Published in Sports Review's Basketball Illustrated Magazine, Winter 1951-52, pp. 16-28.

Bill Spivey, University of Kentucky. Unanimous 1951 All-American and winner of Helms Athletic Foundation 1951 College Player of the Year Award.

(Note: Only the section on Bill Spivey is included, entitled "Kentucky Cheers for Bill Spivey")

by KEN KUHN

Seven-foot BiIl (Grits) Spivey, the University of Kentucky's brilliant center, who Iast year was named the outstanding college basketball player in the nation by the Helms Foundation, will pull out all the stops in this his final season with Coach Adolph Rupp's every-winning Wildcats.

The Georgia Pine, who as a sophomore eclipsed the first-year scoring records of such basketball immortals as George Mikan, Bob (Foothill) Kurland and Easy Ed MacCauley, will have an added incentive-1952 is an Olympic year. and that trip to Finland looks mighty tempting. Last year, Spivey compiled a 19.2 point average for 33 games as he led Kentucky to the NCAA Championship and an overall record of 32 victories and two defeats. Illness forced the quiet, likeable giant to miss the Mississppi State game while he played only a few minutes against the University of Florida.

Here we see Kentucky's spectacular Spivey at his best as he eases by an unidentifiable University of Illinois player to make a successful layup shot.

Spivey's 1950-51 average was just a shade under his 1949-50 mark of 19.3 In his sophomore year he scored 578 points while last year he netted a fat 635 for a two year total of 1,213. This year he will be aiming at the single season scoring record of 698 points set in the 1948-49 campaign when the towering Spivey was leading. the Kentucky Freshmen to an undefeated season, something that isn't a rarity at Kentucky.

Another goal of the Georgia golden boy will be a total-career scoring mark of 1,744 points. Spivey needs only 532 to surpass that record and seems a leadpipe cinch to go down as probably Kentucky's greatest hardwood performer. And there have been many great ones in Lexington, the college basketball stronghold of the nation.

Spivey is the sole owner of the school's single game scoring record of 40 points. He did it in his sophomore year against Georgia Tech and repeated the performance against Xavier of Cincinnati as a junior. The shy Georgia boy also shares the school's single-game SEC Tournament output with 37 points, a feat he accomplished in the finals against Tennessee, in 1950.

In last year's NCAA playoffs, Spivey scored 72 points in four games and was a standout in the Eastern Finals when he tabbed 28 points as the Wildcats squeezed past Illinois, 66-64; and also in the finals against Kansas State when he whipped in 22 counters, most of them in the second half, to blow a tight game wide open.

Spivey, who is a good mixer, lists billiards among his hobbies and he also plays the piano and sings. During the summers, he spends a great deal of his time serving, as an umpire for softball games between fraternities on the UK campus. There are very few disputes with the ump.

Born in Lakeland Fla., Spivey's parents moved to Georgia when Bill was only a few months old and it was in the Peach State that Spivey grew up -- and grew up in a hurry. .

When he was 12 years old, he was six feet, two inches tall and weighed 192 pounds.

He entered Warner Robins High School in 1944 when his father, an electrical engineer, took a civil service job at Robins Field.

Warner Robins High had never fielded a basketbalI team but when Principal Bert Ramble got a look at young Spivey, he rounded up a basketball, a couple of backboards and nets and in a short time, Big Bill was in business.

The principal couldn't arrange a schedule, however, as the school was not a member of the Georgia High School Athletic Association. And as for outfitting Spivey, it was almost an impossible task - there weren't any shoes his size.

Finally Ramble managed to card three informal games with teams from nearby towns. He picked the four next tallest boys in the school, threw them in with Spivey, and went to work. Playing in his stocking feet, Spivey managed to score 15 or more points in each game but he got so little help from his teammates that the school took a sound lacing in each contest.

The next year, Spivey entered Jordon High at Columbus, Ga., and promptly proceeded to spend almost the entire season warming the bench. At the time he was 16 years old and stood six-feet, 10 inches above the floor. But he was awkward.

He got in his first high school basketball game one night when his coach, B. F. Register, called him over with a minute to play. Jordon was sporting a 20 point lead and Register told Spivey: "You might as well get in there now. You can't do us any harm."

But before Spivey could report, his feet got tangled and down he went. The fans laughed, but Spivey got up and made it to the scoring table and finally onto the floor. There were 30 seconds left, just about enough time for the giant to get up and down the floor once. He never touched the ball.

And so was the debut of one of Coach Rupp's finest players. After he finished high school, Spivey decided he wanted to play at Kentucky. And Kentucky decided it wanted Spivey. Neither has been sorry.

Filled out now to a husky 240 pounds, Spivey is ready. This will be his year. He's sure of that and Kentucky fans rest comfortably at night knowing that as long as Bill Spivey is around, the Wildcats are going to be mighty hard to beat.

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