Leroy Edwards
Rupp's Formative Era

Excerpted from part of Chapter in book The Winning Tradition by Bert and Steve Nelli, University of Kentucky Press (1998).

The three returning starters-Lawrence, Tucker, and Anderson-were joined by two members of the undefeated 1933/34 freshman team, Warfield Donohue and Leroy"Cowboy" Edwards. Another member of that group, Ralph Carlisle, who would be an AlI-Conference forward in 1936 and 1937, was a substitute in 1934/35.

The Rupp system began to take definite shape in the 1934/35 season with the arrival of Edwards, Donohue, and Carlisle and the hiring of former Wildcat All- American Paul McBrayer as assistant coach. McBrayer would bring an attention to detail, a passion for hard work, and a number of innovative ideas to the program, among them the inside screen and the second guard around, the latter originally used by Blanton Collier at Paris High School. (Years later, Collier would become a head football coach, first at Kentucky and then with the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League.)

The Edwards-led team of 1934/35 set a trend and a standard for future UK teams that would not be matched until the late forties. Although only a sophomore and just 6'5" in height, Edwards was the prototype of the modern center. As McBrayer recalled, "He had a lot better moves around the basket than most centers did at that time, he was much stronger in the upper body and he had a good touch for the basket in close." Teammate David Lawrence also marveled at Edwards's strength and shooting ability. In an interview, Lawrence noted that the big center had "a good close-in jump shot, an excellent hook shot with either hand, and could rebound above the basket."

Leroy "Cowboy" Edwards, a scoring and rebounding sensation whose single varsity season (1934/35) was memorable. Edwards was All-SEC, All-American,and college player of the year.
The 1934/35 season was the only one Edwards played at UK, but because of him it was memorable. He was named All-SEC and All-American and the Helms Foundation Player of the Year-and he was only a sophomore. Unfortunately for the Wildcats and their faithful fans, his was a spirit more akin to that of the "do-your-own-thing" sixties than the Depression thirties. Edwards returned to his hometown, Indianapolis, at the end of the school year, never to return to the University of Kentucky. The following season he played basketball on a semipro team and in 1937 became a professional when he joined the Oshkosh (Wisconsin) All-Stars, one of the premier teams of that era. Edwards was a great player, and one can only guess what he would have accomplished if he had remained at UK and completed his eligibility.

During 1934/35 the Wildcats won nineteen games, lost only two, and finished the season as co-champions of the SEC. One of the losses, to New York University, was in a sense a triumph rather than a defeat. As Tev Laudeman has noted, "It broke Kentucky out of the mold of being just a good southern team." It had a number of other important results as well, including the favorable attention it brought Rupp and the team in the Times and other New York papers, and the important part it played in helping to promote intersectional play as weIl as highlight the differences in officiating between the East, the South, and the Midwest. When, after the game, Rupp complained bitterly that what had transpired in the contest bordered on a steal, many sportswriters agreed with him.

The NYU game was part of a doubleheader, the second one ever played at Madison Square Garden. According to one newspaper account it "was so exciting that the capacity crowd of 16,539 fans nearly went wild." The two teams offered contrasting styles. While the Violent Violets employed a fast break offense, the Wildcats used set plays, quick short passes, and the setting of screens. The screens, or blocks, were an integral part of the UK offense. Unfortunately referees in the East considered them illegal because most were moving picks. Every time the Cats set a screen the referee called a foul. (There was, Lawrence explained, only one referee and NYU chose him.) Edwards had three fouls within a few minutes after the start of the game. At the time four personal fouls brought expulsion from a game. Edwards lasted until the last minute of the game but played much more cautiously than normal and scored only one field goal. His game and that of his teammates were thrown off during most of the first half by the rough play of the NYU players, especially their center, Irving Turjesen. One reporter described it as verging on "warfare."

Although Turjesen scored only one point in the contest, his pushing, shoving, and jabbing effectively neutralized Edwards. The referee was much more indulgent of the NYU tactics than of UK's use of the moving screen. The Wildcats seemed bewildered during the early going by the NYU fast break, the rough play, and the referee's interpretation of the rules. Nevertheless, they fought back from an early 4-0 deficit to take the lead for the first time after more than twelve minutes of the first half had elapsed. It remained a close and rough game thereafter, but the Big Blue held the lead through nearly all of the second half. Then, with a minute left to play, the Violent Violets' captain, Sidney Gross, sank a field goal to tie the score at 22 all. The Wildcats controlled the following center tap and set up their offense for a game-winning basket, but at this critical juncture Edwards was called for setting an illegal block. Gross stepped to the foul line for the Violets. Arthur Daley, in the January 6,1935, New York Times, described the dramatic moment: "The ball teetered on the front edge of the rim with agonizing uncertainty and then toppled through the net to give the New York University quintet its twenty-second successive victory over a two-year span in Madison Square Garden." Although nearly a minute still remained in the game after the successful free throw, the Wildcats were faced with an impossible task. Without Edwards, who had fouled out, the Cats were unable to control the center tap. The Violets took possession of the ball, the Lexington Leader reported ruefully, "and iced the game by freezing it during the remaining seconds."

Although Edwards was held to only six points in the NYU game, he scored the phenomenal total, for that era, of 343 points for the entire season. By contrast, Carey Spicer's team-leading total for the 1930/31 season had been 190 points, and Aggie Sale had managed to tally 194 points in 1931/32. Edwards scored more than twenty points each in six of UK's twenty-one games during the 1934/35 campaign, with a season high thirty-six-point performance against a very good Creighton University team on February 22. This is impressive when one notes that UK rivals were able to score twenty or more points only eleven times during the season.

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