Kentucky time machine: Cats had to rally for third NCAA title in 1951

Editor’s Note: The Herald-Leader continues its series re-publishing the game stories from Kentucky’s eight national title contests in chronological order. These stories appear, with some light editing, as they were written at the time in the Herald, the Leader or the Herald-Leader. We hope you’re enjoying them.

March 27, 1951

KENTUCKY 68, KANSAS STATE 58

At Williams Arena

Lexington Herald headline:

Kentucky Comes From Behind to Cop NCAA Title With 68-58 Win Over Kansas State

Kentucky’s basketball crusaders made believers out of 15,428 cash customers in the Upper Midwest tonight as they swept touted Kansas State aside with a brilliant second-half performance that gave them a rousing 68-58 triumph in the championship game of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s annual hardwood harvest.

Fickle experts who changed Wildcats in Minneapolis got a fur-lined cuspidor. Kentucky got the pot of gold — a huge championship trophy that will rest beside similar awards captured in 1948 and ‘49.

The Wildcats of Coach Adolph Rupp also won the National Invitation crown in 1945. They became the first team to win the NCAA three times.

Williams Arena on the University of Minnesota campus was a veritable hothouse for 22 minutes as the two fire-wagon quintets raced and ranted at top speed. But what looked like a four-alarm was doused quickly by a torrent of Kentucky baskets and that erased a 29-27 halftime lead held by Kansas State.

In the space of two minutes in the second period, the Ruppmen were boasting a 35-30 bulge.

Ramrod Bill Spivey, the 7-foot All-American junior pivotman from Macon, Ga., was the lad who proved the difference. Spivey drilled home 22 points to lead all scorers and virtually stole the show with his listless-looking rebounding.

The anticipated fencing duel between Spivey and 6-foot, 7-inch Lew Hitch lasted only 10 minutes. After Hitch put the handful of Kentucky supporters in horror-struck silence with a point a minute over that distance he was slowed, stopped and padlocked. The big K-S pivotman tabbed only three more points all night, but the 13 total led his team.

Third-place honors in the overall tournament went to Illinois, the Big Ten titlist, which scored a 61-46 victory over Oklahoma A&M in the consolation tilt that preceded the championship struggle.

When the title tiff got under way, Jack Gardner’s Big Seven champs spurted quickly to the fore, and it appeared that the loss of two regulars might cost Kentucky heavily. Captain Walt Hirsch already was out through NCAA ineligibility and replacement Cliff Hagan was sitting on the bench with an infected throat.

But when Kansas State still led, 20-13, after 10 minutes of play, Rupp sent the 6-foot, 4-inch Hagan scurrying into the fray. That could have proved the difference — the ailing Owensboro flash proceeded to spark the rally that brought the nation’s No. 1-ranking team surging back into contention, and he finished with 10 points for Kentucky’s runner-up figure.

Hungry-looking Shelby Linville, who feasted at the Eastern NCAA dinner table in New York last week when the Ruppmen conquered Illinois, also deserved a lot of praise. Linville had his boarding-house reach working to perfection much of the way, though fouls hampered him a bit and he eventually fouled out with nearly six minutes to go in the contest.

Hagan, who along with Spivey drew an abundance of praise from Rupp, took the five-and-out route to the bench with 2:38 remaining and blond Frank Ramsey duplicated two minutes later. Ramsey, normally a guard, started at a forward as little Skippy Whitaker moved in at guard in the place of Hagan, but before it was all over Ramsey was back at his usual post and giving a fine performance.

The top floor game of the contest probably was played by Bobby Watson, the smallest man on the court at 5-10.

Whitaker and Ramsey each tabbed nine points and Linville and Watson each garnered eight. Lou Tsioropoulos got the other two.

Other than Hitch, the Western NCAA titlists from Manhattan, Kan., had little to offer once the Kentucky steamroller got under way. Jack Stone, the only senior on Gardner’s youthful squad, followed Hitch with 12 markers and Ed Head, the leaping whirling dervish, contributed another eight.

Other point totals for the Prairie boys included seven for Jim Iverson, four each for Ernie Barrett, Bob Rousey and Dick Peck; three for Dick Knostman; two for Dan Schuyler; and one for John Gibson.

Barrett, who had been nursing a shoulder injury, was in and out of the skirmish but managed to put in a full night’s work.

Kentucky pumped in 28 of its 69 shots for a 40.5 percentage, while Kansas State hit 23 for 80 and a mark of 28.7. During the torrid first half, the Western champs had 32.5 compared to the victors’ 28.2.

Each team committed 24 personal fouls all told, and each converted 12 tries. Kentucky missed 13 charity flings, Kansas State 10.

Spivey, with 72 points for four games in the NCAA eliminations, came just 10 short of the record set by Alex Groza, also of Kentucky, in 1949.

Groza’s mark, set in three games, was beaten earlier tonight by Illinois’ Don Sunderlage, whose 17 points against the Oklahoma Aggies gave him a four-game tournament total of 83.

The scoring started with Hitch hitting a layup, and after Watson rippled the nets from near the center line, Stone and Iverson each connected from near the hoop. A free throw by Stone then upped the count to 7-2 before Linville got a rebound with three and a half minutes gone.

A fall-away shot by Hitch a few seconds later was matched by Ramsey’s jab from the side, and Linville then cashed one of two free throws. However, Stone flipped in a two-hander from 25 feet out as the teams traded baskets with methodical accuracy. Spivey and Hitch then swapped two buckets apiece, but Ramsey poked up a rebound to make it 17-13 in Kansas State’s favor.

Hitch’s fifth hook of the period upped it to 20-13 midway of the session, but when Hagan replaced Ramsey, Kentucky perked up. Whitaker tabbed a jump shot and a foul and Hagan a tip-in before Barrett hit from the side for the Kansans. then Spivey narrowed the margin to a single point at 22-21 on a tip-in and following free throw.

Another three-point sashay under the hoop by Spivey gave Kentucky its first lead of the game after 15 minutes of action, and scoring then lagged for the next two minutes and a half. A twister by Stone tied it at 2:30 of the period and then Head and Rousey hit in succession to make it 28-24. Free throws by Spivey and Stone and a rebound by Hagan finished the point-making for the first half, Kansas State going to the dressing room with a 29-27 lead.

As play was resumed, Linville converted one of two gratis flings and Spivey got a tip. Stone’s matching free toss tied the score, 30-30, and then Linville bagged his second one-pointer of the period.

Kentucky never looked back after that. The lead mounted to five points as Spivey tipped in another one and Watson hit from afar with just two minutes gone. Kansas State picked up two charity tosses before Spivey got his next tip-in and followed with a pair of fielders by Head and Barrett before Ramsey made a driving layup. Watson found the nets from the head of the circle to restore the five-point margin, 41-36, after five minutes.

From there the Kentuckians went on another rampage, outscoring the Staters by eight points to two in the next two minutes. Gibson’s free toss trimmed the edge to 10 points at 49-39, but with Spivey and Tsioropoulos leading the way, Kentucky boosted its lead to 54-39 before Stone got the Kansans’ next point.

Nine minutes and 25 seconds remained at that stage, but it was apparent that the Big Seven champions were through. The rest of it was a madhouse scramble that saw the Ruppmen increasing the gap to 16 points at 56-40. Kansas State shaving it back to 10 at 56-46 and then Kentucky boosting it to 18 points at 66-48. State cut the margin to 10 in the last frantic minutes.

Gardner used 11 men compared with the eight employed by Rupp, but only Hitch, Stone and Head were able to cope with the mighty Kentuckians.

Spivey pulled down 21 rebounds to Hitch’s nine to lead both teams. Linville grabbed eight, Hagan and Ramsey four each, Watson and Tsioropolous three each and Whitaker two. Stone trailed Hitch on the K-S side with six, Barrett, Head and Dick Knostman got three apiece, and Rousey and Don Upson two each.

Watson and Hagan led in total assists, each feeding the ball for scores three times.

The Kentucky team will leave Minneapolis at 7:11 a.m. Wednesday and arrive home at 1:38 p.m. after a two-hour delay in Chicago.

This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 7:35 AM.