Former UK coach Tubby Smith returns to intersection of race and sports
The first college basketball game Tubby Smith ever watched was on television. The year was 1966. It was the landmark NCAA Tournament championship game between Kentucky and Texas Western. Of course, it became known as the sport’s Brown vs. Board of Education turning point as the Miners’ all-Black lineup defeated all-white UK. It debunked assumptions of racial superiority and inferiority.
At the time, Smith was at his own intersection of race and sports. A 10th-grader at the time, he was among Black students being bused to integrate all-white Great Mills High School, where he capped his three seasons by being named to Maryland’s 1969 all-state team.
In a recent interview, Smith recalled a librarian at Great Mills helping him appreciate reading. She made him aware of Sports Illustrated magazine and books with sports topics.
“Here’s a book on Jackie Robinson,” he remembered her saying. “So, I read that, and I’m, like, wow. I’m 15 years old. She was a white lady. These are the kind of things that stick with you.”
This school year of 2020-21 finds Smith back at the same intersection. He is on an advisory board for The University Press of Kentucky’s upcoming series titled “Race and Sports.”
Two UK history professors are serving as editors: Derrick E. White and Gerald L. Smith.
Smith, the professor, explained the goal of “Race and Sports” in an email: “The series will enhance readers’ awareness, appreciation and critical thinking about the interconnections of race and sports in politics, culture and the movement for racial justice and equality.”
During a time when neo Nazis march in Charlottesville, Va., Confederate flags wave and the contention that Black lives also matter sparks hostility, the ability of sports to bring about greater understanding and acceptance seems especially topical.
The first book in the series set to be released by University Press later this year is titled “We Will Win the Day.” Author Louis Moore writes about the history of Black activist athletes trying to create fair play not only in sports but across U.S. society.
Due out in the spring of 2022 is an autobiography titled “Still Running” by former UK football player Nate Northington, the first Black athlete to play on a Southeastern Conference team.
Smith, who is not related to the former Kentucky basketball coach, wrote of the series, “we are looking for a broad range of topics and perspectives on race and sports including memoirs, biographies, general histories, oral histories and specific topics in all sports.”
Smith, the professor, suggested Kentucky was a good place to originate such a series. Besides Northington and the UK-Texas Western game, boxing icon Muhammad Ali grew up in Louisville. Black jockeys made a mark in horse racing. And Bernadette Locke-Mattox made history at UK by being the first female assistant coach on an NCAA Division I men’s basketball team.
As a humorous aside, Tubby Smith recalled meeting another sports pioneer in racial progress, Oscar Robertson. In their conversation, he pointed out that his first name was Orlando, which made him the “Little O” to Robertson’s “Big O.”
“He loved that,” the former UK coach said.
The odds against the 10th-grader helping to integrate a high school in 1966 becoming Kentucky’s coach 32 years later is not lost on Tubby Smith.
“I was very blessed,” he said.
Being the first Black basketball coach of a college program was nothing new for Smith. Before taking the helm at Kentucky, he held the same distinction earlier at Georgia, then later at Texas Tech.
Advice from his father endured. “Have respect for others,” Smith recalled Guffrie Smith telling him. “It’ll take you a long way.”
One reason Smith remembers his time as Kentucky coach fondly is how UK fans still greet him with affection. One such moment came before his High Point team played at Eastern Kentucky last month. Working the game clock at the scorer’s table was Mike “Bear” Rogers, who had the same job at UK home games when Smith was coach.
Rogers brought a picture he had taken with Smith at the 2002 Maui Invitational. He wanted Smith to sign it. Rogers called Smith “one of the most influential people I’ve met in my life.”
As Kentucky coach, Smith was not immune to racist scorn. He said his administrative assistant, Marta McMackin, screened his mail.
“It really wasn’t bad with Tubby at all,” she said. “He was such a nice man.”
Yes, the n-word could be part of the incoming mail. “Every now and then,” McMackin said. “But not very often at all. Tubby is just a good man. He’s a special person.”
Books in the “Race and Sports” series will be available at bookshop.org, kentuckypress.com and via Amazon.
Nothing but NET
Going into games this weekend, Kentucky ranked No. 127 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET). Among SEC teams, only Vanderbilt (No. 176) had a worse ranking.
The top-four teams were Gonzaga, Baylor, Michigan and Tennessee.
To put Kentucky’s ranking in perspective, the NET was first used in the 2018-19 season. In the 2019 NCAA Tournament, 23 teams that were in the top 75 of the final NET failed to get a bid. The team with the best NET that did not get a bid was No. 33 N.C. State.
Of course, there was no Selection Sunday in 2020.
‘Perfect fit’
In its mock 2021 NBA Draft updated on Tuesday, Sportsnaut.com projected Kentucky freshman Terrence Clarke being selected by Memphis with the 10th pick.
The website posted: “A guard/forward combo, Clarke was a top-10 recruit of the 2020 class. He’s averaging 10.7 points thus far this season, but boasts the potential on both ends of the court to be a star moving forward.
“He would be a perfect fit with injured young stars Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. in Memphis sliding in at the three and giving the rebuilding Grizzlies a tremendous trio to move forward with their retooling plan. We love this NBA mock draft pick for the Grizzlies.”
COVID effect
Among the many safety protocols prompted by the coronavirus pandemic is a limit on fan attendance.
Kentucky has ranked first or second nationally in home attendance every season since Rupp Arena opened in 1976-77. But this season has seen Kentucky cap its home game attendance at 15 percent.
So, going into this past week’s play, Kentucky ranked fourth among the 14 SEC teams in average home attendance. UK trailed Tennessee (4,191), Arkansas (4,180) and South Carolina (3,130).
For its first four home games, Kentucky has announced an average attendance of 3,075. That is an estimate of every person inside Rupp Arena, and incidentally is exactly the 15-percent cap on Rupp Arena’s capacity. The average number of fans actually passing through turnstiles in those four games was 1,874.
In pondering a freshman-dependent team playing without the usual support of 20,000 fans in Rupp Arena, UK Coach John Calipari asked a rhetorical question after the Vanderbilt game, “Do you know how much this team would need that?”
The average attendance for Vanderbilt’s first six home games was 46. That’s forty-six.
Vanderbilt is only allowing immediate family members of players, coaches and staff to attend its home games.
Florida, which played host to Kentucky on Saturday, ranked fifth among SEC teams with an average home attendance of 2,202 going into the game.
Happy birthday
To Bobby Perry. He turned 36 on Thursday. … To Kahlil Whitney. He turned 20 on Friday. … To Kirk Chiles. He turned 72 on Friday. … To former Ole Miss player and later coach Rod Barnes. He turned 55 on Friday. … To Terrence Jones. He turned 29 on Saturday. … To Isaiah Jackson. He turns 19 on Sunday (today). … To former Georgia coach Mark Fox. He turns 52 on Wednesday.
