Hometown: Iowa Falls, IA
Position: G Playing Height: 6-0 Playing Weight: 166
Date of Birth: September 23, 1909
Date of Death: September 13, 1959
Nickname: Milton "Bud" Cavana (More)
Additional Photos: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
Game by Game Statistics
Kentucky Career Notes:
Multi-Sport Player [Football and Track]
Transferred from Iowa State Teachers (Northern Iowa)
| Season | Games Played | FG | FT | Total Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1930-31 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Obituary - Obituaries, The Kentucky Alumnus Magazine (November 1, 1959)
Bellevue - Milton J. (Bud) Cavana, a well-known sports figure in Northern Kentucky and onetime University of Kentucky football player, was found fatally wounded in the front seat of his automobile at his home here Sunday night.
Deputy Coroner Donald Stephens returned a verdict of suicide and said a .22-caliber rifle was found at Cavana's side in the automobile.
Cavana, who was 50 years old, had served for 20 years as athletic director and physical-education teacher at Newport Junior High School. He also was known well as a swimming instructor.
He earned varsity football letters at UK for the 1929, '30 and '31 campaign, playing end on teams coached by Harry Gamage. He was a teammate of such former Wildcat grid stars as Will Ed Covington, Shipwreck Kelly, Babe Wright, Floppy Forquer and Ellis Johnson.
M.J. "Bud" Cavana, manager of Recreation Park swimming pool, has had something of a checkered athletic career while following a sports trail that has carried him from Iowa to Florida and back to Kentucky and Bradford.
In some 25 years of association with sports, Cavana has included such choice trophies as the Iowa state diving championship, selection at end on the All-Southern Collegiate football team and the rare record of varsity letters at three different colleges.
To get in on the Cavana story from the beginning, Bud was born in Iowa Falls, Iowa and was in football, basketball and track for his high school. This was back in the days of the center jump and low scores in basketball. Bud recalls that his school once won a game by a 3-2 score.
Cavana moved on to Iowa State College for a year and at that time (1928) won the diving championship of the state of Iowa. He shifted his collegiate association to Iowa State Teachers, played some more football and then decided he wanted to study at the University of Kentucky.
While at Kentucky he was a member of the first basketball team coached by the famed Adolph Rupp, who since has made Kentucky a national champion. He also was an end for three years on Kentucky football teams and was undefeated as a javelin thrower in the Southern Conference.
A seven-year coaching stretch followed at Bellevue High School in Kentucky and six years ago he accepted a position on the coaching staff at Newport High School.
Bud was in Florida for one year to coach at Vero Beach (Fl) High School and helped to produce an undefeated football team that won the state championship. Then it was back to Newport again, a position he now shares with his Bradford post in the summer.
In 13 years of coaching football, basketball and track at two Kentucky high schools, Cavana has had a hand in turning out four state championship teams, eight conference winners and 23 sectional title holders.
Bud and Mrs. Cavana both are qualified Red Cross life saving instructors and their five-year-old son has been swimming and diving since he was two.
Cavana weighs in at 190 pounds today but was pressed to reach 166 while a teammate of Shipwreck Kelly at Kentucky. Incidentally, he did all the drop-kicking for Kentucky.
Now about that "Bud" business. The right name is Milton James Cavana but a kid sister had trouble with "brother" and so today we have "Bud" Cavana as manager of the Recreation Park pool.
