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It's been a little over 3 years since we lost the true”Lead Cat", the point guard for Big Blue Nation. It's also time I share some of the experiences I had with Mr. Wildcat with you, so this column is devoted to my ole buddy who I miss very much now that I’ve spent my first summer without him in my life. Including Coach Joe B. Hall, Bill Keightley was the last and most visible and loved member of the original UK dynasty started years ago by Adolph Rupp. But the last 30 years Bill Keightley was much more than the UK basketball equipment manager, he wore many different hats for UK.
Bill was an eloquent and charming speaker on the banquet circuit with his witty stories about his experiences under the six UK head basketball coaches that he worked for and they always resulted in knee slapping laughter from his audiences. Many times in the past years UK's coach or A.D. would hook Bill up with a perspective high roller donor when the program needed money or a special project constructed. In 1987 when UK had one of its pre-season scrimmages at the high school I was coaching at the team rolled into the parking lot that evening and as they got off the bus I noticed a very successful central KY. banker had rode up with the team and guess who was assigned the seat next to him for the ride up the Mountain Parkway, yep, one Bill Keightley. The following week the university announced a major advertisement deal with his bank for UK's radio broadcast. It doesn't take a mental heavy weight to see who pulled that deal off. Bill's most impressive attribute to me was his down to earth demeanor and humble personality and it was intoxicating immediately when he met UK's players for the first time as they arrived on campus each fall and they all immediately leaned on him as their father or big brother figure for the remainder of their career at UK.
Trust me when I tell you this. Bill Keightley, not an assistant coach, kept many a frustrated freshman from departing the famed program and going home, whether it is for being homesick or upset with the head coach. Keightley had a knack for righting the ship with a player and getting him back on course. From 1977 to 1996 I spent four to six weeks each summer helping UK and Bill with their annual summer Wildcat basketball camps. As I look back they may have been the most enjoyable times of my life. When I first met Bill it was also the first time I ever met a UK head basketball coach in person and it was without a doubt one of the most embarrassing moments of my life.
My first Bill Keightley story goes like this:
It was the summer of 1977 and I had just started my high school coaching career at M.C. Napier HS in Eastern KY. when my brother Oscar who had just launched the Cats Pause magazine a year earlier called to say that coach Hall needed some help with his camp and invited me down.
I accepted immediately and my friendship with UK began.
I was a wet behind the ears 22 years old as I drove down the Bert T. Combs Mountain Parkway that sunny June day in 1977 and it dawned on me that I was about to meet and work with Joe B. Hall the head basketball coach at the University of KentucKY. As far as this ole mountain boy was concerned I was about to walk thru the Pearly Gates and meet the Savior himself, at that time and during that era Joe B. was the kingpin of UK hoops. The more I thought of my upcoming arrival at UK and my first meeting with him I became somewhat excited and had to stop at least 3 or 4 times on the trip down to use the bathroom. My last stop around Winchester I forgot to do one very important thing.
Zip my pants up,
So, as I arrived at the check point for camp which was Memorial Coliseum and began walking thru those hallowed halls and spotted coach Hall at the other end and began walking toward him for that first impression that my mother and father had always told me was the most important. As I approached him I stuck out my hand first and said hello coach, my name is coach Ira D. Combs from M.C. Napier, I’m Oscar's youngest brother and he very politely responded, it's nice to meet you coach, you may want to look down.
I responded with a very puzzled “what do you mean coach” and when his eyes went south mine did too.
There I was standing in front of the head basketball coach of UK and his entire staff for the first time in my life with my fly wide open.
It was the most embarrassing moment of my life then and still is to this day. I froze, then tried to as discreetly as possible recover and zip up when a nice half bald headed guy named Bill Keightley came up to me and put his arm around me and said come on Coach I’ll show you the ropes around here.
It gets better!!!!!!
Then to start my life out with Bill Keightley as we walked away from Joe B. Hall, Leonard Hamilton and Joe Dean Jr. who were all three laughing under their breath. Bill Keightley, in his own unique manner turned to coach Hall and his staff and remarked, “that’s alright guys, go ahead and laugh but coach Combs just had the most enjoyable ride ever taken down the Mountain Parkway”.
You gotta let your mind drift a little folks concerning that remark, but I knew exactly what he was referring to and that just made the whole experience of meeting everyone at UK totally unforgettable, I never looked back but just kept walking along side Bill until we were out of sight. To this day Coach Hall bribes me every summer to bring home grown tomatoes from the Combs family garden and he won't mention the story when in his presence in public.
My second Bill Keightley story:
By the summer of 1989 I had become pretty good friends with Bill to the point we occasionally pulled pranks on one another. That's about the time this slick talking Italian from New York arrived on the scene to straighten out the mess UK was in from NCAA probation.
Initially that first summer UK had decided their would be no camps because coach Pitino didn't take the job until late May. Then Keightley calls me in mid-June and says coach P can't wait he wants to go ahead and get started meeting the high school coaches across the state and have one camp in July. I need you and Harold ( my brother ) to help get us a couple other coaches from eastern KY. and come on down to help with camp.
Bill closed out that phone conversation by saying, “I’ll take care of you when we assign players to teams”.
Did he ever!!!!!!!!!!
As I arrived at camp that year coach Pitino and Bill was standing side by side at the coaches registration table to greet us all. Bill introduced coach P to me and then coach P introduced me to his three sons Michael, Chris, and RicKY Jr., as I walked away talking with Bill I remarked that they seemed like nice kids and Bill just grinned and nodded his head. As we were walking Bill notified me that there was an unusual number of young elementary kids in camp and they needed me to help with that age group instead of my normal high school age group, I said fine it will be interesting to see how that age group responds to my coaching style.
That evening we had our first meeting with Coach P and got our team assignments. Little did I know that Bill had sabotaged the process along with the basketball office secretary Marta McMackin. As coach P gave out the team player rosters Bill stood over in the corner with this sheepish grin on his face that he was guilty of something.
I looked down at my team list and there it was, the worst team in summer camp history but no doubt the most popular and I’m positive from the most lucrative families financially in the commonwealth:
1989 UK Summer Camp ”Knicks” & there age
1. Michael Pitino - 12
2. Chris Pitino - 10
3. RicKY Pitino Jr. - 8
4. Saul Smith - 10 (Tubby’s youngest son)
5. Charles Martin Newton 111 - 11 (C.M. Newton's grandson)
6. Greg Defilippo - 12 (son of Asst. A.D. at UK)
7. Billy Blevins - 10 (Twin from Elizabethtown)
8. Bobby Blevins - 10 (Twin from Elizabethtown)
I had been set up by my ole friend and probably the best one ever pulled on me in my 18 year coaching career.
I had six prime starting candidates but you can't start but five, who's gonna come off the bench.
Bless their hearts, the twins from E-town had a pretty good idea that first game they would be the ultimate substitutes that week. As for the 5 starters for each game, well, that resulted in another Bill Keightley brainstorm that I’ll share with you in my final column for this off season in this tribute to my ole buddy, Bill Keightley,
I'll tell you this much, the decision on who should start each league game that week involved a short separate discussion between me, Keightley and all UK coaches to that date except Adolph Rupp of course.
At the end of the previous story, I had left you with the beginning of how Bill Keightley set me up in 1989 by manipulating the basketball office secretaries to put the young men listed below on my team that summer so I would have to deal with the pressure of pleasing their mom and dad. To refresh your memory, here again is that team I coached in the summer of 1989:
1989 UK Wildcat Camp Team
Elementary Age Group ( 8 to 12 )-
Name -”Knicks"
Coach - Ira D. Combs ( Asst. M.C. Napier H.S. )
1. Michael Pitino - 12
2. Chris Pitino - 10
3. Richard Pitino Jr. - 8
4. Saul Smith - 10 (Asst. coach Tubby Smith's youngest son)
5. Charles Martin Newton 111 - 11 (C.M. Newton's grandson)
6. Greg Defillippo - 12 (UK asst. A.D.'s son )
7. Billy Blevins - 10 Twin from Elizabethtown
8. Bobby Blevins - 10 Twin from Elizabethtown
Once we all received our team list and that meeting was over we all went over to Memorial Coliseum to let the teams and their coaches get acquainted and have a shoot around to see who possibly could have the best players and if maybe one team was loaded and needed to be watered down with some trades from other teams for competitions sake.
After one round of lay-ups and jump shots from the free throw line it was very obvious that I had the worst team in camp history and word spread quickly, don't trade a player for anyone on the Knicks team.
Immediately, I dropped by (The Cage), Bill's office, and made him my assistant and he was to be in attendance for at least one game a day to make suggestions for this mess he set me up with. Then Bill and I went over together for this end of the first day meeting that all camps have just to see what kinks need to be worked out between UK's staff and the camp coaching staff. As we arrived at this late night meeting I along with Bill and the other high school coaches noticed there was no pizza or drinks as in past years for our hard day’s work just completed.
Only a chalk board set in the front of the room and one angry Italian coach.
Bill and I were about to get our first Pitino berating together!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Remember now, all we were told to do was take our team's and watch them shoot lay ups and free throw line jump shots to see who can shoot and score, that's it, nothing else.
So as the last high school coach arrived for this now famous meeting Coach Pitino stepped to the chalk board without saying a word to any of us and drew a straight line across the top of the chalkboard and stepped back to look at all of us and said (my knowledge of basketball is up here and pointed to that line across the top) then stepped back to the board drew another line across the middle and said a couple of you may be here and then stepped back to draw a final third line across the main bottom of the board then looked us all in the face individually and said, “but the majority of you are down here”. Then proceeded to criticize, chastise, and berate us all on our knowledge of the game that we all thought we were fairly astute in. All based on watching us watch our teams shoot layups & jump shots.
Then Pitino ended that tirade by saying, “by the end of this week I expect you to be up here with me on this line”.
“Wow”!!!!!, was my first thought, what have I got into here, a week of this for $125.00.
Amongst the 18 individuals in that room were some of the most successful high school coaches our state has ever produced. Needless to say when Pitino left the room we were all ready to pack our bags and head back home at sunrise and had Pitino's assistant Ralph Willard and Bill Keightley not been there to smooth over things with us one Rick Pitino would have seen just how good he was because he was a New York minute away from having to coach 350 youngsters by himself for an entire week.
I got up at 6:00 a.m. the next morning with many different thoughts going thru my head and had breakfast at 7:00 with Bill and my brother Harold, something I rarely did. Trust me there's nothing comparable to dormitory style camp breakfast. It's unexplainable and it's been the only time after my 30th birthday I’ve lost weight in my life.
This is when Bill came up with his best idea to gain something from this mess he created for me. He said, ”Ira, you've got the opportunity of a lifetime in front of you, if you can't get a ticket to watch games for this upcoming season this week out of the parents your dealing with you'll never see a game in Rupp Arena”. That perked up my enthusiasm quickly.
This is where we put our heads together and come up with the numbers rotation for starting purposes so everyone on the team would get to start at least one of the eight games during the week. You see, none of the players on this team, I mean nary a one had made their schools team the year before so it would be their first starting assignment in their historic but short careers.
Then things took a turn for the bad and dejection started to set in.
After the first game on Monday evening Joanne & Rick Pitino had been in attendance and Coach Pitino stopped by after the game to shake my hand for working with his kids and was very courteous, basically the exact opposite in his attitude from the night before so I’m thinking hit him up now. I said, Coach Pitino it's very difficult for us high school coaches to get a night off to watch the Cats and when we do it's virtually impossible to get a ticket. Can you hook me up with one, His reply, sorry Coach Combs I only have 20 tickets in my contract and I have a big family and several high roller donors that take them up quickly.
Then on Tuesday Donna & ”Tubby“ came by to watch Saul and I hit them up and got the same response. One by one each day I got turned down by the entire clan of the Wildcat athletic department until finally on the last day my old mountain con artist skills kicked in.
Bill Keightley laughed harder and longer when I dropped by his office at the end of camp and told him what I’m about to share with you than at any other time I’ve been around him.
On that last day the rotation for starting assignments was set for Charles Martin Newton 3rd to make his first start. C.M. however, didn't know that, so just before that particular game which was the only one C.M. showed up for he pulled me off to the side and very politely ask why his grandson had been the only member of the team to not start. Evelyn, (his first wife) he said had been drilling him all week on the matter.
That's when it hit me, here's my last chance, go for it I told myself.
I said Coach Newton I didn't think it mattered all that much to your grandson coming from the family he's grown up in, just being able to play was all I thought mattered. But to answer your question more honestly I’m just like everybody else in Kentucky and want to see a game occasionally and as we've gone thru the week here I’ve asked Coach Pitino,”Tubby", and all the other athletic department employees for a ticket to a game and they've all been kind enough to oblige me so I gave their son a starting assignment.
Feeling a little spry I added so far the only game I’ve not got a ticket for that I’m interested in is the Louisville game.
C.M. politely responded, “well coach if that's all it takes just drop by my office before you leave and give my secretary your address and you'll get a prime seat for our game with Louisville in the lower level courtesy of me for your contributions to our camp”.
I called his grandson over to me slapped him on the rump and said sic'em Jr. you’re the point guard. Saul, you and Ricky Jr. move to the wings. Michael, you and Chris can come off the bench this game.
That's how I saw my first UK - U of L basketball game.
I had as they say here in the mountains ”Slipshucked” the oldest and wisest of them all. Bill was proud of me and got a story to tell on his banquet circuit for many years into the future.
In closing out this column and tribute to Bill I’m going to share my final conversation with you that Bill swore me to secrecy with until he's no longer with us. I had stopped by his office about a week or so before his tragic fall and set down with him to talk about the upcoming Reds season and the past UK hoops season. Bill would never share his most private and honest feelings about UK basketball with anyone other than maybe Van Florence or Luther Deaton and in his later years Vince Tatum.
When ask publicly, who was the best coach he ever worked for he always said, ”I’m like the guy who's been married 5 times, the one I’m with right now”.
That day I ask Bill if Coach Gillispie could get us back to where we belonged in college hoops.
He very quickly said, ”yes, but it will take a couple years and a little luck in recruiting but yes he can and will and he also said that Gillispie had a tireless work ethic that trumped Pitino. That's when I ask the ultimate question that he finally answered. Who's the best college basketball coach you've seen at UK or anywhere.
Bill's response was, “the first five I’ve worked for here at UK (Rupp - Hall - Sutton - Pitino - Tubby) I can honestly put in the top 20” and then stated that Joe B. was by far the most underrated and underappreciated.
He then stated each one's trademarks:
Rupp's was organization and attention to detail.
Hall's was recruiting and utilizing the many avenues of finances and donors the program had developed over the years. Also, he knew what the UK basketball fan wanted out of this program, for example ( Blue - White scrimmages, Wildcat Lodge, annual Freedom Hall game, etc. ).
Sutton's was game planning and in game adjustments or game day coaching. It's a shame he said what happened with him here but he's more than proved his talents at Arkansas & Oklahoma State.
Pitino's was a tireless work ethic by himself, his staff, and convincing his players of how they could over achieve as a team if they bought into the individual instruction sessions plus he was a master motivator on game day and Pitino was sharp with the recruits & their families especially with the mother.
Tubby's was his professionalism and the rapport he had with his players and the respect he got from the recruits and their parents when selling UK to them.
Bill added that, Gillispie had shown a few traits of all five previous Wildcat coaches but one year on the job is not enough time to judge especially with all the unforeseen problems Gillispie had to deal with in his first campaign. But he was confident Gillispie could bring back some of those glory years.
Looking back however my ole buddy said, ”Rick could have had a dynasty going by now had he stayed, not a UCLA type, but it could have been a run no one else could have matched in modern day time, he was also the hardest to work for at times, but he was special”. I said I’m assuming your saying Coach Pitino was at the top of that list.
Bill just nodded his head and said softly yes, but I honestly wouldn't have traded a one of them Ira during the time I was working for them for anybody else.
For more than 25 years I’ve dropped off fresh vegetables from the Combs family garden at least twice each summer to Bill for him and his wife Hazel and daughter Karen. We used to sit under this old oak tree across the street from the entrance to his office at the coliseum and solve the world’s problems.
Last month I drove by the coliseum on the way to cover a Reds weekend series and left a small bag of fresh peas under that old shade tree, it just felt like the right thing to do.
Good bye and fair well ole buddy, I truly enjoyed every minute I spent with you on this earth and I hope we see each other again on the other side.
Bill was an eloquent and charming speaker on the banquet circuit with his witty stories about his experiences under the six UK head basketball coaches that he worked for and they always resulted in knee slapping laughter from his audiences. Many times in the past years UK's coach or A.D. would hook Bill up with a perspective high roller donor when the program needed money or a special project constructed. In 1987 when UK had one of its pre-season scrimmages at the high school I was coaching at the team rolled into the parking lot that evening and as they got off the bus I noticed a very successful central KY. banker had rode up with the team and guess who was assigned the seat next to him for the ride up the Mountain Parkway, yep, one Bill Keightley. The following week the university announced a major advertisement deal with his bank for UK's radio broadcast. It doesn't take a mental heavy weight to see who pulled that deal off. Bill's most impressive attribute to me was his down to earth demeanor and humble personality and it was intoxicating immediately when he met UK's players for the first time as they arrived on campus each fall and they all immediately leaned on him as their father or big brother figure for the remainder of their career at UK.
Trust me when I tell you this. Bill Keightley, not an assistant coach, kept many a frustrated freshman from departing the famed program and going home, whether it is for being homesick or upset with the head coach. Keightley had a knack for righting the ship with a player and getting him back on course. From 1977 to 1996 I spent four to six weeks each summer helping UK and Bill with their annual summer Wildcat basketball camps. As I look back they may have been the most enjoyable times of my life. When I first met Bill it was also the first time I ever met a UK head basketball coach in person and it was without a doubt one of the most embarrassing moments of my life.
My first Bill Keightley story goes like this:
It was the summer of 1977 and I had just started my high school coaching career at M.C. Napier HS in Eastern KY. when my brother Oscar who had just launched the Cats Pause magazine a year earlier called to say that coach Hall needed some help with his camp and invited me down.
I accepted immediately and my friendship with UK began.
I was a wet behind the ears 22 years old as I drove down the Bert T. Combs Mountain Parkway that sunny June day in 1977 and it dawned on me that I was about to meet and work with Joe B. Hall the head basketball coach at the University of KentucKY. As far as this ole mountain boy was concerned I was about to walk thru the Pearly Gates and meet the Savior himself, at that time and during that era Joe B. was the kingpin of UK hoops. The more I thought of my upcoming arrival at UK and my first meeting with him I became somewhat excited and had to stop at least 3 or 4 times on the trip down to use the bathroom. My last stop around Winchester I forgot to do one very important thing.
Zip my pants up,
So, as I arrived at the check point for camp which was Memorial Coliseum and began walking thru those hallowed halls and spotted coach Hall at the other end and began walking toward him for that first impression that my mother and father had always told me was the most important. As I approached him I stuck out my hand first and said hello coach, my name is coach Ira D. Combs from M.C. Napier, I’m Oscar's youngest brother and he very politely responded, it's nice to meet you coach, you may want to look down.
I responded with a very puzzled “what do you mean coach” and when his eyes went south mine did too.
There I was standing in front of the head basketball coach of UK and his entire staff for the first time in my life with my fly wide open.
It was the most embarrassing moment of my life then and still is to this day. I froze, then tried to as discreetly as possible recover and zip up when a nice half bald headed guy named Bill Keightley came up to me and put his arm around me and said come on Coach I’ll show you the ropes around here.
It gets better!!!!!!
Then to start my life out with Bill Keightley as we walked away from Joe B. Hall, Leonard Hamilton and Joe Dean Jr. who were all three laughing under their breath. Bill Keightley, in his own unique manner turned to coach Hall and his staff and remarked, “that’s alright guys, go ahead and laugh but coach Combs just had the most enjoyable ride ever taken down the Mountain Parkway”.
You gotta let your mind drift a little folks concerning that remark, but I knew exactly what he was referring to and that just made the whole experience of meeting everyone at UK totally unforgettable, I never looked back but just kept walking along side Bill until we were out of sight. To this day Coach Hall bribes me every summer to bring home grown tomatoes from the Combs family garden and he won't mention the story when in his presence in public.
My second Bill Keightley story:
By the summer of 1989 I had become pretty good friends with Bill to the point we occasionally pulled pranks on one another. That's about the time this slick talking Italian from New York arrived on the scene to straighten out the mess UK was in from NCAA probation.
Initially that first summer UK had decided their would be no camps because coach Pitino didn't take the job until late May. Then Keightley calls me in mid-June and says coach P can't wait he wants to go ahead and get started meeting the high school coaches across the state and have one camp in July. I need you and Harold ( my brother ) to help get us a couple other coaches from eastern KY. and come on down to help with camp.
Bill closed out that phone conversation by saying, “I’ll take care of you when we assign players to teams”.
Did he ever!!!!!!!!!!
As I arrived at camp that year coach Pitino and Bill was standing side by side at the coaches registration table to greet us all. Bill introduced coach P to me and then coach P introduced me to his three sons Michael, Chris, and RicKY Jr., as I walked away talking with Bill I remarked that they seemed like nice kids and Bill just grinned and nodded his head. As we were walking Bill notified me that there was an unusual number of young elementary kids in camp and they needed me to help with that age group instead of my normal high school age group, I said fine it will be interesting to see how that age group responds to my coaching style.
That evening we had our first meeting with Coach P and got our team assignments. Little did I know that Bill had sabotaged the process along with the basketball office secretary Marta McMackin. As coach P gave out the team player rosters Bill stood over in the corner with this sheepish grin on his face that he was guilty of something.
I looked down at my team list and there it was, the worst team in summer camp history but no doubt the most popular and I’m positive from the most lucrative families financially in the commonwealth:
1989 UK Summer Camp ”Knicks” & there age
1. Michael Pitino - 12
2. Chris Pitino - 10
3. RicKY Pitino Jr. - 8
4. Saul Smith - 10 (Tubby’s youngest son)
5. Charles Martin Newton 111 - 11 (C.M. Newton's grandson)
6. Greg Defilippo - 12 (son of Asst. A.D. at UK)
7. Billy Blevins - 10 (Twin from Elizabethtown)
8. Bobby Blevins - 10 (Twin from Elizabethtown)
I had been set up by my ole friend and probably the best one ever pulled on me in my 18 year coaching career.
I had six prime starting candidates but you can't start but five, who's gonna come off the bench.
Bless their hearts, the twins from E-town had a pretty good idea that first game they would be the ultimate substitutes that week. As for the 5 starters for each game, well, that resulted in another Bill Keightley brainstorm that I’ll share with you in my final column for this off season in this tribute to my ole buddy, Bill Keightley,
I'll tell you this much, the decision on who should start each league game that week involved a short separate discussion between me, Keightley and all UK coaches to that date except Adolph Rupp of course.
At the end of the previous story, I had left you with the beginning of how Bill Keightley set me up in 1989 by manipulating the basketball office secretaries to put the young men listed below on my team that summer so I would have to deal with the pressure of pleasing their mom and dad. To refresh your memory, here again is that team I coached in the summer of 1989:
1989 UK Wildcat Camp Team
Elementary Age Group ( 8 to 12 )-
Name -”Knicks"
Coach - Ira D. Combs ( Asst. M.C. Napier H.S. )
1. Michael Pitino - 12
2. Chris Pitino - 10
3. Richard Pitino Jr. - 8
4. Saul Smith - 10 (Asst. coach Tubby Smith's youngest son)
5. Charles Martin Newton 111 - 11 (C.M. Newton's grandson)
6. Greg Defillippo - 12 (UK asst. A.D.'s son )
7. Billy Blevins - 10 Twin from Elizabethtown
8. Bobby Blevins - 10 Twin from Elizabethtown
Once we all received our team list and that meeting was over we all went over to Memorial Coliseum to let the teams and their coaches get acquainted and have a shoot around to see who possibly could have the best players and if maybe one team was loaded and needed to be watered down with some trades from other teams for competitions sake.
After one round of lay-ups and jump shots from the free throw line it was very obvious that I had the worst team in camp history and word spread quickly, don't trade a player for anyone on the Knicks team.
Immediately, I dropped by (The Cage), Bill's office, and made him my assistant and he was to be in attendance for at least one game a day to make suggestions for this mess he set me up with. Then Bill and I went over together for this end of the first day meeting that all camps have just to see what kinks need to be worked out between UK's staff and the camp coaching staff. As we arrived at this late night meeting I along with Bill and the other high school coaches noticed there was no pizza or drinks as in past years for our hard day’s work just completed.
Only a chalk board set in the front of the room and one angry Italian coach.
Bill and I were about to get our first Pitino berating together!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Remember now, all we were told to do was take our team's and watch them shoot lay ups and free throw line jump shots to see who can shoot and score, that's it, nothing else.
So as the last high school coach arrived for this now famous meeting Coach Pitino stepped to the chalk board without saying a word to any of us and drew a straight line across the top of the chalkboard and stepped back to look at all of us and said (my knowledge of basketball is up here and pointed to that line across the top) then stepped back to the board drew another line across the middle and said a couple of you may be here and then stepped back to draw a final third line across the main bottom of the board then looked us all in the face individually and said, “but the majority of you are down here”. Then proceeded to criticize, chastise, and berate us all on our knowledge of the game that we all thought we were fairly astute in. All based on watching us watch our teams shoot layups & jump shots.
Then Pitino ended that tirade by saying, “by the end of this week I expect you to be up here with me on this line”.
“Wow”!!!!!, was my first thought, what have I got into here, a week of this for $125.00.
Amongst the 18 individuals in that room were some of the most successful high school coaches our state has ever produced. Needless to say when Pitino left the room we were all ready to pack our bags and head back home at sunrise and had Pitino's assistant Ralph Willard and Bill Keightley not been there to smooth over things with us one Rick Pitino would have seen just how good he was because he was a New York minute away from having to coach 350 youngsters by himself for an entire week.
I got up at 6:00 a.m. the next morning with many different thoughts going thru my head and had breakfast at 7:00 with Bill and my brother Harold, something I rarely did. Trust me there's nothing comparable to dormitory style camp breakfast. It's unexplainable and it's been the only time after my 30th birthday I’ve lost weight in my life.
This is when Bill came up with his best idea to gain something from this mess he created for me. He said, ”Ira, you've got the opportunity of a lifetime in front of you, if you can't get a ticket to watch games for this upcoming season this week out of the parents your dealing with you'll never see a game in Rupp Arena”. That perked up my enthusiasm quickly.
This is where we put our heads together and come up with the numbers rotation for starting purposes so everyone on the team would get to start at least one of the eight games during the week. You see, none of the players on this team, I mean nary a one had made their schools team the year before so it would be their first starting assignment in their historic but short careers.
Then things took a turn for the bad and dejection started to set in.
After the first game on Monday evening Joanne & Rick Pitino had been in attendance and Coach Pitino stopped by after the game to shake my hand for working with his kids and was very courteous, basically the exact opposite in his attitude from the night before so I’m thinking hit him up now. I said, Coach Pitino it's very difficult for us high school coaches to get a night off to watch the Cats and when we do it's virtually impossible to get a ticket. Can you hook me up with one, His reply, sorry Coach Combs I only have 20 tickets in my contract and I have a big family and several high roller donors that take them up quickly.
Then on Tuesday Donna & ”Tubby“ came by to watch Saul and I hit them up and got the same response. One by one each day I got turned down by the entire clan of the Wildcat athletic department until finally on the last day my old mountain con artist skills kicked in.
Bill Keightley laughed harder and longer when I dropped by his office at the end of camp and told him what I’m about to share with you than at any other time I’ve been around him.
On that last day the rotation for starting assignments was set for Charles Martin Newton 3rd to make his first start. C.M. however, didn't know that, so just before that particular game which was the only one C.M. showed up for he pulled me off to the side and very politely ask why his grandson had been the only member of the team to not start. Evelyn, (his first wife) he said had been drilling him all week on the matter.
That's when it hit me, here's my last chance, go for it I told myself.
I said Coach Newton I didn't think it mattered all that much to your grandson coming from the family he's grown up in, just being able to play was all I thought mattered. But to answer your question more honestly I’m just like everybody else in Kentucky and want to see a game occasionally and as we've gone thru the week here I’ve asked Coach Pitino,”Tubby", and all the other athletic department employees for a ticket to a game and they've all been kind enough to oblige me so I gave their son a starting assignment.
Feeling a little spry I added so far the only game I’ve not got a ticket for that I’m interested in is the Louisville game.
C.M. politely responded, “well coach if that's all it takes just drop by my office before you leave and give my secretary your address and you'll get a prime seat for our game with Louisville in the lower level courtesy of me for your contributions to our camp”.
I called his grandson over to me slapped him on the rump and said sic'em Jr. you’re the point guard. Saul, you and Ricky Jr. move to the wings. Michael, you and Chris can come off the bench this game.
That's how I saw my first UK - U of L basketball game.
I had as they say here in the mountains ”Slipshucked” the oldest and wisest of them all. Bill was proud of me and got a story to tell on his banquet circuit for many years into the future.
In closing out this column and tribute to Bill I’m going to share my final conversation with you that Bill swore me to secrecy with until he's no longer with us. I had stopped by his office about a week or so before his tragic fall and set down with him to talk about the upcoming Reds season and the past UK hoops season. Bill would never share his most private and honest feelings about UK basketball with anyone other than maybe Van Florence or Luther Deaton and in his later years Vince Tatum.
When ask publicly, who was the best coach he ever worked for he always said, ”I’m like the guy who's been married 5 times, the one I’m with right now”.
That day I ask Bill if Coach Gillispie could get us back to where we belonged in college hoops.
He very quickly said, ”yes, but it will take a couple years and a little luck in recruiting but yes he can and will and he also said that Gillispie had a tireless work ethic that trumped Pitino. That's when I ask the ultimate question that he finally answered. Who's the best college basketball coach you've seen at UK or anywhere.
Bill's response was, “the first five I’ve worked for here at UK (Rupp - Hall - Sutton - Pitino - Tubby) I can honestly put in the top 20” and then stated that Joe B. was by far the most underrated and underappreciated.
He then stated each one's trademarks:
Rupp's was organization and attention to detail.
Hall's was recruiting and utilizing the many avenues of finances and donors the program had developed over the years. Also, he knew what the UK basketball fan wanted out of this program, for example ( Blue - White scrimmages, Wildcat Lodge, annual Freedom Hall game, etc. ).
Sutton's was game planning and in game adjustments or game day coaching. It's a shame he said what happened with him here but he's more than proved his talents at Arkansas & Oklahoma State.
Pitino's was a tireless work ethic by himself, his staff, and convincing his players of how they could over achieve as a team if they bought into the individual instruction sessions plus he was a master motivator on game day and Pitino was sharp with the recruits & their families especially with the mother.
Tubby's was his professionalism and the rapport he had with his players and the respect he got from the recruits and their parents when selling UK to them.
Bill added that, Gillispie had shown a few traits of all five previous Wildcat coaches but one year on the job is not enough time to judge especially with all the unforeseen problems Gillispie had to deal with in his first campaign. But he was confident Gillispie could bring back some of those glory years.
Looking back however my ole buddy said, ”Rick could have had a dynasty going by now had he stayed, not a UCLA type, but it could have been a run no one else could have matched in modern day time, he was also the hardest to work for at times, but he was special”. I said I’m assuming your saying Coach Pitino was at the top of that list.
Bill just nodded his head and said softly yes, but I honestly wouldn't have traded a one of them Ira during the time I was working for them for anybody else.
For more than 25 years I’ve dropped off fresh vegetables from the Combs family garden at least twice each summer to Bill for him and his wife Hazel and daughter Karen. We used to sit under this old oak tree across the street from the entrance to his office at the coliseum and solve the world’s problems.
Last month I drove by the coliseum on the way to cover a Reds weekend series and left a small bag of fresh peas under that old shade tree, it just felt like the right thing to do.
Good bye and fair well ole buddy, I truly enjoyed every minute I spent with you on this earth and I hope we see each other again on the other side.
Blue Summer Without My Old Friend
By: Ira D. Combs
