Published in Louisville Courier Journal Sunday Magazine, February 18, 1968, pp. 4-6, 8, 10-11, 13-15.

by BILLY REED

ADOLPH FREDERICK RUPP was mad. Never mind that his immortal basketball team, the "Fabulous Five," had run up a halftime lead of 38-4 in a game in the University of Kentucky's old Alumni Gymnasium. What mattered was that all the oppbsing team's points had been scored by a single player.

"Somebody guard that man!" Rupp bellowed. "Why, 'he's running wild."

Funny as it may sound, Rupp was serious. Sometimes it seems that perfection itself isn't enough to please him. This, along with a vast knowledge of the game and a lot of good players, is why Rupp is what he is today -- the winningest college basketball coach of all time.

On the 29th of last month, his 38th team at UK defeated the University of Mississippi 85-76 in Oxford, Miss., to give Rupp his 772nd victory since he brought his revolutionary fast-break style from Freeport (IL) High School to UK in 1930.

The win over Ole Miss enabled Rupp to surpass the old record of 771 set by his own college coach, Dr. Phog Allen, in 46 years at the University of Kansas. In all probability, there will be more milestones for Rupp. Now 66, almost 67, with three fun seasons remaining before reaching UK's mandatory retirement age of 70, Rupp almost certainJy will push his win total past 800. And conceivably, he could win an unprecedented fifth National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship with promising young players such as Mike Casey, Dan IsseI and Mike Pratt, all sophomores on his current team.

Garbed in his traditional brown suit, Coach Rupp was watchful, thoughtful, talkative on the bench during the Georgia game.

At this juncture, it would be nice to say that Rupp is a jolly, teddy-bear sort of fellow who never has done anything more controversial than wear a brown suit, for luck, at every one of his team's games. It would be nice, but untrue. For while Adolph Rupp does have moments of graciousness, he also has a stormy temper and stern, totalitarian coaching phllosophy that are as much parts of him as his great teams and wondrous achievements.

One of his former players, a member of UK's beloved "Rupp's Runts" team of two seasons ago, put it like this: "He scares you into being good. He's so serious about it, and he wants to win so badly, that you're afraid not to play well."

Apparently it's always been that way. Listen to a member of the "Fabulous Five," the celebrated team of 1947-48 that is observing its 20th anniversary season: "He was strict. There was no question in anybodys mind what he wanted, and he wanted things done at that time or minutes before. He wanted his plays to be run a certain way. If you did it right, you never heard about it; if you did it wrong, you would never stop hearing about it.

"There's never been any such thing as getting close to him. I think he's always felt that he couldn't get to the top by being a pal You've got to have a head of any organization, and he made it quite clear who was boss of the University of Kentucky basketball team."

Other former UK players say that Rupp taught them the meaning of words like "sacrifice" and "dedication." In the words of one All-American, "He always put the team over the individual and that's what basketball is all about." Another player remembers Rupp as "a master psychologist" and still another says Rupp had "a sixth sense about coaching."

To a man, they all remember Rupp as a disciplinarian and a perfectionist.

"You would think you had worked a play perfectly, but Adolph would tell you to do it again and again until you got it right," one player recalled. "He's got the keenest mind in basketball, even today."

And what does Rupp -- "the Baron" -- think about it all? Though not known for modesty, Rupp puts on his gracious face when answering the question:

"The record doesn't belong to me, it belongs to the university and to the boys. It's a wonderful thing, not for me, but for UK, which gave me the opportunity to work for them, and all the wonderful boys we've had down through the years. They were champions because they didn't hang their heads and quit when things weren't going their way. They were men of desire and genuine qualities, and that's what it takes to have a championship team.

After the Georgia game Rupp was joined on the bench by his wife, Ester, during ceremonies honoring him for his 38 yers as coach at UK.

"I've had good help, too, from my first assistant coach, Baldy Gilb, to Harry Lancaster, who's been here 21 years, and Joe Hall, who's been with us the last three years. A lot of the credit goes to them.

"I can't name one great game. They were all great. There were the four NCAA championships and there was the 1948 Olympics when my five boys stood up there on the podium and were presented gold medals.

"There was the unbeaten bunch of Hagan, Ramsey, Tsioropolous and Evans in 1953-54 and the 'Fiddlin' Five' of 1958 that fiddled their way to an NCAA title. I can't forget them. And there was my team of two years ago. Only the flu stood between them and the national championship: (Starters Larry Conley and Pat Riley were ailing as UK lost to Texas Western 72-65 in the final game.)

"But coaching hasn't always been pleasant. I lost some of my boys in World War II, and that hurts. We've had some great days and we've had some bad ones. I've been here a long time, and I plan to stay a little longer. I hope the future continues to be kind to the University of Kentucky."

Though outnumbered here, the University of Kentucky Wildcats went on to win this game against Georgia in their effort to gain another Southeastern Conference title for Coach Adolph Rupp. No. 45 is Cliff Berger and No. 22 is Mike Pratt

ADOLPH Rupp always has a winner. Born in Halstead, Kan., Sept. 2, 1901, Rupp learned to play basketball by stuffing a feed sack and throwing it around his folks' farmyard. "You couldn't dribble it," Rupp once said, "but you could learn how to pass and handle the ball"

At the University of Kansas, he was a guard on Allen's unbeaten team of 1923. His first coaching job was at Marshalltown, Iowa, a position he accepted under the illusion that he was to be basketball coach. Instead, it developed that Rupp had been hired as wrestling coach. Although it angered the man, it didn't deter him from his pursuit of excellence. His wrestlers won the state championship.

Moving next to Freeport High School, Rupp guided his teams to victories in more than 80 percent of their games. And when coach Johnny Mauer left UK in 1930, Rupp applied for the job and was picked over 69 other applicants.

His records speak for themselves. Besides the national championships, Rupp's UK teams have won more Southeastern Conference championships (22), produced more All-Americans (24), and won a higher percentage of their games (83.2) than any team in the land. They have played from coast to coast and in several foreign countries. Two years ago, "Rupp's Runts" won the International Universities Tournament in Tel Aviv, Israel. Last summer, Rupp and Lancaster conducted coaching clinics in Germany. In addition to his coach's salary, Rupp has a sizable income from Hereford cattle and tobacco, and from other business interests. He and his wife, Esther live in a comfortable but unpretentious home in the Chevy Chase section of Lexington. They have one son, Herky, now himself a successful coach at Shelby County High School, and a year-old grandson, Adolph Frederick Rupp III.

The relationship between Rupp and the basketball fans of Kentucky has come to be something of a phenomenon. Rupp fans have developed into what is practically a cult, and they worship him perhaps even more than Alabama football fans worship Paul (Bear) Bryant.

For instance, on a cold morning last December in Louisville,. some 5,000 Rupp idolators showed up in Freedom Hall to watch UK practice -- practice, mind you -- for its annual game with Notre Dame. When Rupp stood up merely to tell his players to change practice drills, the fans applauded madly. Some say the turnout was a greater tribute to Rupp than the crowd of 18,000 at the game itself.

His hopes for a successful season this year depend largely on sophomores, including Mike Casey (34), Mike Pratt (22) and Dan Issel. Thad Jaracz (55) has been for the most part th eonly starting senior.

And it all started, really, with the "Fabulous Five." . . .

Although Rupp came to coach UK basketball 38 years ago, his national renown came with the 1947-48 season, which was the time of the "Fabulous Five." This was the first of Rupp's "super" teams, the one which laid the groundwork for the legend of Rupp and Kentucky basketball. And although Rupp himself refuses to say whether this was his greatest team, many of his oldest fans and closest friends say there isn't any doubt.

Never has a basketball team been as widely honored as the "Fabulous Five." Its record of 36 wins and only three losses included the championship of the Southeastern Conference and the first of Rupp's four NCAA titles. All five starters -- Ralph Beard, Alex Groza, Wallace (Wah Wah) Jones, Cliff Barker and Kenny Rollins -- were named to either the first or second all-conference team, and three of them -- Beard, Groza and Jones -- were bonafide All-Americans. Moreover, when Rupp coached the winning United States team in the 1948 Olympic Games in London, his starting players were the "Fabulous Five."

When Rupp is asked these days about that 1947-48 team, he will talk more about its depth than anything else. A boy who made All-American in 1944, Jack Parkinson, wasn't good enough to start the year of the "Fabulous Five."

"We had great material," Rupp says. "We had some kids who were 26 years old coming back from the war' and some who were 19, fresh out of high school. My big problem there was to play enough boys to keep them all happy. There's never been any question about that being a great crowd."

Invariably, when Rupp comes up with an outstanding team, UK fans hasten to measure it against the "Fabulous Five." So it was with the unbeaten'Cliff Hagan-Frank Ramsey team of 1953-54, the "Fiddlin' Five"" of 1957-58 and "Rupp's Runts" of two years ago.

And so it is now, with this season's young, talented team that has ranked high in the nation and the SEC. Is this, the fans wonder, the next "Fabulous Five?" Can sophomores Casey, IsseI and Pratt all be All-Americans someday, just like Beard, Groza and Jones? Could these boys even be better than their counterparts of 20 years ago?

Any red-hot UK basketball fan has strong ideas about such questions, but the questions are only academic. Today's game of basketball is much more scientific, much more refined than the one played by the "Fabulous Five."

For instance: The most accurate shooter on the "Fabulous Five," center Groza, made only 37.7 per cent of his shots; several of UK's current players hit better than 45 percent. Only two members of the 1947-48 team averaged more than 10 points and they were the leading scorers, Groza and Beard, who averaged only 12.5 points each; on the current team, it has not been uncommon for each starter to be averaging in double figures and the leading scorer, Casey, has hovered near a 20-point average. Finally, on defense, the "Fabulous Five" employed only a tenacious man-to-man; the current team can use that or choose from a variety of zones and presses that have been installed since.

TO A MAN, however, the members of the "Fabulous Five" say that, given modern coaching techniques, their team could be great in this or any era. Says team captain Kenny Rollins: "The only difficulty might be rebounding, because we didn't have the size of so many modern teams. But in speed, shooting, play-making, ball-handling and fast-breaking; I feel very strongly that we could more than hold our own."

Of course there was more to these men than records and statistics. To educate a new generation, and bring back some memories for older ones, here are the men who were the "Fabulous Five":

CLIFF BARKER - Drive up the hlll past the Capitol in Frankfort, stop off at Saylor's restaurant, and there will be Cliff Barker presiding over a cash register. Heavy now, with thinning hair, the man who manages the restaurant does not look much like the slender youth in the yellowing newspaper picture of the "Fabulous Five" hanging on the wall.

Cliff Barker, manning the cash register in the resturant he manages in Frankfort

Barker played forward for the "Fabulous Five," and they say be could handle the ball better than anyone you've ever seen, even the great Bob Cousy. Behind the back, between the Iegs, the 6-foot-2 Barker could do wonders with a basketball, and be learned it all in an unlikely place. A sergeant in the Air Force, Barker was in a plane that was shot down over Germany in 1944. Captured by the Nazis and placed in a prisoner-of-war camp, be got a basketball from the Red Cross. Hour after hour, day after day, he would dribble and pass that ball, filling in the time until the end of the war.

"We made our own facilities and just monkeyed around," Barker said.. "A lot of guys went stir crazy. You always had to have something to occupy your mind."

By his own description, Barker was "the aspirin tablet that settled the team. down," which is understandable. After the war, and a prison camp, what perils could a game hold? His biggest thrills, like all his teammates', were winning the national cbampionship and the Olympics.


KENNY ROLLINS - A successful executive for a corporation in Lexington, the team captain of the "Fabulous Five" looks as if be still has some fast-breaks left in him. But, said Rollins, leaning back in his swivel chair, the closest he comes to basketball now is his seat at UK's home games.

Kenny Rollins, at work as a cororation executive in Lexington

If Barker was the "aspirin tablet," the 6-foot Rollins was the team's playmaker. Also, be usually guarded the opposing team's top player because Rupp didn't want the high-scoring Ralph Beard to foul out.

"We never got rattled," the native of Wickliffe, Ky., recalls about the team. "We went into many, many games on the road that demanded poise and we always kept it. We were always in good condition and age was a factor. We were a unique ball club in that the reason we came about was World War ll. At the same time boys like Barker and I were coming back from the war, good prospects like Ralph Beard and Wah Jones were coming out of high school."

The continued fame of the "Fabulous. Five" is a source of wonder to Rollins. "Not a year goes by that I'm not interviewed," he said. It's simply amazing."


WAH WAH JONES - He's a little on the portly side now, but Wah Jones still carries himself with the grace of a natural athlete, which is exactly what he was. Now an official of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Department in Frankfort, Jones was a star in three sports, the personification of The All-American Boy, still regarded as probably the greatest all-around athlete in UK history. But even though he was an all-conference end in football and a star pitcher in baseball, Jones is best remembered as an aggressive, powerful, 6-foot-4 forward for the "Fabulous Five."

Wallace Jones, attending a game in Lexington with Humzey Yessin, left, UK golf coach who was student manager for the "Fabulous Five" team. Jones is an alcoholic-beverage-control official.

Jones came to UK from Harlan (Ky.) High School, where he starred on a state championship basketball team and established a new national high-school scoring record. At UK, he delighted fans with a long overhead shot from the side of the floor, one that he practiced diligently for many hours under Rupp's prodding. His teammates still marvel that such an easy-going man could be such a killer as a rebounder. They claim Jones would clobber an opponent going for a rebound, pick him up and apologize, then clobber him again on the next rebound.

"I guess I was malnIy a rebounder, but I set up the others on plays, too, you know, blocking off and passing off-that type of thing," Jones said. "I think we had more pattern play than teams do now. We didn't shoot the ball up as much. And we didn't have much of the one-hand shot then."

Typical of Jones is his description of the rebounding strength provided by Groza and himself: "Groza got everything that came on his side of the basket, but when it came on my side, well, I guess I did all right."


RALPH BEARD - His hair is thinning but Ralph Beard still is trim and his eyes are quick and bright, which is exactly the way he played. The youngest (19) and the smallest (5-10) of the "Fabulous Five," Ralph came out of Louisville Male High to win the hearts of UK fans with his gum-chewing, hustling style of play.

The attributes of the classic Kentucky guard, as defined by Rupp, are speed, aggressiveness, shooting ability and desire. Beard had them all.

Ralph Beard, sales manager for a wholesale drug company in Louisville

Rupp often said that Beard was faster while dribbling than anyone he ever saw. He specialized in ball-hawking and old-timers still talk about how quickly Ralph could steal the ball, then zip down the floor for a layup shot. "When he took off, you could smell rubber burning," one of them said. Beard was deadly driving for the basket or shooting long set shots from outside. One of his goals in Alumni Gym measured 52-1/2 feet.

So much for speed, aggressiveness, shooting ability. As for desire, Beard explains it like this:

"Basketball was all I lived, ate and breathed. I just loved to play. I liked to play defense as well as offense because defense at that time was a very definite part of Adolph's plan."

One of the few three-time All-Americans in history, Beard has seen his fame almost surpassed by his younger brother, Frank, now a star on the professional golf tour. Ralph plays golf himself when he's not working as sales manager for a wholesale drug company in Louisville. He's' pretty good at it, too.


ALEX GROZA - At 6 feet 7, Groza would be somewhat small for a center in today's basketball. But in 1947-48 he was a giant, the Lew Alcindor or Wilt Chamberlain of his day. He was the heart and soul of the "Fabulous Five," its leading scorer and rebounder. His most deadly shot was a hook, but he shot it only with his right hand. "If I could have shot with my left," says Groza now, with a smile, "I would have been a great player."

Alex Groza, playing at his Louisville home with 15-month-old son Lee. Groza is a salesman.

Groza was a great player. UK has had several outstanding centers since -- Bill Spivey, Cliff Hagan and Bob Burrow, to name a few. But those who remember the "Fabulous Five" insist that none of them could combine size and strength and agility the way Big Alex did. "I think Groza could work the boards with anybody playing today," Beard says, "and our quickness would neutralize what we lacked in size."

A native of Martins Ferry, Ohio, Groza refined his game in the Army before becoming a three-time All-American at UK.

During the year of the "Fabulous Five," when he was a junior, he also was named most valuable player in the NCAA Tournament and was leading scorer on the Olympic team.

As is the case with Beard, Groza has a famous brother, Lou, the veteran placekicker for the Cleveland Browns professional football team. Now a salesman in Louisville for a road-surfacing firm and for a real-estate firm, Alex gave coaching a whirl at Louisville's Bellarmine College, but resigned two years ago.

These were the "Fabulous Five," once - magnificent athletes now pushing middle-age, some with protruding bellies and balding heads. Time is catching up with Rupp, too, but when he talks about his current group of sophomores, all the old fire and enthusiasm is still there.

And who knows? Maybe Rupp sees what Kentucky fans have been awaiting for 20 years-another "Fabulous Five."

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