By LARRY VAUGHT
Count me as one who is not sad, or surprised, that Kentucky is no longer playing an annual game in Louisville’s Freedom Hall. That became clear when the non-conference basketball schedule came out Tuesday and to most fans, it should not have made much difference.
Why? Because not many fans had been going to the game.
One, opponents most years have not been big-name teams. Two, Freedom Hall is not what is used to be facility-wise. There was a reason Louisville wanted, and got, a new arena. Three, Kentucky can make more money with a game in Rupp Arena and have far less hassles.
I’m old enough to remember when UK played North Carolina in Freedom Hall or split tickets with Indiana and had some great games there. I’ve watched some epic UK-Notre Dame battles in Freedom Hall. I also have seen some of the most enthusiastic UK crowds ever at shootarounds the day before a game at Freedom Hall.
But the shootarounds have been abandoned, there’s never going to be a big-name foe UK will play in Freedom Hall when the Cats can go to places like Brooklyn and Atlanta instead, and the facility is lacking.
I’m not even sure how many fans are that upset about no Freedom Hall game.
However, what I want to know today is what is your favorite memory of Kentucky playing in Freedom Hall. It can be a game against Louisville, North Carolina, Indiana, Notre Dame or anyone else. It can be the shootaround story. It can be a postgame memory.
If we get enough responses, I’ll let some folks here pick the one they like the best and send you a special gift to enjoy.
So put on those thinking hats — and creativity is encouraged — and share your favorite Freedom Hall memory with me (and mine might be the meltdown that former IU coach Mike Davis had or maybe the shooting exhibition Derrick Miller and Rex Chapman put on against Louisville or Jimmy Dan Conner’s performance against North Carolina or Josh Harrellson’s breakout performance against the Cards or …)
23 Responses to What is your favorite memory of Kentucky and Freedom Hall
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Rex Chapman burning Louisville with 26 points as a freshman, and leaving Billy Packer without anything bad to say about Kentucky. (I don’t know which I enjoyed the most, winning the game or Packer almost speechless.)
I don’t remember the year but i was in high school. the cats where playing the Irish in the late sixties. Notre Dame had an all american and I don’t remember if it was Adrian Dantly or Austin Carr and we had Pratt and Issel. We barely won and the game I believe was in the 90 point range. Pratt lite it up for 30 plus and issel had a great game too. A long time ago but I left and said that was the best game I ever saw period.
That is a great memory Steve
That’s the same game I was thinking about. It was Austin Carr playing for ND. He scored 43 points. Pratt had 42 and Issel had 35. UK won in OT 102-100. That was one fantastic game featuring some all-time talent. The two teams met in the regional semi-finals that year too and UK won 109-99. Carr had 52 points in that game. Issel had 44. Those two guys were two of the best players to ever walk on to a basketball court IMO. They played in Louisville every year in those days. It was before the IU series began. BTW Carr played UK one more time after that regional loss. The next year ND won and Carr scored 50. What can I say. That guy could light it up. If there had been a 3 point line when he played he could have averaged 50 a game easy.
UK was ranked #1 in the Dec. 1969 game. ND was ranked #11. Remember too that Carr and the Irish became the bookends of the UCLA 88 game win streak when Carr scored 46 and the UCLA streak sat at zero. 88 games later ND again beat UCLA to end that streak of wins with Adrian Dantley as the star of the show although a guy named Brokaw actually scored the most points in that game for ND. Still beating UCLA in those days was no small feat. The Bruins had not lost a non-conference game for 3 years prior to that Austin Carr led ND loss.
Those were heady days for college basketball. UCLA had put it on the national map where it had been ignored since the scandals of the early 50′s. And ND turned out to be the arch-nemesis for the Sam Gilbert financed team from LA. And guess who it was that made a chump out of the media’s darling upset coach, Digger Phelps? You guessed it. The mighty UK Wildcats dominated Phelps completely. His only wins came in situations like the Hall season when he coached the team to a .500 record and also the sanction team that actually lost more games than it won. He did manage 2 other wins but they were both against weak UK teams. He lost 12 times to the Cats during that period and he still hates the Cats to this day as evidenced by his diatribe at Vandy last year where he lectured UK fans as if they were infants. Maybe he should have gone to Bloomington and dished out some of his “charm” on that crowd.
Coming home to Louisville for Christmas and watching Jodi Meeks light up Louisivlle for 41 points…I think that was the #….Wow ! It was a Great Christmas Present…Gallery721.com, Larry T Clemons
I don’t remember the team Kentucky was playing but the year was around early sixties and we went to Freedom Hall without tickets. We were not able to find any so we spent the rest of the night standing outside the gates with the scoreboard and the top of one goal in view. We could hear the p.a. too. Kentucky won so all was well
Wow Shinny. those were the good days weren’t they without any TV games
God Bless, I Love Our Kentucky Fans…Great Story, thank you…
The annual butt hurting that the Cats put on Digger during the 60s always felt good…Pratt was a sheer delight with that bank shot!
I have 2. And it was the only 2 times i had been there. 1. I was just a little shaver when roger harden and todd may played against each other in the kentucky v. indiana highschool all star game, that was awesome and my daddy bought me a shirt that documented the event. 2. I was at the game when mike davis the i.u. coach lost his marbles and ran on the court imitating the phantom foul he thought he saw. Replay would later show he really went coo coo for nothing , their was no foul, on bracey wright i believe. BTW where is that bum?
that high school all-star game is a great memory Grant. Those are ones we always cherish
Larry, the first time that I was ever in Freedom Hall was the 1957 Sweet Sixteen. It had just opened and was filled for most of the tournament. What a huge place to a high school sophmore. Lexington Lafayette won with Billy Ray Lickert as their star mainly by beating my Pikeville Panthers in the semis. Lafayette’s coach, Ralph Carlisle practiced with 6 men on defense from December on that year just to simulate Pikeville’s press. Good strategy. That’s why he is in the Ky Hall of Fame.
If we’re going to talk high school games too I was at FH when Greenup Co. made state tourney in 1974 in the first year of the school. I went to GC but didn’t play basketball, only football and track. Our team managed to win 2 games which was extremely rare for a 16th region team. It was just last year before it happened again for example when Rowan Co. made the championship game and nearly pulled off the win. That was a great game too.
But in the second game of the 1974 tourney GC played Madisonville and we were a big underdog. But we had a guy named Steve Skaggs who later became the all time leading scorer at Ohio U. He’s still #2 on that list behind the “Shaq Of The MAC” Gary Trent. The game was very close all the way with GC holding on. There was some talent on that team but Skaggs made it his coming out party as the big time star of that tournament. He made TWO shots from half court in that game, one at the end of the 1st and the 3rd quarters. I about fell off my seat seeing someone manage to make not just one but two shots like that. GC won that game down the stretch pretty easily. But they ran into Louisville Male who had a guy who was 6’11″ that dominated the inside and they lost but even then GC looked like they had the talent to win but just not the experience against teams like that.
Just as an aside, I went to Wurtland High School in 1973 which was one of the schools consolidated to make GCHS. Wurtland was a single A school with a very strong basketball tradition. Eventual state champions Louisville Shawnee played Wurtland in the Russell Invitational that year. Shawnee had Wayne Golden on their team, a guy who scored 84 points in a high school game. Little Wurtland managed to take them to overtime before losing 92-90. That was a thrilling game even if my team lost. Skaggs couldn’t even get playing time on that team if it tells you anything. But his cousin did who was nearly as good as Skaggs. He went to play at Georgia Southern.
Basketball was big in my area in those days. It doesn’t have the passion now that it did back then when there were all the small schools so close together and all playing in the same conference twice a year or more. I’ve seen times when I thought the gym was going to come down from the noise inside. The consolidated school was great for a while but it took away the tough competition that honed the skills of the local players. I miss those days a lot.
With my dad in 1978, sitting on the top row, backs against the wall, watching the Blur Dwight Anderson pull off an incredible second half comeback against the Fighting Irish. A really special night!
larry was it possible deray brooks was there as well? for some reason i remember another good player for indiana’s team. could that be right?
I believe Delray Brooks played for Bob Knight
i meant delray
Wow great stuff all. I have a few good one but these two are my favorite.
First, it was Mashburns sophmore year. Back then(lol) they would have the “open practice” and autograph signing the day before. So midway through the practice they would send the guys out to tables in the the hallways to sign autographs. I had 4 or 5 posters they had given out(still have mine today) and got them signed By Mash, Martinez and all the guys at the table. When I got to Mash I told him a Louisville joke and he cracks up laughing, at the end of the season UK made a video of the season and in it you can see me standing in front of Mash and he’s laughing(I actual had an autgraphed copy of that video tape but I gave it to my Best Man as a gift). Mash is one of my all time favorites.
The other is hilarious. We were at the UK-IU and the Cats were torching BK and the Hoosiers. Our Seat were behind the gaol and righr beside where IU left the floor for the locker room. At halftime BN had to walk right underneath us and my best friend stood up and leaned over the rail and was scream at BK “we own you we own baby you should retire now” Bk kinda paused and looked up at him then walked on. The cop escorting him off the floor then turned and said “you should sit down before I let him come up there and smack you around” there were 4 of us at the game us and everyone around just busted out laughing. I Loves the neutral sight games.
GREAT POST LARRY. I LOVE THE “YOUR FAVORITE” STUFF. IT’S A BEAUTIFUL STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK GO BLUE OR STAY HOME
Seeing a UK vs UNC game and a Notre Dame game when Joe B. Hall was coaching and UK won both.
The state tournament in Freedom Hall was a highlight of the high school season. The 1965 Breckinridge County was one of the best, as well as the 1966 team. The Ballard and Clay County games in 1988 and 89 were classics. The 1978 Shelby County team with Charlie Hurt. and the last being the 1994 Fairdale team. As I write they all were great, many great great memories of Freedom Hall. The 1980 UL team of Coach Denny Crum,the rally Governor John Y. Brown, Jr. put on for the team upon returning from the NCAA Championship will never be forgotten.
The Kentucky Colonels history is also a memory that cannot be forgotten when mentioning Freedom Hall, and the small high schools having the chance to play the prelim games.. I am grateful for your column and the chance to give feedback toyour columns.
Joe, loved that state tourney memory. so many good ones here. going to be hard on my judges to pick a winner I think
I first became a Wildcat fan by finding Claude Sullivan and the Standard Oil Network in ’55-’56. I got my driver’s license in 1962 and ordered two tickets to the Kentucky-Notre Dame game in Louisville. It was my first time to see Kentucky live. Ted Deaken and Cotton Nash are the players I remember. Parents wouldn’t let me drive so Uncle Harvey took me. I’ll never forget watching that game.
Phillip, that is a great memory. Times that lot of today’s younger fans can’t understand when it meant that much to get to see a game with almost no TV coverage
Lot of great memories. Notre Dame open practices/games. Indiana, North Carolina and Kansas series. Most memorable was witnessing the only triple-double in school history by Chris Mills v. Austin Peay in 1987 or 88. Still tell my kids about that.