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Adolph Rupp

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Adolph Frederick Rupp
File:Adolph rupp.jpg
Adolph Rupp
Biographical details
Born(1901-09-02)September 2, 1901
Halstead, Kansas, USA
DiedDecember 10, 1977(1977-12-10) (aged 76)
Lexington, Kentucky, USA
Playing career
Position(s)Reserve
Head coaching record
Overall876–190, 4th most wins all-time;
82.2% winning percentage, 2nd all-time
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
NCAA Championship
(1948, 1949, 1951, 1958)
Regional Championships - Final Four
(1942, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1958, 1966)
Awards
National Coach of the Year (4-time)
SEC Coach of the Year (7-time)
Basketball Hall of Fame
Inducted in 1969
College Basketball Hall of Fame
Inducted in 2007

Adolph Frederick Rupp (September 2, 1901 – December 10, 1977) was one of the most successful coaches in the history of American college basketball. Rupp is fourth (behind Mike Krzyzewski, Bob Knight and Dean Smith) in total victories by a men's NCAA Division I college coach, winning 876 games in 41 years of coaching. Rupp is also second among all coaches in all-time winning percentage (.822), trailing only Clair Bee. Adolph F. Rupp was enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on April 13, 1969.

Early life

Rupp was born outside Halstead, Kansas, to Mennonite German immigrants, the fourth of six children. He grew up on a 173-acre (0.70 km2) farm which his father Heinrich homesteaded. After his father's death in 1910, Rupp's oldest brother Otto took over farming responsibilities. As a youngster, Rupp worked on the farm and attended a school in a one-room school house in the country. He first became interested in the sport of basketball at the age of six when Halstead won the first of two consecutive Kansas state high school titles. According to interviews, he and his brothers stuffed rags into a gunnysack which his mother sewed up to use as a basketball on the family farm. Later, after growing to a sturdy 6-foot-2, Rupp was a star on his Halstead High School team, averaging over 19 points a game in both his junior and senior years. Rupp also served as team captain and unofficial coach.

After high school, Rupp attended the University of Kansas from 1919–1923. He worked part-time at the student Jayhawk Cafe to help pay his college expenses. He was a reserve on the basketball team under legendary coach Forrest "Phog" Allen from 1919 to 1923. Assisting Allen during that time was his former coach and inventor of the game of basketball, James Naismith, who Rupp also got to know well during his time in Lawrence.

In Rupp's junior and senior college seasons (1921–22 and 1922–23), Kansas (KU) had outstanding basketball squads. Later, both of these standout Kansas teams would be awarded the Helms National Championship, recognizing the Jayhawks as the top team in the nation during those seasons.

High school coaching

Rupp began his career in coaching by accepting a teaching job at Burr Oak High School, Kansas. After a one year stay, Rupp moved on to Marshalltown, Iowa where he coached wrestling, a sport he knew nothing about at the time and learned from a book. He did lead the Marshalltown team to a state wrestling title in 1926.[1]

In 1926-30, Rupp accepted the basketball head coaching position at Freeport High School, (Freeport, Illinois) where he also taught history and economics. During his four years at Freeport, Rupp compiled a record of 66-21 and guided his team to a third-place finish in the 1929 state tournament.[2] While at Freeport High School Rupp started William "Mose" Mosely, the first African-American to play basketball at Freeport and the second to graduate from the school. There have been rumors in the Freeport community for years that Rupp was forced out because he played Mosely, while others say that he left because he did not win the state championships in 1929 and 1930.[3]

University of Illinois head basketball coach Craig Ruby was invited to speak at the team banquet following the 1929-30 season. Ruby informed Rupp of the Kentucky head coaching job and followed up by recommending him for the job.[4]

During his time in Freeport, Rupp met his future wife, Esther Schmidt.

University of Kentucky

Rupp coached the University of Kentucky men's basketball team from 1930 to 1972. Rupp's Wildcat teams won four NCAA championships (1948, 1949, 1951, 1958), one National Invitation Tournament (NIT) title in 1946, appeared in 20 NCAA tournaments, had six NCAA Final Four appearances, won five Sugar Bowl tournament championships, captured 27 Southeastern Conference regular season titles, and won 13 Southeastern Conference tournaments. Rupp's Kentucky teams also finished ranked #1 on six occasions in the final Associated Press college basketball poll and four times in the United Press International (Coaches) poll. In addition, Rupp's 1966 Kentucky squad (nicknamed "Rupp's Runts") finished second in the NCAA tournament and Rupp's 1947 Wildcats finished second in the NIT. Further, Rupp's 1933 and 1954 Kentucky squads were awarded the Helms National Championship.

In all, Rupp coached 32 All-Americans, chosen 50 times, 52 All-SEC players, chosen 91 times, 44 NBA Draft Picks, 2 National Players-of-the-Year, 7 Olympic Gold Medalists, and 4 Naismith Basketball Hall-of-Fame members.

Rupp was forced into retirement in March 1972 after reaching the age of 70, which at the time was the mandatory retirement age for all University of Kentucky employees. He was a 4-time National Coach-of-the-Year award winner, and a 7-time Conference Coach-of-the-Year award winner.

1952-1953 Death Penalty Season

Adolph Rupp has earned the distinguished honor of coaching the first team to receive the "death penalty" violation from the NCAA. This incident marked the first significant episode in a long history of cheating at the University of Kentucky.

Basketball stars Alex Groza, Ralph Beard, and Dan Barnstable were arrested for taking payments from gamblers in a point-shaving scandal during the 1948-49 season, when Kentucky won its second straight national title. An NCAA investigation found that the UK basketball program had paid players and that coaches had knowingly allowed athletes who were academically inelligible to compete. The Southeastern Conference first banned Kentucky from competition for a year, and the NCAA followed suit. Unlike subsequent instances of the death penalty, the entire University of Kentucky athletic program was barred from competition for the 1952-1953 season, not just the offending basketball team.[5]

Superstitions

Rupp, a very superstitious man, was known to carry a "lucky" buckeye in his pocket. His favorite sign of good luck was finding a pin, especially a bobby pin, particularly on a game day. The depth of his superstitious nature was revealed while he was coaching at Freeport, when he had bought a new blue suit to replace his old brown one. He wore his new suit to a game, and his team got beaten badly (a rarity). Rupp never again wore anything but brown to games.[6]

Head coaching record

Statistics overview
Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
Kentucky Wildcats (Southern Conference) (1930–1932)
1930–1931 Kentucky 15–3 8–2 4th
1931–1932 Kentucky 15–2 9–1 T–1st
Kentucky: 30–5 17–3
Kentucky Wildcats (Southeastern Conference) (1932–1972)
1932–1933 Kentucky 21–5 8–0 1st Helms National Champion
1933–1934 Kentucky 16–1 11–0 1st
1934–1935 Kentucky 19–2 11–0 T–1st
1935–1936 Kentucky 15–6 6–2 1st
1936-1937 Kentucky 17–5 5–3 T–5th
1937–1938 Kentucky 13–5 6–0 1st
1938–1939 Kentucky 16–4 5–2 3rd
1939-1940 Kentucky 15–6 4–4 6th
1940–1941 Kentucky 17–8 8–1 1st
1941–1942 Kentucky 19–6 6–2 3rd NCAA Final Four
1942–1943 Kentucky 17–6 8–1 1st
1943–1944 Kentucky 19–2 N/A N/A NIT 3rd Place
1944–1945 Kentucky 22–4 4–1 2nd NCAA Elite 8
1945–1946 Kentucky 28–2 6–0 1st NIT Champions
1946–1947 Kentucky 34–3 11–0 1st NIT Runner-Up
1947–1948 Kentucky 36–3 9–0 1st NCAA Champion
1948–1949 Kentucky 32–2 13–0 1st NCAA Champion/NIT Quarterfinals
1949–1950 Kentucky 25–5 11–2 1st NIT Quarterfinals
1950–1951 Kentucky 32–2 14–0 1st NCAA Champion
1951–1952 Kentucky 29–3 14–0 1st NCAA Elite 8
1952–1953 Kentucky No Team* No Team* No Team* No Team*
1953–1954 Kentucky 25–0 15–0** T–1st Declined NCAA bid
1954–1955 Kentucky 23–3 12–2 1st NCAA Sweet 16
1955–1956 Kentucky 20–6 12–2 2nd NCAA Elite 8
1956–1957 Kentucky 23–5 12–2 1st NCAA Elite 8
1957–1958 Kentucky 23–6 12–2 1st NCAA Champion
1958–1959 Kentucky 24–3 12–2 T–2nd NCAA Sweet 16
1959–1960 Kentucky 18–7 10–4 3rd
1960–1961 Kentucky 19–9 11–4** T–2nd NCAA Elite 8
1961–1962 Kentucky 23–3 13–1 T–1st NCAA Elite 8
1962–1963 Kentucky 16–9 8–6 5th
1963–1964 Kentucky 21–6 11–3 1st NCAA Sweet 16
1964–1965 Kentucky 15–10 10–6 5th
1965–1966 Kentucky 27–2 15–1 1st NCAA Runner-Up
1966–1967 Kentucky 13–13 8–10 T–5th
1967–1968 Kentucky 22–5 15–3 1st NCAA Elite 8
1968–1969 Kentucky 23–5 16–2 1st NCAA Sweet 16
1969–1970 Kentucky 26–2 17–1 1st NCAA Elite 8
1970–1971 Kentucky 22–6 16–2 1st NCAA Sweet 16
1971-1972 Kentucky 21–7 14–4 T–1st NCAA Elite 8
Kentucky: 876–190 399–75
Total: 876–190

      National champion         Postseason invitational champion  
      Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
      Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion
      Conference tournament champion

    • Record includes SEC playoff tiebreaker games
  • The team did not play in the 1952-53 season because of involvement in a point shaving scandal.[7]

Career after Kentucky

In April 1972, Rupp was named Team President of the Memphis Pros, soon to become the Memphis Tams, of the American Basketball Association.[8][9]

In July 1973, Rupp was hired as Vice President of the Board of the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association.[10][11]

Death

Rupp died at age 76 in Lexington, Kentucky, on December 10, 1977, on a night that Kentucky defeated his alma mater, Kansas, at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas. The game that night was promoted as "Adolph Rupp Night". He is buried in Lexington Cemetery.

See also

References

  1. ^ Adolph Rupp: Kentucky's Basketball Baron By Russell Rice ISBN 0-915611-98-8/
  2. ^ http://www.ihsa.org/school/records/sum0619.htm/
  3. ^ unpublished research from Stephenson County Historical Society, Freeport, Illinois/
  4. ^ "Interview with Adolph Rupp, May 1971". Kdl.kyvl.org. Retrieved 2011-12-12.
  5. ^ Johnson, Geoff. "Five times the NCAA meted out a 'death penalty.' Will Miami make six?". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 12/19/2011. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  6. ^ Adolph Rupp: Kentucky's Basketball Baron By Russell Rice p. 21
  7. ^ "Explosion: 1951 Scandals Threaten College Hoops".
  8. ^ Memphis Tams Year by Year Notes, RememberTheABA.com
  9. ^ Pluto, Terry, Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association (Simon & Schuster, 1990), ISBN 978-1-4165-4061-8, p.240-241, 272
  10. ^ Kentucky Colonels Year by Year Notes, RememberTheABA.com
  11. ^ Pluto, Terry, Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association (Simon & Schuster, 1990), ISBN 978-1-4165-4061-8, p.272

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