Madness on the home front: The evolution of Kentucky fan celebrations
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The Magic of Madness
The 2020-21 men’s basketball season did not go Kentucky’s way, but the Wildcats have delighted Kentuckians with peak postseason performances for decades. As the Final Four plays out this weekend in Indianapolis, the Herald-Leader has produced a 20-page, full-color commemorative special section inside Sunday’s newspaper celebrating Kentucky’s most memorable moments in the NCAA Tournament. Click below to read the stories from that section in digital form.
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Whether it has been thousands huddled at a train station or people setting things on fire on State Street, Kentucky basketball fans have long found ways to show their enthusiasm for the team come tournament time.
The celebrations have evolved since Kentucky’s first NCAA national championship win in 1948, but fans have always found ways to make their feelings known — win or lose.
The first championship
In 1948, after Kentucky won its first NCAA championship, more than 10,000 fans gathered at and around Lexington Union Station to watch the Wildcats’ train pull in.
The building was filled with spectators, and those who couldn’t get inside surrounded it, stood on nearby roofs and clamored at windows of nearby buildings.
The crowd included the state’s lieutenant governor of the time (Lawrence Wetherby), then-University of Kentucky president Leo Chamberlain, and “a red-headed tot who almost fell from the station roof trying to catch the attention of his heroes,” according to the April 3, 1948, edition of The Lexington Herald.
A win over Duke
By 1978, the Wildcats had a new way to travel. But the new place for their return didn’t dampen the fans’ willingness to gather and celebrate.
After the 1978 win over Duke that secured UK’s fifth national championship, more than 7,000 screaming fans showed up at the Blue Grass Airport to welcome the team home.
Some of those fans left their televisions and headed straight for the airport the night of the big win, and they waited several hours for the team’s triumphant return at 3:30 a.m., according to the March 29, 1978, edition of The Lexington Herald.
The mayhem was overwhelming for airport security, but the only known injuries were a “few fainting girls” and a cluster of three students who fell through a roof and got bloody noses, the airport security chief told the newspaper at the time.
Woodland and Euclid
The Wildcats brought home two NCAA championships in the 1990s, and again the fans’ celebrations had changed.
After UK defeated Syracuse in 1996, thousands of fans spilled into the streets. While most celebrating were peaceful, the crowd that gathered in the area of Woodland and Euclid avenues created quite a bit of chaos.
Fans flipped over an ABC-36 news van and pelted police cruisers with objects that caused thousands of dollars worth of damage. More than 20 were arrested.
At one point firefighters had to help a man who had climbed up a 25-foot sign at Woodland and Euclid to wave a UK flag.
After the Wildcats’ 1998 win over Utah, 100 sustained mostly minor injuries in celebrations and 10 were arrested. Again, the epicenter of the chaos was the intersection of Woodland and Euclid avenues.
State Street
In 2012, Kentucky fans continued the tradition of taking to the streets, but they found a new venue.
State Street, which has now been home to March Madness chaos for years, was the center of celebrations throughout Kentucky’s 2012 March Madness run.
After UK won the championship that season, there were more than 60 fires reported across the city, about 20 injuries and dozens of arrests. Much of the commotion was centered around State Street.
In the years since, State Street has remained a location of fiery reactions to UK games.
Big wins haven’t been the only thing to fuel couch flames in Lexington. Some last-second March Madness losses have sent UK fans into the streets with lighters in tow.
After UK lost to Connecticut in the 2014 NCAA championship game, fires cropped up on State Street and more than 20 people were injured. There were reports of bottles flying and fireworks.
But, unsurprisingly, the wins tend to draw the bigger crowds and the bigger reactions.
While the crowd sizes and scale of destruction might vary, there’s a few things most every State Street celebration has in common. A sea of blue, a smell of smoke and a chorus of cheers for the Cats.
This story was originally published April 4, 2021 at 5:22 AM.
