Mike Pratt’s jersey to join Rupp rafters. ‘It would have been the highlight of his life.’
For a few minutes Saturday night in Rupp Arena, the numbers on the scoreboard won’t matter.
When the Kentucky Wildcats and Florida Gators head to their respective locker rooms at halftime, the 20,000 or so left behind looking out onto the basketball court won’t be reveling in a UK lead or rueing a deficit for the Cats. They’ll be reflecting on the life and career of one of the greatest figures in the storied program’s history.
For those few minutes, the spotlight will shine on 22.
That’s the number that Mike Pratt proudly wore for the Wildcats for three varsity seasons from 1967 to 1970. And now it will look down on Kentucky’s home court for as long as basketball is played in the Bluegrass.
UK announced last month that Pratt’s jersey would be retired to the Rupp Arena rafters during Saturday’s game against Florida, a rare honor reserved for a select few that have had a profound impact on the Wildcats’ program.
Pratt will be the 39th player to receive the honor and the 45th UK basketball figure to earn one of those coveted spots in the home of UK basketball.
The week before this honor was announced to the general public during John Calipari’s radio show on Jan. 9, the Kentucky coach made three phone calls to deliver the news himself.
On the receiving end of those calls were Mike Pratt’s wife, Marcia, his UK teammate and longtime friend, Dan Issel, and his broadcast partner of more than two decades, Tom Leach.
“I was over-the-moon thrilled,” Leach said of his reaction to Calipari’s call. “I think I told him something like, ‘I can’t imagine anything you could’ve said to me that would make me happier.’”
Issel shared similar sentiments.
“I told Cal that he didn’t make my day, my week or my month,” Issel said. “He made my year. Mike and I were pretty close friends. And I knew that it was important to him. It should have been done before, but at least it’s going to be done now.”
Marcia Pratt said she was caught completely off guard by Calipari’s phone call.
“Of course, it was very emotional,” she said nearly a month later, still choking up a bit as she spoke of her late husband and what this would have meant to him. “It was something that I knew that Mike really wanted. He was quiet about himself and things that he wanted, but he would be so honored. We all are. …
“He would have just been absolutely overjoyed. Humbled by the whole thing.”
All three of these key figures in Pratt’s life are scheduled to speak Saturday night. Leach will step away from the radio broadcast table at halftime to emcee the ceremony. Marcia Pratt said every one of the five children and nine grandchildren that make up the couple’s blended family will be able to make it to Rupp for the event, along with Mike’s brother, Pat Pratt, and other family members and friends.
And when it’s all over, that blue and white banner with Pratt’s name and number will be looking down upon them.
“Mike was a humble guy,” Leach said. “But I can’t imagine anything — certainly in his professional life — that would have meant more to him than this particular honor, because of what the University of Kentucky meant to him.”
Coming to Kentucky
Though he’d eventually come to be known synonymously with UK basketball, Pratt wasn’t from Kentucky. He was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio — not too far from the commonwealth’s border but well enough removed from the Bluegrass that he grew up following Big Ten basketball and local schools like Cincinnati and the hometown Flyers.
Pratt was a high school star in Dayton, and he’d set the city’s all-time scoring record by the time he finished his prep career. A week before he made his college decision in April 1966, the recruiting list had been narrowed to four schools: Bowling Green, Cincinnati, Dayton and Kentucky.
By that weekend, it was either going to be the Flyers or the Wildcats. At the time, Dayton had just completed back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet Sixteen, and the outlook for the future was also bright. (The Flyers made the national title game the following year).
In the end, of course, Kentucky was the pick. Assistant coach and lead recruiter Joe B. Hall traveled to Dayton with the necessary paperwork, and Pratt committed to the Cats and made things official with his signature in his family’s basement. Hall hurried upstairs to phone head coach Adolph Rupp with the good news.
“It was the biggest decision of my life,” Pratt told the Lexington Leader that night. “I thought I should get away from home.”
It didn’t take him long to settle into his new Kentucky home.
Pratt played the 1966-67 season on UK’s freshman team — newcomers weren’t allowed to compete at the varsity level during their first year in college at the time — and immediately emerged as a starter the following season.
Over those three seasons, Kentucky enjoyed a 71-12 overall record and went 48-6 in the Southeastern Conference. In those days, the only way to make the NCAA Tournament was to win your league, and the Wildcats did it in each of Pratt’s three years as a varsity player.
“I don’t think people realize what a complete player Mike was,” said Issel, who was teammates with Pratt for the entirety of their UK careers. “And how important he was to whatever success we had. And remember this: Mike only played 81 games. And he’s still in the top 30 in UK history as far as points, rebounds and assists. Now that’s a pretty impressive record right there.”
When Pratt left Kentucky in 1970, he was actually top 10 all-time on all three of those lists. With all the talent that has come through Lexington in the more than five decades since, it’s just as impressive that he’s still in the top 30 in each category. The only other Wildcat to share that achievement is Jack “Goose” Givens.
Following his time in college, Pratt played two seasons with the ABA’s Kentucky Colonels — again teaming up with Issel — before a career in coaching. He was an assistant for the UNC Charlotte team that went to the Final Four in 1977 and later became that program’s head coach for four seasons. After that came a career in broadcasting, and Pratt was working as a TV analyst for Fox Sports South when an opportunity arose to return to Kentucky.
Both members of the UK radio team — Ralph Hacker and Sam Bowie — retired following the 2000-01 season. Leach replaced Hacker as the play-by-play guy, and Pratt came back to UK to be the team’s new radio analyst. How much did Pratt love being around Kentucky basketball?
“One of the best testaments was when he took the job with the radio network,” Leach said. “He took a pay cut. So that’s a pretty strong indicator of how much it meant to him.”
For Pratt, being back in the UK basketball family was its own reward, unlike any other.
“For him, it wasn’t a job,” said Marcia Pratt. “He just enjoyed it so much.”
Having spent his entire adult life working in the basketball world in some capacity, Pratt had countless friends in the sport, especially across the South. Leach said when the team would travel for SEC road games, they’d invariably end up having lunches with former teammates and even former league opponents. NBA scouts sought out Pratt before games to chat about the current Cats. He became close with Kentucky assistants, particularly David Hobbs at the beginning of his UK broadcasting career and Kenny Payne at the end.
“He had so many friends everywhere,” Pratt’s wife said.
He was also a cheerful, encouraging and empathetic presence for the Kentucky players, a connection that was apparent to those who listened to his interviews with a standout Wildcat after each game. For older UK fans, Pratt was a connection to the past. For younger ones, he was an energetic voice of the program.
“He was always prepared,” Leach recalled. “Not only just coming to practices. He developed good relationships with the assistant coaches. … He would do his homework and be on the phone to get info so that he could bring insight to the broadcast. His job was to analyze it, and he did his homework to be able to do that well. And he could have done it without doing the homework, just because he knew basketball so well.
“But he put in the work and was always prepared. And he knew everybody.”
Once Pratt made the call to return to Kentucky, he held the role of radio analyst for 21 seasons — from 2001 to 2022.
“He told everybody that it was one of the best decisions he ever made,” his wife said.
Honoring Mike Pratt
The only thing that could make Saturday night sweeter for Pratt’s loved ones would be if the Kentucky basketball great was there to see it for himself.
Pratt passed away last June at age 73 following a long battle with cancer.
At an event celebrating Pratt’s life in Memorial Coliseum a couple of months later, Issel remarked that his friend and former teammate was, in his opinion, the best Kentucky basketball player not to have his jersey retired in the Rupp rafters. “And I think we all need to do something to change that,” he declared to applause from the crowd.
Issel — the program’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder — remained close friends with Pratt throughout his life, and the two co-hosted a radio show in Louisville up until Pratt’s death last year. Issel said the subject of jersey retirement came up only once in all their years together.
He mistakenly assumed that Pratt’s jersey was already in the Rupp rafters and made a comment from that standpoint during a break in one of their radio shows.
“I brought it up one day, and I could tell — and Mike would never say anything — but I could tell there was a little edge in his answer,” Issel said. “... That was the only time that we ever talked about it.”
Issel lamented that his friend never got the chance to see his career celebrated like it will be Saturday night. Pratt’s wife expressed how much it would have meant.
“It would have been the highlight of his life to have been there and watch this happen,” she said.
So, this occasion will be a bittersweet one, but Marcia Pratt said there is no bitterness toward UK over the timing. She praised Dr. Eli Capilouto, the university’s president, UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart, and John and Ellen Calipari, explaining how much each of them had meant to Mike and his family.
“There are absolutely no ill feelings at all about that,” she said. “Things happen when they’re supposed to happen. And I and my family feel that he’s very deserving and just would have been, like I said, the highlight of his life. …
“Yes, we wish Mike would be there with us, because it is all about him. But that banner is going to be up there long after we’re all gone.”
Future generations of Kentucky basketball fans who look toward the rafters will now have a new name to memorize, another Wildcat to learn about. What does Issel want those fans to know if they see that No. 22 banner and wonder what “Pratt” meant to the program.
“That he was that kind of player,” he said. “I’m just glad that, because of this, those who take the time to look at the history of Kentucky basketball will know that Mike was one of the best that ever played there.”
For most of those UK greats, the day-to-day connection to the Wildcats’ program came to an end when the basketball stopped bouncing. Though Pratt won’t be there Saturday night to enjoy the deserved honor that ultimately came a few months too late, his second act with the Cats — one that lasted more than two decades — was a reward in itself.
“He told me toward the end that he had a wonderful life. And so many good memories,” said Marcia Pratt. “And, of course, UK was on the top of the list.”
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Saturday
Florida at Kentucky
When: 8:30 p.m.
TV: ESPN
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Records: Florida 13-9 (6-3 SEC), Kentucky 15-7 (6-3)
Series: Kentucky leads 107-41
Last meeting: Kentucky won 71-63 on March 5, 2022, in Gainesville, Fla.
This story was originally published February 2, 2023 at 6:30 AM.
