant in the Southeastern conference."


Quotes like that are really invaluable in helping to dispel the "Rupp was a racist" myth.
This was the entire conference, not just Kentucky.

I've become increasingly interested in this topic recently, as I have a co-worker who was friends with Rupp & Lancaster back in the 1960's.
I'm not comfortable sharing his stories (because this world is a little too small); but nonetheless, what I hear from him supports what University of Kentucky fans all seem to know, and the rest of the country chooses to ignore.

Becoming the first black player to play for the University of Kentucky was a huge deal.
It wasn't just about getting the best players, it was about taking on the challenge of being the first black player at the premier program in college basketball, in a traditionally segregated part of the country.

For a parallel, do a little research on Jackie Robinson.
When Branch Rickey signed Robinson, he wasn't signing the best black player in baseball, he was signing a guy who could handle the pressure of being the first black man to play Major League Baseball.

Rupp was faced with a similar challenge at UK. It wasn't just about recruiting blacks, it was about recruiting the player that would break the color barrier.

[SamKat]

Thanks Jon and others. 1965-1966. It would have been interesting and would have robbrd Kurry Kirkpatrick of his big story several years later and, perhaps, have given another program a Glory Road opportunity.

[The Old School JPS]

Jon, I've been told that either the CJ or LHL ran a story and photo of Rupp doing an in home visit with Wes Unseld's family and that Governor Breathitt went with him. Have you ever come across this?

[JPS]

The Old School JPS wrote:
Jon, I've been told that either the CJ or LHL ran a story and photo of Rupp doing an in home visit with Wes Unseld's family and that Governor Breathitt went with him.Â* Have you ever come across this?


I had not heard that but it wouldn't suprise me (at least as far as running a story). The only photo I've seen of Rupp in an in-house visit was when he signed Tom Payne. If you happen to run across additional information or the photo with respect to Unseld, I'd be interested in seeing it.

FWIW, one reason I haven't looked more into this to date is that I was not sure of the dates. But the more I look through newspaperarchive, the more I'm zeroing in on dates I can work with. (Although so far newspaperarchive doesn't cover much of anything in Kentucky.) I recently added a number of articles about Unseld's recruitment to my Rupp page and in one of them (published April 21, 1964), it mentions that Rupp had visited Unseld the week before. So that would be worth a try for someone to check the microfilm from that time period. ;)

While it is known that the Governor was openly campaigning for Unseld to attend UK, I don't know whether he ever visited Unseld's family. (And if he did, I don't think he went with Rupp.) But maybe so. UK President John Oswald did travel to Louisville to make a recruiting pitch to Unseld but that was a separate trip from Rupp's.

Jon