By LARRY VAUGHT
He was an All-American at Duquesne and helped the Dukes reach the NCAA Elite Eight, became one of the first two African-Americans in the NBA to play on a championship team and even played with and against the Harlem Globetrotters.
It was quite a successful basketball career for James D. Tucker of Paris — who is known as Jim or J.D. to his friends — and even today he says he owes it all to legendary University of Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp, the man often accused of being a racist .
Tucker, 79, made it clear during a trip back to Kentucky for his induction into the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame — he led Paris Western to four straight Kentucky High School League state tourney berths from 1947-50.
“I still feel the same about Adolph Rupp as I did back in 1950 when he helped change my life,†said Tucker. “Had it not been for coach Rupp, I would have still been in Paris, Ky., and that’s not what I wanted to do.â€
Instead, he helped Duquesne routinely stayed ranked in the top 10, including a two-week stint at No. 1 in 1954 during a 26-win season, and averages 4.1 points per game during a three-year NBA career with the Syracuse Nationals that included the 1955 championship. After spending time with the Globetrotters, he worked 20 years for the Pillsbury Corporation and 15 years for Northwest Airlines, both in Minneapolis.
Tucker did not have a scholarship offer when Rupp saw him play and was impressed. At that time, Kentucky had no African-American athletes and the South certainly was not ready to add black athletes to its major sports programs. However, Rupp told Tucker he wanted to help him find a big-time college that could use his talent.
“I knew with his power and relationships with other college coaches and how much they admired him in spite of what they were saying about him that he might make that happen,†Tucker said. “Believe it or not, I had a scholarship offered to me by one school I won’t name and they said, ‘If Adolph Rupp recommends you, then you have a scholarship.’ That same day I received a telegram from Duquesne saying they had reviewed all my credential and were prepared to offer me a full scholarship.
“That is the power he had. He did not have to do that. He did not have to make one phone call for me. He did not have to come down and say I had a lot of talent and since I had not heard from any black colleges that he was going to help me.â€
But Rupp did even though critics have always accused him of being a racist and resisting integration, among other things. About seven years ago WKYT-TV in Lexington did a documentary on Rupp and the role not only Rupp but UK played in integration — Rupp’s first black player was Tom Payne in 1970. That documentary gave Rupp’s players a chance to tell their side of the story about the coach they insisted was not a racist.
The documentary also included Tucker praising Rupp for helping him and noted that Rupp twice petitioned the SEC to integrate — both were denied — and that Rupp add Don Barksdale, an African-American, to the 1948 Olympic team.
“I would have enjoyed playing for him,†Tucker said. “I played with Cliff Hagan, Frank Ramsey and some other University of Kentucky players on the Globetrotters and they were gentlemen. They were just very nice people. I would not have had any problems playing with them because they were just delightful, regular people. Same with coach Rupp.
“I think coach Rupp saw me play and just thought I had the talent to play at a big-time school. He didn’t want me to waste me talents. The rest is history. When you get two scholarship offers just based on Adolph Rupp’s recommendation, that says it all. We never really crossed paths again. We did not stay in touch, but I always watched Kentucky play whenever I could. Somehow it just did not seem to matter to him or me that we take it any further as long as I was doing what he thought I should be doing.â€
Tucker did everything well. He retired to Florida before moving back to Minnesota recently because of his wife’s work — she is sales and marketing manager in charge of the Midwest for her company — but made so many friends in Florida that 15 of them surprised him Saturday by coming to Lexington for his KHSAA induction. The ceremony just happened to fall on the same weekend they normally get together at Daytona Beach, Fla., for a weekend golf outing.
“They are a great bunch of guys and I am so glad they came,†Tucker said. “The whole event was magnificent. I told Earl Lloyd (the other African-American on the 1955 NBA championship team) that it was the greatest show I have ever been to. Everything went absolutely perfect. You would have thought it was a MGM production. People at my table were tearing up. My wife was tearing up. There was not a dry eye, including mine, at our table.â€
Tucker said numerous people at the induction ceremony thanked him for “setting the record straight†about Rupp during his remarks.
“What he did, he did. He did something special for me. I got an education, played ball and got good jobs because of what he did,†Tucker said. “People still ask me about him and I will never say anything bad. He did not do anything for me but give me a life I never would have had without him.â€
Doesn’t exactly make Rupp sound like the racist bigot some portray.
“The way I felt was that the situation he was in, he did not have a choice (about integration). The administration did that,†Tucker said. “He did manage to get Tom Payne, and then he had problems. But I am sure the good ole Kentucky boys didn’t really want to integrate that school. Kentucky was No. 1 for so many years and did not need to add that distraction. But that was not Adolph Rupp’s decision to make.
“Coach Rupp and his players were not like that. When I was traveling with the Globetrotters and playing with and against Hagan, Ramsey and those guys, it was fine. We flew together, played cards together, played basketball together. They all knew what kind of man Adolph Rupp was and so did I and no matter what anyone else has ever said, I’ve never had a reason to doubt that what I know is right.â€
28 Responses to Adolph Rupp a racist? James D. Tucker says no way after what Kentucky coach did for him 62 years ago
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Thanks Mr. Tucker and congrats on your induction.
The timing of this story could not be better for me Larry. I had an old dear friend whose daughter graduated from UL surprise me when she inferred that Rupp was a racist. I drew her attention to Mr. Tucker. I don’t think she will ever watch Rupp; Myth, Legend, and Fact but I sent her a link to this article.
Fantastic article, Larry! I try to set the record straight here in Tennessee when folks talk about Coach Rupp, but it mostly gets lost on deaf ears. So, thanks for helping to get the truth out. I appreciate Mr. Tucker sharing his story.
Can you imagine how hard of a sell it would have been for Rupp to the parents of a black player that if he came to Kentucky to play basketball he would have to go Ga, Ala, Miss, La, and Fl multiple times a year and most likely would be the only black in the building. He would not be able to stay in the same hotel, eat at the same restaraunt as the rest of the team. In so many ways, it was the SEC was not ready for us to have a black player.
This player would have to have been much thicker skinned than Jackie Robinson. MLB at that time, had no teams in the South. Cinci and St. Louis would be the closest.
Most of the racist thoughts of Rupp are spurned from the Texas Western game.
I have often wondered what the legacy would have been had we lost to Duke in the final four in 1966. Duke was an all white team then (and hey they even have more whites now than most teams) and the media darling ACC was all white as well.
Just think what would (or would not) have been said about Duke.
Expecting a lot of different opinions about Rupp today. Tucker was very strong in his praise. And Rupp did add him to an all-star team he coached when Tucker graduated. Those times were so different, but Tucker sure does not feel Rupp was a racist and those who played for him swear he was not
The comments in this story do nothing to make me believe Rupp wasn’t a racist. For most minorities Rupp will ALWAYS represent racism in KY. If he had of said that Rupp fought to get him on UK’s team that would have been something different. Even slave masters would treat slaves good as long as they stayed in their place and didn’t cross any lines. He didn’t stay in touch with this young man, he just helped him get into a school where he felt he “belonged”. Most minorities believe he was a racist and would love to see UK get a new arena with a new name!!!!!!
Cat Fan. You are entitled to your misguided opinion.
Cat fan I think you don’t know what your talking about you should shut ur mouth!
When most people believed the earth was flat did that make it true? Mass hysteria is no basis for reality. What really irks me is that so many adopt such a confrontational, wrong headed position. Rupp did a great deal for black people but he gets very little credit for it. Maybe if your children need the help of the Chilren’s Hospital in Lexington you might want to thank Mr. Rupp. He was a regular visitor there too and that included the black children. You are so far wrong on this it’s amazing. Rupp coached black players when he was a high school coach.
How about this. The state of Kentucky did not allow blacks to attend UK until like 1949, long after Rupp had been the coach. After that it would have been, just as John said, a matter of self preservation to not play for UK if you were black. What John didn’t mention was that in large parts of the Jim Crow south any black caught riding in a vehicle with a white person would have been lynched. And so would the white person. Would you like to tour the south and make the good old boys look really bad on the basketball floor under those conditions?
The fact is you have zero proof that Rupp was a racist because none exists. I’ve looked into this before. Sure you can buy the lies of the national media, which BTW hated Rupp, because he went to Madison Square Garden and thumped the so called great NY college teams. It was right after WWII and Rupp was of German descent. And he shared a name with Hitler. So it was all too easy to portray Rupp as a racist and insinuate that he was a Nazi. I can show you news reports from that era that did exactly that.
You live in a dream world if you believe everything the national media puts out. They lie. They have an agenda and it ain’t making UK look good. I could go on for hours with examples of how they have tried to hurt UK. It’s staggering the lengths they have gone to in order to discredit Rupp. And those quotes from the Texas Western game supposedly said by Rupp must have been whispered where only a certain reporter could hear them because every single player on that team denies he said that stuff.
Was Rupp perfect? Of course not. Was he the monster racist all those “minorities” that think he was that racist are full of bull. And before you start accusing me of being a racist you might want to ask me what my race is. No I’m not black. But I am substantially Native American. That makes me a minority the last time I checked and I certainly don’t believe the stuff you said. So don’t assume you speak for all “minorities”. And for a UK fan you have a mighty warped view of the man who created the tradition. Maybe you should go to another arena where you might feel more at home with the other Rupp haters.
Everyone has the right to be wrong I guess. And you sure took advantage of that right.
Hey Cat Fan, you’re entitled to your misguided opinion. Rupp had black players on his high school teams in Illinois in the 1920′s.
Frank DeFord of Sports Illustrated is the national media guy who started this smear campaign of Rupp. It just shows you the power of the press.
Actually Andy the smear campaign goes back to the late 40′s. It was the NY press that started the junk about Rupp. It was right after WWII, UK had to follow state law that prohibited blacks from attending the university, and Rupp was of German ancestry. So naturally he was Hitler’s brother. They shared a name after all.
But I’ve seen columns from back in the early 50′s that talk about the slander about Rupp that had already been going on a long time. DeFord just cashed in on what he knew the national press wanted to hear. He worked for Loserville CJ at the time and the national press ate up a Ky guy bashing Rupp. The whole dynamic is still playing out with certain local newspaper guys trying to make their bones with the national press by bashing UK. They all hope to follow DeFord and get a job at a national sports rag like SI. I won’t mention any names but I will mention some initials. Those initials would be Jerry Tipton. Oops! I guess I spilled the beans. The truth is out now.
Just for the record I’d like to post some info I found on this web page:
http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/dateline.html
This is from a book by Ed Ashford. It shows the way things were in the sainted North Carolina back in the 1950′s.
“Those in the know say that the real reason the teams are quartered in NC State dormitories here instead of hotels is because no Raleigh hotel would accept Negroes as guests. There are Negro players on both the Penn State and St. Johns squads.
While there had been a few times before 1952 when NCAA regionals were held in the South, this was the first time they hosted black players…”
And people wonder why Rupp didn’t have any black players until much later. If I find the column that talks about Rupp being called a racist back in the early 50′s I’ll post it later.
One of the things we should always remember is how hard it is to change a perception that has been repeated ad naseum. Some people just will not change their mind, even with the facts (I thnk that is called prejudice). Judging the past with limited knowledge and by modern standards is a form of snobbery and prejudice itself.
In the 21st century Mr. Rupp would not be PC (neither would most men or women who lived in the US during those tough years).
Larry, thanks for the article. As always – good work.
Mark, your comments are “spot on”. I’d love to change the opinions of many about Rupp. Thanks to you, Larry, for sharing these stories that might help.
Fella who lived next door to our place near La Grange, Illinois was a huge basketball fan. His son was maybe 15 years older than I was and had graduated from Freeport High school in the early 1930′s. Freeport was a pretty good basketball school at that time and apparently it was due to the coaching expertise of one Adolph Rupp. Rupp had immigrated to Freeport from Kansas, his birthplace, with a short stay somewhere in Iowa.
This guy used to tell me stories about his BB coach (Rupp) and a team mate named Mosely who apparently was a black kid, one of the first to play anywhere in Illinois. A coincidence that he played for Adolph Rupp?? Guess that’s for us to decide.
Cat Fan,
I’m sorry that you cannot understand the times Rupp lived in. Even if Rupp had fought to get this young man on the team the other teams in the SEC would have refused to play Kentucky. Rupp knew this and he helped this young man excel and get an opportunity. He exhibited zero racism in doing this, if he was a racist he would not have offered this man an ounce of assistance.
And no thanks we’ll keep Rupp Arena, you need to open up your mind and start reading about and researching this issue. It’s easy to call Rupp a racist, but the evidence just doesn’t support it.
Cat Fan, Miss State turned down an NCAA invite because they didn’t want their players on the court with blacks. Rupp would have had a futile fight against SEC racism in those days. UK and Rupp were hated by SEC schools for beating them so badly, so there was little he could have done. After the gambling scandals by a few UK players, most SEC schools wanted to boot UK out of the league. UT was the one school that stood with UK, and Rupp always pointed out “UT is our friend” despite the rivalry.
I think Coach Rupp gets a horrible rap for being a racist…did the man use terms that most of us find offensive today…I would guess probably. I have always felt that if the other schools in the SEC cared about basketball like they did football integration would have happened earlier…it took much turmoil and a turbelent sixties for it to happen. The scene from Foresst Gump is real…Governor Wallace stood and blocked those kids from going to Alabama.
This is from Sam Cunninghams wikipedia page Sam had a notable performance (135 yards, 2 touchdowns) against an all-white University of Alabama football team, as USC beat Alabama 42-21 in Birmingham on September 12, 1970. His performance in the game was reportedly a factor in convincing the University of Alabama and its fans to let Coach Bear Bryant integrate Southern football. Jerry Claiborne, a Bryant assistant, said, “Sam Cunningham did more to integrate Alabama in 60 minutes than Martin Luther King did in 20 years.”[2][3]
Such marvelous comments and Mr. Tucker, thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing this with the BBN. I get so tired of hearing the racist stories about Coach Rupp. We all know why, the hotels and restaurants would not have allowed his players of color to sleep or eat with the rest of the team. I also get tired of the bad rap that one of my living hero’s receives every day, Mohammed Ali. He was 4 months shy of being to old for the draft, he had been a muslin for several years. He gave up his livelihood to stand by his beliefs and was cleared by the US Supreme Court.
Coach Rupp was a lot of things, he was gruff, he never took responsibility for loses, it was always, well, the boys didn’t…however, when they won, it was We played a good game. But maybe it was their fault they lost because they didn’t listen to him! LOL
No one will ever be able to waiver my respect or thoughts about either of these two men. They both have left a legacy that many men would wish to have even half.
Mr. Tucker, have you ever thought about writing a book about your life. It sounds like there are some life lessons and interesting facts that might inspire other people. Again, thank you!
A diffent time,sleep well Mr,t RUPP.
Part of the problem in that time,and now, miight have been his fist name.
Larry you out did yourself with this post it’s great and looks in the face of an bad , untrue , lie. Rupp had only one issue with black players on his team and that was taking them into the deep south places like ole Miss to play and there safety . People whom make these racist , bigot statements are out in left field . Larry with all due respect even if they are to stupid to operate an computor to research , or unable to read , hell they have all seen Forest Gump . I think they addressed those times in one SEC state . Remember Gov. Wallace at the entrance of the school ! For anyone to attempt to blame an state of affairs such as those on an coach is very very stupid. I hope John Calarpi reads this and see’s Larry he’s in great company. God knows he is hit with alot of lies .Howevr it’s nice to know what these fools say is of no value in any section of life specially UK. Rest in Peace coach Rupp ,
Bluedavid, I had read something one time about his name and being right after WWII.
You probably read my comments Linda. I’ve mentioned that many times. I’ve seen news stories talking about just that from the early 50′s.
Tom Burke, I find the comment by Jerry Clairborne very interesting. if you can’t beat em, join em.
I find it interesting that Coach Bear Bryant gets a pass for not integrating Alabama football until 1971 (and being in the same conference as UK)…apparently for Bear, it wasn’t his decision (probably true), but for Rupp it was?? (unfair)…my guess is had Wes Unseld decided to join UK in the 60′s, Coach Rupp would have welcomed him with open arms…it’s unfortunate in our Disney culture (The Glory Road fantasy film) that truth gets brushed aside for drama
Dave, great point on Bear Bryant. You never hear or see him bashed like Rupp always has been
Coach Rupp has been portrayed as a racist by the media. I really believe he was not a racist and I’m happy to see Mr. Tucker tell what he thinks about coach Rupp. I felt like the movie, ” Glory Road ” made Rupp look very bad in a very inaccurate way. The movie actually showed rebel flags and the song Dixie played when Kentucky took the floor in the 1966 championship game. I watched the game and never noticed this at all. Thank you Mr. Tucker for the good words for The great coach Rupp.
Im my experience, the majority of people that call Adolph Rupp a racist happen to be Louisville Cardinal fans, for some odd reason. I have heard a story that Rupp desperately wanted Wes Unseld to play for him, but either he or his parents didn’t want him to be the first black kid there and he ended up at Louisville.
Also, I remember Rick Pitino addressing the rumors and calling them nonsense, when he was at Kentucky, and then insinuating that Kentucky was racist, now that he is at Louisville. But, he still gets beat out for the best recruits, even in his own back yard.