‘Back to Muhlenberg County’: Ex-Cat connected to late singer John Prine
The death of singer-songwriter John Prine on Tuesday took former Kentucky basketball player Reggie Warford back to his wedding day.
Warford grew up in Drakesboro, Ky., which is in Muhlenberg County. That is the setting for one of Prine’s signature songs, “Paradise.”
A few years ago, Prine came up in a casual conversation with Warford. Once Warford acknowledged knowing the song, the two of us took turns reciting the lyrics. I started by saying, “And daddy won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County.” Then, Reggie said, “Down by the Green River where Paradise lay.”
Me: “Well, I’m sorry my son, but you’re too late in asking.”
Reggie: “Mister Peabody’s coal train has hauled it away.”
To be from Muhlenberg County, which had been a site for strip mining, is to know the song “Paradise,” Warford said. Drakesboro is about 6 miles southwest of Paradise. Growing up in Illinois, Prine spent summers as a teenager at his grandparents’ home in Muhlenberg County.
When we talked this past week about Prine’s death, Warford recalled how the musician had been a mail carrier in Chicago. In off hours, Prine kept a guitar nearby just in case a chance to play at a small club arose.
“I used to ride around with a keyboard in my trunk,” said Warford, who played piano as well as basketball as a UK student in the mid-1970s. “It came in handy when I got married.”
It will be 30 years ago this May 26 that Warford and his wife, Marisa, were married. Planning to sing to his wife as part of the ceremony, Warford sent the song he had in mind to the piano player hired for the service.
A problem arose at the rehearsal when Warford heard the man play. Warford’s brother told the man to play as quietly as possible. Not liking his musicianship being critiqued, the man abruptly walked away.
Now what?
Someone asked Warford if he still kept his keyboard handy. He did. So, he played a dual role at the wedding: piano player and groom.
Rather than “Here Comes the Bride,” Warford drew inspiration from Roberta Flack when Marisa entered the chapel.
“I didn’t play the wedding march,” Warford recalled. “I played ‘First Time I Ever Saw Your Face’ as she walked down the aisle.”
Deadlines
As underclassmen decide whether to enter this year’s NBA Draft or play another college season in 2020-21, there are deadlines to consider.
Players have until 11:59 p.m. EDT on Thursday to request an evaluation from the NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee.
Underclassmen have until April 26 — also at 11:59 p.m. EDT — to enter this year’s draft.
Those are NBA deadlines.
The NCAA has set a June 3 deadline for underclassmen to withdraw from this year’s NBA Draft and retain college eligibility.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the deadlines are tentative. The NCAA remains in regular contact with the NBA. If the NBA postpones the NBA Draft, the NCAA could reconsider its June 3 deadline for players to withdraw from the draft and retain college eligibility.
Rupp update
The coronavirus pandemic has halted or significantly limited almost all sporting activities: games, practices, bar room “discussions” … even recruiting.
But the upgrades to Rupp Arena and Central Bank Center continue on schedule.
“The virus crisis has not yet slowed work on the expansion project,” Lexington Center CEO Bill Owen wrote in an email message. “I hope it will not. We are on track for total completion in early 2022.”
No shutdowns are expected other than those planned for such things as utility or building systems conversion. “These are typically well executed and performed over just a few hours,” Owen wrote.
Other than some modifications to exterior walls on the concourses, work inside Rupp Arena itself should be completed on schedule, Owen wrote.
Expansion of two concourses and an upgrade of the lobby connecting the civic center to the Hyatt Hotel are scheduled to begin late this year, Owen wrote.
Three new party rooms on the west side of Rupp will be ready for the 2020-21 season, he wrote. Work on a fourth party room, which is planned for the food court area, is not expected to be completed until the 2021-22 season.
‘Element of luck’
Conspicuous by its absence on Eddie Sutton’s Hall of Fame coaching résumé is a national championship.
Christopher Hunt, who made the documentary on Sutton titled “EDDIE,” said that not winning a championship is not an indication of coaching deficiency. It shows how there is “a strong element of luck in the NCAA Tournament,” he said.
Hunt cited three examples of bad luck in Sutton’s coaching career:
▪ Kentucky’s 59-57 loss to LSU in the 1986 Southeast Region finals. It was the fourth competitive game the teams had played that season. UK won the first three by a total of 16 points. In the region semifinals, Kentucky defeated Alabama for a fourth time. The NCAA subsequently tried to decrease the chances of teams from the same conference playing in the tournament.
▪ Oklahoma State’s 75-72 loss to Michigan’s Fab Five in the 1992 Southeast Region finals. The coach’s eldest son, Sean Sutton, scored 18 points and got credit for a game-high eight assists in what became his last college game, which was played in, of all places, Rupp Arena.
▪ Oklahoma State’s 67-65 loss to Georgia Tech in the 2004 national semifinals.
More bad luck
Filmmaker Christopher Hunt saw Eddie Sutton’s election to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this year as further example of bad luck. Not only was the election long overdue according to friends and family, it came during the coronavirus pandemic. That meant Sutton could not share the moment with extended family and friends.
“There’s a part of it where the guy still can’t catch a break,” Hunt said. “Like, the year he gets elected into the Hall of Fame, we’re all in quarantine.
“But, also there is Twitter and social media for people to send their love.”
Darrell Walker, who played for Sutton at Arkansas and now is coach at Arkansas Little Rock, was among those with Sutton when the call came from the Hall of Fame.
Book review
An occasional book note seems appropriate with the coronavirus pandemic causing many people to self-quarantine at home. Reading can be an escape as well as entertaining and enlightening.
For those inclined to think John Calipari is correct to question the motives of the NCAA, a biography of Jerry Tarkanian is for you.
The book’s title — “Rebel with a Cause: The True Story of Jerry Tarkanian” — sets the stage for a blunt indictment of the NCAA. Written by the late coach’s son, Danny Tarkanian, the book makes a case for the NCAA being arbitrary and vindictive in how it meted out its version of justice with regard to the man affectionately known as Tark the Shark.
However, Kentucky fans might want to skip chapter 17, which is titled “The NCAA and the Rest of the ‘Money Makers.’” It contends that the NCAA is lenient with marquee programs that violate rules because elite programs like Kentucky basketball generate revenue.
It is a sentiment Tarkanian once captured in a famous quip: “The NCAA was so mad at Kentucky that it gave Cleveland State two more years of probation.”
‘That’s me’
Former UK player Reggie Warford noted how singer-songwriter John Prine died of complications related to the coronavirus at age 73.
“I keep thinking it’s going to take away all these old people,” Warford said of the pandemic. “Then, I say, ‘Wait a minute. That’s me!’”
Warford turns 66 on Sept. 15.
Happy birthday
To Kyle Macy. He turned 63 on Thursday. … To Nerlens Noel. He turned 26 on Friday. … To former Transylvania coach Don Lane. He turns 77 on Sunday (today). … To Isaiah Briscoe. He turns 24 on Monday. … To Derrick Jasper. He turns 32 on Monday.
This story was originally published April 10, 2020 at 12:09 PM.
