Published in Newsweek, February 12, 1968, pp. 105-106.

In the first college-basketball game he coached, Adolph Rupp's fast-breaking University of Kentucky team dashed to a 67-19 victory over Georgetown (Ky.) College. That was in 1930. Since then, his Wildcats have won four NCAA titles, 22 Southeastern Conference championships and produced twenty All-America players. Yet for all his runaway honors, there was one record that the "Baron of the Bluegrass" found particularly elusive: the 771 victories compiled by Rupp's own coach, Phog Allen of Kansas.

Rupp: The sweet milk of success

The closer Rupp got, the more agonizing it seemed. In 1966 he learned that five victories his team had accumulated in the International Universities Tournament at Tel Aviv would not count; the NCAA ruled them unofficial competition. "If the games were that unimportant," snapped Rupp, "why did they send us?"

Just as depressing to the doughty, bespectacled coach was the performance of last season's team, ranked No.3 in the preseason polls. Its 13-13 record was the worst in Rupp's 37 years. This year the Wildcats looked almost as clawless in the crunch. Twice they were upset trying for No. 771-both times after Kentucky officials had arranged to keep the game ball as a memento-before they finally licked Louisiana State.

Jittery: That left just one to win. And last week, the Wildcats went to Oxford to meet the University of Mississippi and hopefully lay their 66-year-old coach's obsession to rest. Wearing his customary brown suit, the Baron washed down a club sandwich with two glasses of "sweet milk" and tried not to be nervous before the game. After all, Ole Miss had never beaten Rupp in 27 tries. It was, nonetheless, a stomach-churning contest. The Wildcats went into the final 48 seconds with a one-point lead, and while the 5,200 fans roared Rupp ordered his jittery team to slow down. The strategy worked: Ole Miss committed a series of personal fouls, Kentucky guard Steve Clevenger plopped in a string of free throws and the Wildcats won, 85-76. "I'm glad it's over and I'm sure the boys are too," Rupp said later. "The pressure wasn't helping us."

Rupp is expected to coach until 1971, when he faces mandatory retirement. Meanwhile, statisticians reckon his record may never fall. The only coach within range - Oklahoma State's Henry Iba, 739 victories-is nearly as old as Rupp. And promising contenders like UCLA's 57-year-old John Wooden, who has 453 wins, can't challenge the Baron's current total for more than a decade.

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