How a high school boy’s graffiti in Rupp Arena found its way back to him 20 years later
Twenty years ago, when Jason Doughty was a 17-year-old senior in high school, he did what was to him a scandalous thing: He carved his name into a bleacher in the upper level of Rupp Arena.
“I guess I was bored, and I made a pretty boneheaded move,” he said.
His crime haunted him for weeks afterward.
“I thought they were going to track me down,” he said.
This week, they finally did.
Doughty, who is now 37 years old and living in Charlotte, N.C., received a package in the mail on Thursday, and inside was the piece of that blue bench with his name scrawled on it.
The story of how Doughty’s past finally caught up with him begins at Country Boy Brewing in Lexington last spring, when buddies Jon Morris, a cabinet maker, and Brian Pulley, who does sales and marketing for a Lexington hotel, were having a beer.
Morris and Pulley had heard that the bleachers in the upper level of Rupp were going to be removed to make way for new chair back seating, and the men decided to see if they could get some of the old bleachers to use to make a picnic table for each of them.
They contacted Lexington Center, the University of Kentucky and Messer Construction trying to get to the person who could help them buy a few bleachers. And somewhere along the way during all those conversations, Morris and Pulley got an even bigger idea: “We should get them all.”
By the time they finally got approval to purchase the bleachers, many of them had already been sent to a recycling center, the men said, but they estimate that they were able to buy 20 to 25 percent of the seats that were removed.
The day they pulled Morris’ truck and trailer onto the Rupp Arena floor to pick up those metal bleachers is one that the Kentucky fans said they’ll always remember.
“We were laughing like high school girls,” Morris said.
The men won’t say how much they paid for each linear foot of the bleachers, but they’ve developed a nice side business selling benches, picnic tables and business card holders made from the bleachers to collectors of UK memorabilia.
They also sell plain sections of the bleachers, which they said some Wildcat fans are using to make their own decor, such as shelves. A 6-foot section with four seat numbers goes for $150. An 18-inch seat is $50.
“We’re basically making beer money,” Morris said.
They said their business, Big Blue Benches, has been a lot of work and a lot of fun.
“The best part is, we get to get together, drink beer and use power tools,” Pulley said.
He enlisted his two sons for the nasty job of cleaning the undersides of the bleachers last summer.
“They were disgusting,” he said. “Lots of gum. The Wrigley family is very prominent in Rupp Arena.”
“I’m just glad we didn’t find a diaper under there,” Morris quipped.
It was during the cleaning process that one particular seat caught their eye.
It was the only section with someone’s full name scratched into the metal: “Jason Doughty 2000.”
“I said, ‘This guy cost us $50!’” since no one would want to buy a defaced seat, Pulley said.
They decided to try to find Doughty to give back his little piece of Rupp history.
“It’s his,” Pulley said. “He put his name on it.”
Morris and Pulley posted a photo of the graffiti on their Big Blue Benches Facebook page in October.
A little over three months later, the culprit came forward.
Doughty said his sister’s best friend from high school is the person who helped identify him as the graffiti-writer.
He said the friend is a UK alumna, and she saw the post by Big Blue Benches on Facebook and contacted him.
After Doughty contacted Big Blue Benches, the friend then picked up Doughty’s piece of the bench in Lexington and delivered it to his parents in Western Kentucky, who mailed it to him this week.
Doughty said he hasn’t yet decided what he’ll do with this very personal piece of UK memorabilia.
For him, it holds memories of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s Sweet Sixteen Basketball Tournament.
Doughty was a basketball player for Graves County High School, and his team was playing in the tournament the day Doughty inscribed his name in the bench.
He noted that his moment of vandalism in Lexington was not typical for him as a teen.
“I was the rule follower,” he said.
Finding out about his long-kept secret has been fun for Doughty’s family, though.
“My mom thought it was hilarious,” he said.
This story was originally published February 22, 2020 at 7:17 PM.
