Originally Published on November 30, 2004 on Kentucky Commerce Cabinet News Digest

FRANKFORT, Ky., Nov. 30 – Former University of Kentucky basketball coach Joe B. Hall celebrates his 76^th birthday today, and it can only be hoped that he receives a big present from WHAS radio personality Terry Meiners.

            Today, more than 19 years since Hall gave up his duties as Adolph Rupp’s successor, Meiners still is getting mileage out of “The Beasman,” a fictional character based on Hall. Almost daily, “The Beasman” calls Meiners to gloat about UK and roast the University of Louisville.

            In reality, of course, Hall’s posture toward U of L has changed considerably from the 1970s and early ‘80s, when he and former UK Athletics Director Cliff Hagan steadfastly refused to play the Cardinals in a regular-season series.

            One reason is that his son-in-law, Mike Summers, is on the U of L payroll as the offensive line coach of the Cardinals’ nationally ranked football team. The Cards lead the nation in total offense largely because of Summers’ charges.

Amazingly, at least to those who remember the animosity of the past, Hall spends more time in U of L Athletic Director Tom Jurich’s luxury suite at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium than his former nemesis, ex-Cardinal coach Denny Crum.

            The ultimate irony is that Hall and Crum now are co-hosts of a morning radio call-in show that’s carried on WXXA (790-AM) in Louisville, a sister station to WHAS, and WXRA (1580-AM) in Lexington.

            Both Hall and Crum enjoy talking about fishing and hunting as much as they do basketball, a fact that naturally endears them to everyone who works in the Fish and Wildlife department of the Kentucky Commerce Cabinet.

            “Joe and I have a lot of the same passions,” said Crum when the program began last year. “We both love baseball and football. We both like to hunt and fish. We both like horses. We both like basketball and coaching.”

            They both also like country music. Hall even recorded a couple of songs with rivals Al McGuire and Bob Knight in the early 1980s. He did that because Hall, like Crum, also likes money.

Even at the height of their feud in the early 1980s, they posed together for a Converse sneaker poster that now is a collector’s item among both UK and U of L fans.

Hall’s flip-flop on U of L and Crum has encouraged some Republicans to hope that he might also change his political views. His father was a Harrison County sheriff, and his mother was a local women’s Democratic Party chairwoman.

While still coaching UK, Hall actively worked on the campaigns of Scotty Baesler, the ex-Wildcat basketball captain who was elected as both a Democratic mayor of Lexington and a U.S. Congressman, and Terry McBrayer, who ran unsuccessfully against John Y. Brown Jr. for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1979.

In 2003, Hall campaigned actively for Democrat Ben Chandler, who was buried in the landslide that made Ernie Fletcher the first Republican Governor of Kentucky in 32 years. Hall said he did it out of respect for Chandler’s grandfather, A.B. “Happy” Chandler, the former Governor and U.S. Senator who often sang “My Old Kentucky Home” before UK games.

            “I’m a longtime Democrat,” Hall once said. “I’ve always been politically minded. I see it as a responsibility.”

            In 13 seasons as Rupp’s successor, Hall had a 292-100 record for a .748 winning percentage. He took three teams to the NCAA Final Four, winning the championship in 1978 and finishing second to John Wooden’s last UCLA team in 1975. He also won the 1976 NIT championship.

            He has been a good sport about Meiner’s “Beasman” character, even calling the show to exchange quips with the WHAS funny man. Of course, in a strange way, Meiners has been as good for Hall as the “Beasman” character has been good for him.

            After all, what other coach still is a daily part of his state’s culture almost two decades after his retirement?

            Happy birthday and happy fishing, Coach Hall.  And whatever your politics, both you and “The Beasman” are welcome in Fletcher’s Frankfort.