BIG BLUE FANS FOR
BASKETBALL
FAN MEMORIES AND KEEPSAKES
THE LAST GAME AT MEMORIAL
You can take a boy to the Coliseum,
sit him down for 5 minutes, and
if he doesn't want to play at Kentucky
after just looking at the place,
he is too dumb to go to college anyway.
Adolph Rupp
On March 8, 1976, the Kentucky Wildcats played their last ever game on the floor at Memorial Coliseum. The Wildcats called Memorial Coliseum home from 1950-51 season through the 1975-76 season. During that distinguished tenure at Memorial, UK won, and won, and won. In fact,
- They did not experience a loss at Memorial until January 8, 1955 when they lost to Georgia Tech, 59-56, ending the longest home court winning streak in NCAA history at 129 games. This winning streak began on January 4, 1943 with a victory over Fort Knox, 64-30. [See Description of this loss in following text]
- The Cats' overall record at Memorial was 306 wins and 38 losses, for an overall winning percentage of 89.0%.
- The Cats were unbeatable at Memorial during 7 of their 25 seasons on that floor.
- The Cats only lost once at Memorial during 8 of their 25 seasons on that floor.
- The Cats only lost twice at Memorial during 6 of their 25 seasons on that floor.
- The Cats only lost three games at Memorial during 2 of their 25 seasons on that floor, and
- All told, the Cats lost 26 of those 38 games over 23 of the 25 seasons,and the remaining 12 losses over 2 seasons.
The UK Basketball Media Guide describes the loss that ended the 12+ year home winning streak follows:
"The Wildcats got off to a fine start in the Coliseum, winning every game played in the building for the first three seasons. When Georgia Tech upset Kentucky 59-58 on Jan. 8, 1955, it marked the first time the Wildcats had lost on their home court since the days of Alumni Gym, dating back more than 12 years to Jan. 2, 1943.
The loss ended a streak of 129 consecutive wins at home for Kentucky, an NCAA record that still stands today. Veteran UK announcer Cawood Ledford remembered the Yellow Jackets’ win at the Coliseum, the first time many Wildcat fans had ever witnessed a UK loss. “When the game was over, nobody moved,” the late Ledford once said. “Everyone sat in absolute stunned silence. I would say it was a good five minutes before anyone made a move to get up. But Kentucky sure didn’t lose very many times there.”
In the last game that UK played in this historic building occurred on March 8, 1976. The Cats played Mississippi State in a game that remains in the collective memories of all UK fans alive at the time. This group of Wildcats were determined to not permit this historic event to end with a Kentucky defeat. They fought back late in the game from a deficit to tie the score at the end of regulation, and the Cats prevailed in overtime 94-93 to get the big W.
The program for this game included a 20 page insert that described the history of the building. Check that entire insert out right here. CLICK HERE FOR All Pages In Sequence, or Select the links below for specific pages, and browse them with the navigation links provided at the bottom of each individual page.
PAGE 9 PAGE 10 PAGE 11 PAGE 12
PAGE 13 PAGE 14 PAGE 15 PAGE 16
PAGE 17 PAGE 18 PAGE 19 PAGE 20
submitted by Ron Goodbub
Read Mr. Goodbub's Story of his 53 and counting year love affair with the Cats.
CLARIFICATION: The official UK Media Guide reports 26 years at Memorial, which is technically correct, but 1953-54 was a year without a year without a season, thus the compilation of achievement above is based on 25 seasons.
Copyright 2006
SugarHill Communications of Kentucky
All Rights Reserved