Published in The Courier-Journal Magazine, March 14, 1965 , pp. 11-14, 17-18.

By Joe Creason

Terrific Two: Basketball coaches Adolph Rupp of the University of Kentucky and Ed Diddle of Western Kentucky State College next month will go together ino the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame. As Joe Creason's story about them on Page 13 makes clear, "Terrific Two" is an apt description, to paraphrase the "Fabulous Five" nickname of one of Rupp's famous squads.

IT IS HIGHLY FITTING that the names of two basketball coaches, Edgar Allen Diddle of Western Kentucky State College and Adolph Frederick Rupp of the University of Kentucky, will be added to the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame at the same ceremony on April 14.

That pairing is appropriate for many reasons, four of which point up the giant stature of these men in their profession:

* Diddle and Rupp revolutionized basketball in the South. They literally shamed football-conscious schools their teams competed against regularly to recruit strong cage teams in order to keep from being humiliated, elevating the sport to unprecedented popularity in the process.

* They are the only coaches in the history of basketball to win more than 700 games at a single school. When he retired at the end of last season after 42 years, Diddle's Western teams had won 759 and lost 301 games. Including the just-ended season, the most disastrous he ever experienced, Rupp's UK teams have rolled up an incredible 720-150 record.

* Both are colorful characters with a rare ability to coin quotable quotes, a factor that helped make each a legend in his own lifetime.

* The normal rule requiring that a figure must be retired from his sport for at least five years before even being considered for the Hall of Fame was waived in this instance in order to bring Diddle and Rupp into the fold at the same ceremony.

The Record

Individually, Diddle and Rupp own more records than you can shaken statistic chart at.

Diddle is the only man ever to coach 1,000 or more games at the same location; his 42 years at Western itself was a longevity record; he stands second only to Dr. Phog Allen of Kansas - who, incidentally, was Rupp's college coach - on the list of the winningest coaches of all time. Allen won a total of 771 games at two different colleges in his career.

No coach, newcomer or veteran, is within long-distance telephoning range of Rupp's won-lost percentage record. Even after the past 15-win-10-loss season, his teams owned an almost unbelievable .828 average. He has taken UK into 41 national tournaments, winning 143 games and losing just 40. Tournament titles include a record four National Collegiate Athletic Association and five Sugar Bowl championships.

In some respects, Diddle and Rupp are as alike as twin peas in a pod; in other ways they are poles apart The determination to win always has burned deep in the breasts of both, and during a close game they might be called man's nearest approach to perpetual emotion as they agonize their teams through tight places.

Although Ed Diddle and Adolph Rupp share emotional aggressiveness, they have never been vaguely alike in off-court temperament, personality, attitude and coaching technique.

Diddle is a folksy, slightly lisping, kind-hearted coiner of new words who never went into a game without arming himself with a bath-size red towel. Rupp is a brusque, somewhat crochety mastermind who faces each game wearing a brown suit.

In short, Diddle is as down-to-earth as freckles on a farm boy's nose, while Rupp can best be described as fitting perfectly his widely used nickname "Der Baron."

When Diddle was at the helm at Western, there was a sort of we-the-people informality surrounding a practice session. The gym was wide open and students and townspeople alike came and went.

In contrast, a UK practice session is conducted in secrecy, with canvas curtains screening all entrances to the playing floor. Everything is done by the clock.

Whereas Rupp works endlessly at perfecting a certain number of set plays or patterns until the players move through them almost without thinking, Diddle once described his style of coaching as "playing it by ear - I just hand the boys a ball, step back and let them go to it."

That, of course, really isn't true. Western teams under Diddle were well coached in the crowd-pleasing, high-scoring, hell-for-leather type of offense.

Still another basic difference between the two is the feeling of their players toward them. Most players who have served under Rupp have tremendous respect for his ability as a coach. Western players view Diddle almost as a second father.

Another area in which they are totally unlike - and at the same time similar - is in ability to produce interesting quotes. That is, both always have given reporters something to write about, but the way they say it reflects the nature of each.

While Diddle's remarks usually are gentle and reflect his tendency to coin new words or run several words together into a curious new blend of the mother tongue, Rupp's statements are more pointed and likely to have a distinct bite to them.

Back in the days when band-leader Horace Heidt was touring the country searching for new talent, Diddle was asked to serve as a judge in Louisville.

"I didn't know you were musical," a friend said to Diddle in surprise.

"I don't know one note from another," Diddle confessed in his slightly lispy voice. "What I'm hoping to do is find a 7-foot piccolo player."

A Family Affair

POSTMORTEM after a Western defeat finds Ed comforting his successor, Johnny Oldham, left.

After he had completed his playing days at Western, Ed Diddle Jr., the old master's only son, was head coach at Middle Tennessee State, a long-time Western rival. The first father-vs-son meeting was a classic, with young Ed losing by two points in a hair-raising finish. When the game was over, tears trickling down his face, he took the long walk down the floor to congratulate his father.

"Eddie," old Ed consoled, "just remember: win or lose, always be sportsmanship, and on top of that we kept it in the family."

The last of Rupp's four NCAA championship teams was the 1958 group which at the beginning of the season he had dubbed "The Fiddling Five." After they won their title, he explained: "The Fiddling Five suddenly became violinists."

Never one to underestimate himself, Rupp once was asked to explain Kentucky's phenomenal success. "The answer is easy," he said. "Good coaching."

TOUGH taskmaster Rupp drills players hard on fundamentals

In earlier years, Kentucky was one of the most popular teams to appear in New York's Madison. Square Garden, then the capital of basketball in the nation. The coming of Rupp to town always was an event that called for a press conference. One year, a reporter asked him what he would do to improve the game.

I'll tell you," he replied in his Kansas voice that twangs like a loose guitar string, "I'd take the bankboards away from the goal and raise the whole thing to 12 feet"

After the newsman had rushed away to report that startling suggestion, someone asked Rupp if he really meant it

"Naw," he laughed, "but anything for a column."

There are those who say the bad days that have come to UK in basketball in the past two or three years have mellowed Rupp, taken some of the bite from his remarks by giving him a taste of how the poor folks live.

Which of the men is the greater coach is a topic that will stir up lively debate anywhere in Kentucky at any time. The question is one that never can be resolved; and, in fact, there's no need to try. Each has contributed mightily to the game to which he has devoted his life.

It's doubtful if one state ever again will produce two coaches who will rewrite as many record books. For that reason, if no other, their entrance into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame together is as it should be.

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