The noted historian Robert Montgomery Knight once said that if the NCAA had been in charge of planning the D-Day Invasion, the Allied troops would have landed in Portugal. Sadly, the same can be said for the organizations that govern thoroughbred racing.
Historically, racing’s leaders pay lip service to the concepts of teamwork and sacrificing for […]

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I never knew that Norm Iler was an All-American basketball player at Washington & Lee, which tells you more about Norm than about my lack of reporting skills. Some people love to talk about themselves. Norm wanted to talk about anything but himself. He was the soul of modesty.
I got to know Norm and his […]

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Don’t get the wrong idea about Larry Jones. He did not catch an incurable case of Kentucky Derby Fever when he finished second last year with Hard Spun. He has plenty of common sense under his trademark cowboy hat. He’s so respectful of convention and history that he gets a sort of crooked grin when […]

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Owen is intellectually brilliant, charming, and a tough negotiator. But he also leads the Western world in pondering, deliberating, and testing which way the wind is blowing.

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This decision stinks. It’s one of the biggest blows to our culture since Gannett cut back the C-J’s statewide circulation and folded The Louisville Times.

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In UK’s disciplined practices, Kron often was the target of Rupp’s sarcasm. Once Rupp stopped practice after a Kron mistake and bellowed, “Did you know I’m writing a book entitled ‘What Not to do in Basketball’? The first 200 pages are about you.”

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Beard was the straw that stirred the drink. He was lightning-quick with the ball and tenacious on defense, but his signature quality was his burning desire to win.

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But the group was unlike anything the painter Rockwell could have imagined in the 1940s and ’50s. In terms of race, religion, and politics, it was every bit as eclectic as the congregation in church. A mixed bag of races, religions, and values, all come together under this one roof, for this afternoon. And best of all, the sense of love was as palpable as the aromas eminating from the kitchen.

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In other words, to many, Liberty represents values that any self-respecting university should disavow. Yet tonight the University of Kentucky mens basketball team will play host to Liberty in Rupp Arena and send it back to Lynchburg, Va., with a big paycheck.

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As it turned out, he had a lot left. He went right from the field to the broadcast booth. Over the next 41 years, he moved from merely popular to immortal.

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