Basketball is more than a sport in Lexington. Here’s how the city is celebrating it
Basketball is as much a part of Lexington’s history as bourbon and horses, and this year, an entire week has been set aside devoted to celebrating it.
As part of the city’s year-long celebration of Lexington’s 250th anniversary, organizers said they wanted to take a moment to do something that’s long been a dream of some basketball lovers in the area.
“The timing and purpose of 250Lex fit perfectly into an idea that several of us from UK, Transylvania and (Kentucky High School Athletic Association) have been discussing for a number of years,” said Nathan Schwake, senior associate athletic director for University of Kentucky Athletics.
“We are super grateful they were able to take it and run with it for this inaugural edition.”
The week features 19 games through Feb. 1 ending in the UK men’s basketball game against John Calipari’s University of Arkansas Razorbacks at Rupp Arena. Among the games, Henry Clay Boys v. Lafayette, the UK Women vs. Arkansas, Lafayette Girls vs. Henry Clay, and both the men’s and women’s teams at Transylvania University vs. Rose Hulman Institute of Technology.
Jack “Goose” Givens, a former UK basketball player who also played at Bryan Station High School, said basketball was an important part of his childhood.
“For us growing up in inner city Lexington, basketball was one of the things we could afford to do. We just had to have a basketball and a pair of shoes and we could go out and play,” he said.
“Basketball was a tradition in Lexington as far as the African-American community is concerned. There were a lot of great basketball players, great basketball teams before me, and those of us who grew up watching some of those teams play and listening to some of those teams on the radio, we wanted to be a part of that.”
While the competition in high school and college was good, Givens said he remembers playing against great players all around the city.
“There were some really good players who came through Lexington, not necessarily on the teams but on the playgrounds,” he said. “Once I started playing on the Bryan Station team, I found out that there was even more competition out there.”
Lexington has been central to basketball history since the beginning of collegiate championships. While college basketball started in Canada in 1891, the first American college basketball game was held in 1895 between Hamline University and the Minnesota State School of Agriculture.
UK entered college basketball in 1903 under head coach W.W.H. Mustaine, who took up a collection from students to raise $3 for a ball then told students to start playing. Their first recorded intercollegiate game was a 15-6 defeat at the hands of Georgetown College.
That year, UK recorded a losing season, falling also to Kentucky University, later known as Transylvania University.
Since then, the basketball program has become synonymous with UK. It is the only school to have five coaches win an NCAA championship and is second only to UCLA for the most championship titles (8).
UK has played in 17 NCAA Final Fours, 38 Elite Eight games, 45 Sweet Sixteen games, and been in the NCAA tournament 60 times. The school’s basketball program was the first to record 1,000 wins in 1968, and the first to 2,000 wins in 2009.
“The players, staff and I are thrilled to be a part of the first-ever Lexington Basketball Week because our city lives and breathes basketball 24/7 unlike anywhere else in the country!” Coach Mark Pope said in a statement. “We are so excited to celebrate the passion for this great game with our fellow Lexingtonians and honor some of the city’s terrific players next week and in the years to come.”
Lexington is important for high school championships, too.
“Basketball is a rich part of the heritage of this city, all the way back to the first championship, won by the school now known as Henry Clay,” said Julian Tackett, commissioner of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association.
Henry Clay High School, which started in 1834 as the Morton High School, won the Kentucky High School Athletic Association first basketball championships in 1917. The school won the championships for the next few years – 1918, 1919, and 1920, as well as in 1924 and 1983.
Givens said the state’s Sweet 16 Basketball Tournament was a highlight of his high school career, but one that he also regrets.
“It was the thing everybody throughout the state looked forward to when it came to high school basketball,” he said. “We never won it, and it’s one of the disappointments of my career that we didn’t win the Sweet 16, but the experience was awesome.”
This story was originally published January 31, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
