Leroy Edwards: University of Kentucky

Leroy Edwards
- Collegiate Record -

Edwards was already a larger-than-life character in college

Leroy Edwards attended the University of Kentucky and learned under their young coach Adolph Rupp. Freshmen were ineligible for the varsity at the time, so Edwards competed on the undefeated Freshman team in 1933-34, leading the team and setting a new school freshman record with a reported 315 points in the season. Other notable players on the squad included Ralph Carlisle and Warfield Donohue. The coach of the freshman team was former UK player Len Miller.

1933-34 Kentucky Freshman Team

Kentucky 1933-34 Freshman Team Results
Date	Opponent	Location	Result	Score	Edward's Points
11/20/1933	Dunn Drug	Lexington	W	51-12	13
12/5/1933	UK Varsity "B" Team	Lexington	L	28-34	10*
12/9/1933	Georgetown College	Lexington	W	47-21	9
12/15/1933	Paris (HS) Alumni	Paris, Ky	-	-	-
12/16/1933	Covington Y.M.C.A.	Covington, Ky	W	52-17	10
12/19/1933	Wilmore Athletic Club	Wilmore, Ky	W	68-20	26*
12/22/1933	Edentide	Louisville	-	-	-
1/9/1934	Irvine Athletic Club	Irvine, Ky	W	68-14	22*
1/12/1934	Williamson, W.Va. (HS)	Lexington	W	34-21	20*
1/13/1934	Pritz Brothers All Stars	Augusta, Ky	W	44-25	19*
1/17/1934	Eastern Normal	Richmond, Ky	W	58-28	24*
-	Paris Athletic Club	W	41-21	-
2/2/1934	DuPont Manual (HS)	Lexington	W	34-10	14
2/3/1934	Coffman Red Devils	Lexington	W	52-17	5
2/9/1934	Cincinnati All Stars	Lexington	W	61-27	27*
2/12/1934	Georgetown College	Georgetown, Ky	W	55-24	18*
2/14/1934	Eastern Normal	Lexington	W	49-31	25*
2/15/1934	Xavier	Maysville	W	46-22	27*
2/17/1934	DuPont Manual	Louisville	W	49-30	26

Note #1: * - Indicates that Edwards was the leading scorer for the Kentucky team
Note #2: Games vs. Paris (HS) Alumni Team and Edentide were scheduled but not verified to have actually occurred. The game vs. Paris Athletic Club was listed in the UK yearbook with a 41-21 UK freshman victory, but after the game vs. Eastern on January 17, 1934. No record of this game has been found in newspaper accounts. This game may have been the earlier game vs. Paris (HS) Alumni and listed by yearbook out of order.

Atlanta Journal, February 23, 1934

Varsity Statistics

The following season as a sophomore, Edwards led the Wildcats to a 19-2 record and earned All-American honors for himself. (He later was named the Helms National Player of the Year.) Edwards made a name for himself early on by outscoring the entire opposing team in the first five games of the year. This included a national game against the University of Chicago and their star player Bill Haarlow. In the game, Edwards scored 26 points while the entire Chicago squad could only tally 16.

The following game saw Kentucky travel for the first time to New York City to play in Madison Square Garden. Kentucky was matched up against a powerful New York University Violets team. (which later went on to be named the top team in the nation for that season by the Helms Committee.)

The game saw a clash not only between coaching and styles of play, but between officiating as Kentucky struggled to adopt to the Eastern officials. While Kentucky was called on fouls for setting screens (which had been an integral part of the offense), they watched helplessly as the Violet big men mandhandled Edwards in the paint without causing the officials to blow their whistle. The violence in the paint was enough that after a film of the game was shown at a national coaches conference, it helped lead to adoption of the 3-second rule which was designed to help unclog the key.

For additional information about this game and its importance, please see the next section of this website.

1935 University of Kentucky
Front Row (l to r): Head Coach Adolph Rupp, Edward Tierney, Jack Tucker, Dave Lawrence, Unknown #11, Russell Ellington, Charles Heinrich, Frank "Skipper" Mann
Back Row: John McIntosh, Bob Taylor, Harry Bliss, Leroy Edwards, Warfield Donohue, Garland Lewis, James Goforth, Ralph Carlisle

Edwards scored 343 points in his only varsity season as a Wildcat. This not only shattered the Kentucky single-season record (held by Forest "Aggie" Sale) but was a Southeastern Conference record and thought to be at the time the highest point total of any Southern player ever. This Kentucky record, which he accomplished in 21 games, was not eclipsed until over a decade later by Alex Groza and Ralph Beard, who each required considerably more games. Edwards was honored as a consensus All-American, the first non-native Kentuckian to earn All-American honors for the Wildcats. Edwards was also later named as the Helms Foundation Player of the Year and despite only playing one collegiate season, was named as one of the top ten collegiate players in the decade of the 1930s. (According to the National Association of Basketball Coaches.)

Date Opponent FG FT Pts Notes

12/10/1934 Alumni 7 4 18 "Big Ed Edwards, however, provided a bit of entertainment for the crowd with his peculiar shots at the basket which most of the time sailed through without even touching the rim. The big fellow couldn't get underway until about midway of the first half, but when he started scoring, he was permanently in the habit. Edwards explained his late start by claiming DeMoisey had been standing on his feet early in the game."

12/13/1934 Oglethorpe 10 2 22 "Whereas Lawrence and Tucker confined most of their scoring to the first half, Big Ed Edwards, the kingpin pivot man whose consistent work at center gave Kentucky permanent possession of the tipoff, poured the ball through the baskets with deadly accuracy during both halves. The towering Kentuckian registered 10 points in the first half and 12 in the second for a grand total of 22, which was really grand."

12/21/1934 Tulane 3 4 10 "Big Leroy Edwards, Kentucky's star sophomore center, led the scoring of the evening with a total of 10 points, coming thorugh with three goals from the field and a quartet of foul shots. The giant Kentuckian, who stands six feet, four inches in his stocking feet, gave the Tulane guards trouble aplenty, and he had a number of free throws that failed to go through the hoop."

12/22/1934 Tulane 7 2 16 "Big Leroy Edwards, Kentucky's six-foot, four-inch center, was again the shining light of the conflict, scoring seven goals from the field and two foul throws to top all scorers with 16 points."

1/2/1935 Chicago 7 12 26 "Big Edwards, cheered on by the ovations of a capacity crowd as he whisked the ball through from almost impossible angles, started the scoring and never let up until he was replaced late in the second half, with 26 points tabulated to his credit. . . The crowd which shoved its way into the gymnasium and overflowed into the street found Big Edwards' antics to their liking from the very start fo the game. Every time the giant center would swish a field goal through the hoops, the cheering would rock the raftters. The spectators expressed particular glee at Big Ed's ability to make his opponents foul him, and then they would howl again as, without concern, he would flip the ball thorugh the draperies. In 15 tries from the free throw line, Edwards counted 12 points."

1/5/1935 New York University 1 4 6 "The moving block that is the Colonels' stock in trade spelled their downfall. Ed Edwards was seen by Umpire Jack Murray perpetrating a block. He was accused of picking off and Gross got the try that was to decide the game. . . It was Edwards in the pivot position who was the keyman for the Colonels and he was so closely guarded by Irving Terjesen that the latter went out on personal fouls in the first half. Klein finished the job quite adequately." (NYT) - "Apparently realizing that the big Kentucky center was the man to stop, the Violent Violets - and they lived up to their name tonight - did everything but saddle the brilliant Wildcat pivot man. Every minute Edwards was in the game, he was harassed by cowboy guarding that at times had him bewildered. Often when he broke for the basket, his opponents would ride him completely off the court." (Lex. Herald)

1/14/1935 Tenn-Chattanooga 10 4 24 "Lawrence, giving one of the most dazzling displays of sensational shots seen here in many a day, rolled up 23 points, one less, however, than the 24 "Baby" Leroy Edwards amassed."

1/18/1935 Tulane 4 2 10 -

1/19/1935 Tulane 6 4 16 "As usual Edwards, Lawrence, Lewis and Tucker were the high scoring men on the Wildcat squad."

1/26/1935 Tennessee 6 3 15 "For a time during the game, Edwards, Lawrence and Lewis were engaged in a three-way race for high-scoring honors for the night but Lewis was removed from the competition when Carlisle replaced him early in the second half. Thereafter Lawrence and Edwards continud matchng baskets until at the end they were tied at 15 points each."

2/1/1935 Alabama 7 7 21 Edwards tallied 21 points for the winners to more than double his nearest competitor for high scoring honors. Seven goals from the court and seven out of eight free tries attested to his accuracy."

2/2/1935 Vanderbilt 7 4 18 "Edwards, Kentucky center, scored 18 points before he was taken out in the first two minutes of the second half as Kentucky sent in substitutes to complete the game."

2/5/1935 Xavier 8 7 23 "The D'Artagnan of the Kentucky troop was the redoubtable Edwards, who once again proved his might by making his thrusts good for a total of 22 points before being withdrawn from the fray midway of the second half. The big Kentucky player left the floor to a mighty ovation, given ungrudgingly by friend and foe alike, a tribute to his wonderful playing."

2/9/1935 Georgia Tech 4 1 9 "Maybe it was because he (Rupp) didn't want to run up a score higher than the electrical scoreboards could count. At any rate, he kept Leroy Edwards and his brother regulars of the University of Kentucky team in the game with Georgia Tech last night only about 15 minutes. When they left, the count was 30 to 4. The final score was 57 to 30.

2/11/1935 Alabama 4 4 12 -

2/13/1935 Michigan State 5 6 16 -

2/16/1935 Tennessee 3 2 8 -

2/22/1935 Creighton 15 4 34 "Rupp took Edwards out of the tilt and that was the signal for Englebretson, one of he most finished ball players ever seen in Lexngton, to break out into another scoring sweat. His two field goals in quick succesion nettled Big Edwards and he clamored to be put back into the game. Rupp obliged and the big fellow went back in to score three more points and establish what is reported to be a new individual scoring record in the South. . . .Big Edwards relished the going and the Creighton boys, often three of them at a time clinging to his neck and his spinal column, did everything but knock him through the brick wall. Big Ed got a kick out of sinking a crip shot with practically the whole Creighton team hanging on to him like pendants. In establishing his record, he made 15 field goals and four free throws."

2/23/1935 Creighton 3 8 14 Big Leroy Edwards was completely bottled up in the first half by the zone defense. Creighton planted around him and he failed to make a field goal. But in the second period, the big Kentucky center began to shake loose, dropped in three two pointers and added four more free throws to run his total up to 14 points. . . After the game, Englebretson, the star of the Nebraska team said 'These Wildcats are the best basketball team I ever saw.' Coach Arthur Schabinger, one of the outstanding basketball coaches of the country, whose ability was amply demonstrated by the clever playing of his boys here remarked. 'Kentucky has a great team. Edwards is a fine player but you must remember that he has an all-star supporting cast.'"

3/2/1935 Vanderbilt 3 3 9 "Plasman and Edwards put some color into the game by their constant bickering and shoving and growling at each other. Finally Big Ed left the game via the four personal foul route and Plasman, try as he did, could not score one more field goal that would have given him th edistinction of outscoring the Kentucky giant. Edwards made nine points and Plasman eight."

3/7/1935 Xavier 7 2 16 Big Ed played throughout the first half and about two minutes of the second half with a throat so sore that he couldn't speak. With the Wildcats comfortably ahead but not having as easy a time as they had had in the first half, Rupp took out the big fellow. After the game, Rupp bundled him and Taylor, who played also against the Musketeers and sent them to a hospital. Taylor had symptoms of the flu, too.

Totals 127 89 343

Date	Opponent	FG	FT	Pts	Notes
12/10/1934	Alumni	7	4	18	"Big Ed Edwards, however, provided a bit of entertainment for the crowd with his peculiar shots at the basket which most of the time sailed through without even touching the rim. The big fellow couldn't get underway until about midway of the first half, but when he started scoring, he was permanently in the habit. Edwards explained his late start by claiming DeMoisey had been standing on his feet early in the game."
12/13/1934	Oglethorpe	10	2	22	"Whereas Lawrence and Tucker confined most of their scoring to the first half, Big Ed Edwards, the kingpin pivot man whose consistent work at center gave Kentucky permanent possession of the tipoff, poured the ball through the baskets with deadly accuracy during both halves. The towering Kentuckian registered 10 points in the first half and 12 in the second for a grand total of 22, which was really grand."
12/21/1934	Tulane	3	4	10	"Big Leroy Edwards, Kentucky's star sophomore center, led the scoring of the evening with a total of 10 points, coming thorugh with three goals from the field and a quartet of foul shots. The giant Kentuckian, who stands six feet, four inches in his stocking feet, gave the Tulane guards trouble aplenty, and he had a number of free throws that failed to go through the hoop."
12/22/1934	Tulane	7	2	16	"Big Leroy Edwards, Kentucky's six-foot, four-inch center, was again the shining light of the conflict, scoring seven goals from the field and two foul throws to top all scorers with 16 points."
1/2/1935	Chicago	7	12	26	"Big Edwards, cheered on by the ovations of a capacity crowd as he whisked the ball through from almost impossible angles, started the scoring and never let up until he was replaced late in the second half, with 26 points tabulated to his credit. . . The crowd which shoved its way into the gymnasium and overflowed into the street found Big Edwards' antics to their liking from the very start fo the game. Every time the giant center would swish a field goal through the hoops, the cheering would rock the raftters. The spectators expressed particular glee at Big Ed's ability to make his opponents foul him, and then they would howl again as, without concern, he would flip the ball thorugh the draperies. In 15 tries from the free throw line, Edwards counted 12 points."
1/5/1935	New York University	1	4	6	"The moving block that is the Colonels' stock in trade spelled their downfall. Ed Edwards was seen by Umpire Jack Murray perpetrating a block. He was accused of picking off and Gross got the try that was to decide the game. . . It was Edwards in the pivot position who was the keyman for the Colonels and he was so closely guarded by Irving Terjesen that the latter went out on personal fouls in the first half. Klein finished the job quite adequately." (NYT) - "Apparently realizing that the big Kentucky center was the man to stop, the Violent Violets - and they lived up to their name tonight - did everything but saddle the brilliant Wildcat pivot man. Every minute Edwards was in the game, he was harassed by cowboy guarding that at times had him bewildered. Often when he broke for the basket, his opponents would ride him completely off the court." (Lex. Herald)
1/14/1935	Tenn-Chattanooga	10	4	24	"Lawrence, giving one of the most dazzling displays of sensational shots seen here in many a day, rolled up 23 points, one less, however, than the 24 "Baby" Leroy Edwards amassed."
1/18/1935	Tulane	4	2	10	-
1/19/1935	Tulane	6	4	16	"As usual Edwards, Lawrence, Lewis and Tucker were the high scoring men on the Wildcat squad."
1/26/1935	Tennessee	6	3	15	"For a time during the game, Edwards, Lawrence and Lewis were engaged in a three-way race for high-scoring honors for the night but Lewis was removed from the competition when Carlisle replaced him early in the second half. Thereafter Lawrence and Edwards continud matchng baskets until at the end they were tied at 15 points each."
2/1/1935	Alabama	7	7	21	Edwards tallied 21 points for the winners to more than double his nearest competitor for high scoring honors. Seven goals from the court and seven out of eight free tries attested to his accuracy."
2/2/1935	Vanderbilt	7	4	18	"Edwards, Kentucky center, scored 18 points before he was taken out in the first two minutes of the second half as Kentucky sent in substitutes to complete the game."
2/5/1935	Xavier	8	7	23	"The D'Artagnan of the Kentucky troop was the redoubtable Edwards, who once again proved his might by making his thrusts good for a total of 22 points before being withdrawn from the fray midway of the second half. The big Kentucky player left the floor to a mighty ovation, given ungrudgingly by friend and foe alike, a tribute to his wonderful playing."
2/9/1935	Georgia Tech	4	1	9	"Maybe it was because he (Rupp) didn't want to run up a score higher than the electrical scoreboards could count. At any rate, he kept Leroy Edwards and his brother regulars of the University of Kentucky team in the game with Georgia Tech last night only about 15 minutes. When they left, the count was 30 to 4. The final score was 57 to 30.
2/11/1935	Alabama	4	4	12	-
2/13/1935	Michigan State	5	6	16	-
2/16/1935	Tennessee	3	2	8	-
2/22/1935	Creighton	15	4	34	"Rupp took Edwards out of the tilt and that was the signal for Englebretson, one of he most finished ball players ever seen in Lexngton, to break out into another scoring sweat. His two field goals in quick succesion nettled Big Edwards and he clamored to be put back into the game. Rupp obliged and the big fellow went back in to score three more points and establish what is reported to be a new individual scoring record in the South. . . .Big Edwards relished the going and the Creighton boys, often three of them at a time clinging to his neck and his spinal column, did everything but knock him through the brick wall. Big Ed got a kick out of sinking a crip shot with practically the whole Creighton team hanging on to him like pendants. In establishing his record, he made 15 field goals and four free throws."
2/23/1935	Creighton	3	8	14	Big Leroy Edwards was completely bottled up in the first half by the zone defense. Creighton planted around him and he failed to make a field goal. But in the second period, the big Kentucky center began to shake loose, dropped in three two pointers and added four more free throws to run his total up to 14 points. . . After the game, Englebretson, the star of the Nebraska team said 'These Wildcats are the best basketball team I ever saw.' Coach Arthur Schabinger, one of the outstanding basketball coaches of the country, whose ability was amply demonstrated by the clever playing of his boys here remarked. 'Kentucky has a great team. Edwards is a fine player but you must remember that he has an all-star supporting cast.'"
3/2/1935	Vanderbilt	3	3	9	"Plasman and Edwards put some color into the game by their constant bickering and shoving and growling at each other. Finally Big Ed left the game via the four personal foul route and Plasman, try as he did, could not score one more field goal that would have given him th edistinction of outscoring the Kentucky giant. Edwards made nine points and Plasman eight."
3/7/1935	Xavier	7	2	16	Big Ed played throughout the first half and about two minutes of the second half with a throat so sore that he couldn't speak. With the Wildcats comfortably ahead but not having as easy a time as they had had in the first half, Rupp took out the big fellow. After the game, Rupp bundled him and Taylor, who played also against the Musketeers and sent them to a hospital. Taylor had symptoms of the flu, too.
Totals	127	89	343

The 34-point outburst against Creighton was notable in that it apparently landed Edwards into the record books as holding a world record for most points in a game. (This as noted in various articles (1, 2) in 1937 after Toledo's Chuck Chuckovits eclipsed the mark with 41 points.) With news of the feat, other examples of high scoring games also came to light (Again, as evidenced by the articles above).

Article published in the Newark Advocate and American Tribune, December 15, 1937

Below is the listing of Edwards' record as listed in the 1936 Edition of Frank Menke's All Sports Record Book.

Found in All Sports Record Book, compiled and edited by Frank Menke, 1936. Specific information in section provided by Barney Ain, Brooklyn, N.Y., editor of "Oddities in Basketball."

One final note on Edward's career at Kentucky: in mid-April after the season was completed, some members of the Kentucky team, including Edwards, travelled to Augusta Kentucky to play an exhibition game against a group of local All-Stars. Leroy Edwards scored 28 points in a 88-30 Kentucky victory, in what was likely the last game Edwards played in a Kentucky uniform.

Chapters of Books

	Ride 'Em Cowboy	Big Blue Machine by Russell Rice
	1934-35: Edwards' battering triggers rule change	The Rupp Years by Tev Laudeman
	Rupp's Formative Era	The Winning Tradition by Bert Nelli

Letters from Teammates and others

Letter from UK Coach Adolph Rupp - "Edwards was one of the All Time greats in basketball. . . . Edwards was great because he was fast, had a marvelous hook shot, virtually unknown in those days, and had tremendous power. You just didn't move Edwards away from the basket. . . . There never was a day that Englund could be compared to Edwards."

Letter from UK Coach Adolph Rupp - "He was responsible entirely for the 3-second rule as he played under the basket where he was deadly. He was a good rebounder and excellent in almost all phases of the game."

Letter (Part 1 and Part 2) from Official Frank Lane - "In my judgement I can go on at great length respecting my opinion of him as one of the basketball greats, at least who came under my observation as an official for better than a score of years during which I refereed games from coast to coast."

Letter from UK player Charles Combs - "He was an All-American. The best man to play basketball. No man could guard him one on one."

Comment from UK teammate Ralph Carlisle - "When Leroy Edwards played at UK as a sophomore - there wasn't then and hasn't been since his equal. He was scoring 20 points a game then." (Front of Card)

Letter from A.B. "Happy" Chandler (former Major League Baseball Commissioner and lifelong University of Kentucky fan and supporter) to the Basketball Hall of Fame. - "I had an opportunity to observe this man during his playing days, and I think the record will show that he is entitled to this honor."

Quotations

From a newspaper clipping in February of 1935 during the basketball season. "Amassing the largest total of points ever accumulated by an individual player in the South, big Leroy Edwards, Kentucky's sharpshooting center, today stood at the top of the scoring in the Southeastern Conference, possessor of a new record. . . . A year ago "Sparky" Wade, Louisiana State's diminutive guard, crashed through with a total of 197 points to lead the individual court performers, but several games remaining the race, Edwards has run his total to 219, the best record established in the history of Southern basketball."

"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." - Former UK player and Assistant Coach Paul McBrayer, quoted in The Winning Tradition, by Bert Nelli, The University Press of Kentucky (1998) pg. 49.

Edwards had "a good close-in jump shot, an excellent hook shot with either hand, and could rebound above the basket." - UK Teammate Dave Lawrence, quoted in The Winning Tradition, by Bert Nelli, The University Press of Kentucky (1998) pg. 49.

"After one or two minutes of the first half, our Arnie Van Faasen had three fouls trying to guard the biggest and fastest guy I had ever seen in a basketball game. This was Leroy Edwards who quit in his sophomore year to go to the pros. Then it came time for me to guard him. The only answer I could use was to hold onto his pants and step on his shoes. Before long, I too had three fouls. But we did the job. The final score was 32 to 26, which was quite an upset." - Opposing player Ron Garlock of Michigan State, quoted in The Spartan Encyclopedia by Jack Seibold, Sports Publishing (2004) pg.

"No doubt about it. His loss was a big blow, because at that time he was a bonafide All-American, not one of these southern breeze All-Americans that you pick up if you don't make the AP or UPI. It was the Edwards team that gave us our first national publicity." - College coach Adolph Rupp as told in Big Blue Machine, by Russell Rice, Strode Publishers (1978) pg. 113.

Rupp called the 20-year old forward [UK player Johnny Cox] "the second greatest sophomore I've had at Kentucky." The "Baron" said that only Leroy Edwards of the 1934 (sic) Wildcat team (a center) was better. - by Bob Glass (INS), "Kentucky Cagers Called Best Ever," Mansfield (OH) News-Journal, February 17, 1957, pg. 24.

"Adolph Rupp, Kentucky coach, said Dan Issel, 6-8 scoring ace from Batavia, Ill., 'is the strongest center I've had with the exception of Leroy Edwards in 1934 (sic), who was responsible for the three-second rule.'" - in Campus Quotations by Roy Damer, Chicago Tribune, March 13, 1970.

"Leroy "BIG ED" EDWARDS is Kentucky's contribution to the All-American team of 1935. Without a doubt, he is the best basketball player to ever step on the floor of the Alumni gymnasium. His name has been lauded in sport columns all over the country, and he is only a sophomore, with two more years of college competition ahead of him. He played the pivot position and was the key man of the Wildcat's offense. His ability to make crip shots was short of miraculous. In the first Creighton game he scored 34 points to set a new floor record. Visiting teams would use two and three men to guard him, but this did not affect him, and he always came through with at least six points. While playing Freshman ball he scored more than 400 points in 17 games that the yearlings played. Last season he was high point man for the Southeastern Conference scoring a total of 130 points in 11 Conference tilts, which gave him an average of 12.3 points per game. In two more years Edwards will probably develop into the greatest basketball player the country has ever seen." - by Norman "Moon" Garling in the 1935 Kentuckian yearbook.

"I particularly recall the 1935-36 season when we thought Leroy Edwards, who made All-American center as a sophomore and led us to 19-2 record the preceding season, would be back. Edwards was 6-foot-5, about 215 lbs., strong, rugged and one of the best centers I've ever seen. He went straight from us to the pro ranks and was an immediate star, which shows what a great player he was." - by Adolph Rupp in article "Loss of Payne Reminds Rupp of '35 Dilemma" Corbin (KY) Times, November 9, 1971.

Edwards poses outside Kentucky's Alumni Gymnasium


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