UK’s ‘78 champs get another chance to be ‘old men reliving glory days’
His job as an analyst for the UK Sports Network took Jack Givens to Nashville for the Southeastern Conference Tournament. A telling moment came in the hotel lobby Thursday night.
Although Kentucky lost to Mississippi State earlier in the day, Givens decided to stay for the rest of the tournament as a spectator. He was waiting for friends to join him when he noticed a college-age man wearing an Ole Miss T-shirt giving him the eye.
“And I had my mask on,” Givens said. “And he was saying to these guys as he was walking out — and I heard him — he said, ‘man, that’s Goose Givens! That’s Goose Givens!’”
The young man worked up the courage to approach Givens and ask for an autograph or to pose for a picture.
“I said, man, you’re too young to know who I am,” Givens recalled on Friday. “And he said, no, no, you’re awesome. I just watched you on YouTube.”
Such is the lasting legacy of Kentucky’s 1978 national championship team. Some 43 years later, the players are still taking bows.
“It’s amazing still how often that is that somebody will say something or refer to it,” said Kyle Macy, the team’s point guard.
Those moments figure to only increase with the SEC Network airing a film on the ‘78 Kentucky team Monday at 9 p.m. EDT. Titled “Win or Else,” it is part of the “SEC Storied” series.
Givens, who serves as narrator on the film, admitted being initially skeptical about the idea.
“When this producer called and talked to me about they’re wanting to do something about the ‘78 champions, I just kind of shook my head,” he said. “I said, man, surely you don’t want to talk about us after all these years. … You’ve got to have something better to talk about than a bunch of old men reliving our glory days.”
Multiple factors converged to give the ‘78 team an indelible place in Kentucky basketball history.
For one thing, it had been 20 years since Kentucky had won a national championship. That’s the longest period UK has gone without winning an NCAA Tournament.
It was also the first championship without the program’s founding father, Adolph Rupp, as coach. The ‘78 team proved Kentucky could be Kentucky without Rupp as leader. It was not lost on the Big Blue Nation that UCLA had not continued being UCLA after John Wooden retired three years earlier.
“There were people who began to doubt if anyone coaching Kentucky would ever win another national championship after Coach Rupp … ,” longtime sports businessman Jim Host recalled. “There was real doubt whether Joe (B. Hall) could follow Coach Rupp.”
When the seniors on the ‘78 team were freshmen, Kentucky came close. UK lost to UCLA in the NCAA Tournament finals, which also happened to be the last game in Wooden’s coaching career.
That Kentucky won the NIT the following year, then lost to North Carolina’s “four-corners” tactic in the 1977 East Regional finals only made winning the 1978 championship more imperative.
Hence the film’s “Win or Else” title.
“That’s what we felt,” James Lee recalled. “This was our last go-around. … We were just desperate to win one.”
So single-minded was Kentucky that Hall famously labeled 1977-78 as a season without celebration. Surely Hall felt the weight of expectation, Macy said, but the players had fun.
“When you’re beating teams, and beating them handily, it’s a lot of fun,” Macy said.
Givens recalled the players balking at Hall’s attempts to alleviate the burden of winning.
“Coach Hall would want us to go out and go bowling or go to the movies,” Givens said. “And we would say, no. We want to watch film. We want to work out.”
That Givens and Lee were from Lexington only caused the Big Blue Nation to tighten its embrace of the team.
“You know how Kentucky fans are about players from Kentucky,” Givens said. “It just builds the interest of everybody in the state.”
Givens and Lee were also part of the transformation of Kentucky basketball.
“Even though I grew up 15 minutes from what was one of the best basketball schools in the country, I didn’t dream of playing basketball at Kentucky like most of my white friends did,” Givens said in a news release promoting the film. “Coach Rupp was winning games and championships, but I never watched because I didn’t see anyone on the team who looked like me. …
“When it came time for me to pick a school, the decision was not as easy as you would think. But it turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life.”
The “Win or Else” film delves into the Rupp-to-Hall coaching transition and the integration of the UK program.
Of course, winning a national championship endears a Kentucky team to its fans.
“That’s what the whole program is about,” said Tom Hammond, who covered the ‘78 team for WLEX television. “When they succeeded, they entered a special place in the hearts of the Big Blue Nation.”
Fan interest I
For the first time ever, Kentucky was not among the final eight playing in an SEC Tournament. That’s not counting 1990 and 1991 when a postseason ban was part of a penalty for rule violations during Eddie Sutton’s time as coach.
On a teleconference Thursday night, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey was asked about how prevalent UK fans were at the second-round action, which began with the Kentucky-Mississippi State game. “There was, as there has been, a lot of blue,” he said.
Despite Kentucky losing to State, Sankey expressed confidence that the rest of the SEC Tournament would be well-attended (attendance capped at 20 percent of capacity in Bridgestone Arena). He cited healthy interest among fans of Alabama and Arkansas.
Then Sankey added, “You know what, I know Kentucky fans well enough that we’ll still have some blue in here the rest of the weekend, too, because they enjoy SEC basketball themselves.”
Fan interest II
More than once this season, John Calipari spoke about the coronavirus pandemic hindering his Kentucky team. Maybe most obvious was the lack of big crowds trying to will Kentucky to victory.
Attendance at home games this season was limited to 15 percent of Rupp Arena’s capacity. That figured out to 3,075, which is what Kentucky announced as the attendance for each of the 11 home games.
However, according to a “scanned count,” the average number of fans in seats was 1,879. Open records requests for the count of ticket-holders scanned at entry showed the largest crowd being 2,305 for the game against Florida. The smallest crowd: 1,595 for Morehead State.
Luck
As of Friday, stats savant Ken Pomeroy’s rating of Kentucky at No. 354 in terms of luck remained steady. Perhaps that said something about this UK team being ill-fated given yet another final-second loss to end the season not affecting the luck rating.
The loss to Mississippi State was the seventh in nine games with a final margin of no greater than three points or decided in overtime.
And heading into Friday’s play, Kentucky had a record of 6-15 in Quad 1 and Quad 2 games.
Bobblehead news
The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum announced last week it had added a bobblehead of college basketball bracketologist Joe Lunardi.
There are about 2,000 Lunardi bobbleheads that are available at Bobbleheadhall.com. The bobbleheads cost $25, plus a shipping charge of $8 per order.
“After being called a bracket head for so long, it’s way better to be a bobblehead,” Lunardi said in a news release. “What an honor! And no matter what anyone says, it really isn’t actual size.”
Happy birthday
To Anthony Davis. He turned 28 on Thursday. … To Rashaad Carruth. He turned 39 on Friday. … To former Ole Miss coach (and present UAB coach) Andy Kennedy. He turned 53 on Saturday. … To Patrick Patterson. He turns 32 on Sunday (today). … To former Vandy standout Clyde Lee. He turns 77 on Sunday (today). … To NBA All-Star Stephen Curry. He turns 33 on Sunday (today). … To Jock Sutherland. He turns 93 on Sunday (today). … To Jim Master. He turns 59 on Tuesday. … To Johnny Juzang. He turns 20 on Wednesday. … To Sam Bowie. He turns 60 on Wednesday. … To Patrick Sparks. He turns 38 on Wednesday.
This story was originally published March 14, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
