Kentucky Statistics - Assistance with Project

Assistance with Statistics

Such a huge project can never be accomplished without the assistance of others and this is no exception. While much has been accomplished, there are huge amounts of data which have not yet been retrieved. This includes much of the personal data about the players along with many of the game boxes from the early part of the century. In addition, complete game statistics of many players (especially seniors) is missing.

The information may be in media guides, game programs, newspaper clippings, special commemorative editions, books etc. and in the case of player information, it may come from the players (or their relatives) themselves. Much of this type of information can be found via the University of Kentucky library. The library holds a vast amount of information, including books, yearbooks, oral histories, university records, microfilm for both the Lexington Herald and Lexington Leader, the student newspaper the Kentucky Kernel along with many other newspapers from around the Commonwealth. Some of this is available online at the UK library's Explore UK website.

Other libraries, in particular the school libraries of Kentucky's SEC rivals also would be logical places to search for information. Another source of information is the UK Sports Information Department, which houses athletic records along with photographs etc. For those outside of Lexington, it's still possible to locate a trove of information online including places like the Internet Archive, although many other repositories such as Ancestry.com and Newspapers.com among others require a subscription.

Below are areas of missing information along with suggestions for where the information may be found.

Game Information

Games which do not have a boxscore associated with them do not have an associated link on the website as games with boxscores do. Information for these games may potentially be found in microfilm of local newspapers. For most games played in Lexington, the Herald, Leader and/or Kernel have already been checked (although there are exceptions). There may be other newspapers at the time which could be checked, or the local newspaper of the opposing team. For away games, it is more critical to find a local newspaper in the area that the game was played. This is especially true in the early days when communication was poor. So for example even newspapers in Georgetown (KY), Cincinnati, Louisville, Danville, Winchester etc. can be checked for away games which aren't well reported in the Lexington papers. Check this link for a list of newspapers available on microfilm at the University of Kentucky reference desk (2nd floor of William T. Young library).

This page lists box scores which have proven to be problems due to inconsistencies with the references I have to date. The games are listed in reverse chronological order and the most recent box scores are generally the most important. This is because the further back I can get contiguous box scores, the more players I can provide game-by-game pages on. To make this evaluation easier, I have included this page which highlights the most critical boxscores to follow up. Also included are pages which list games where basic information is unknown, such as in what gymnasium or arena was the game played or who the opposing coach was.

Player Information

One area which I am starting to focus on is obtaining personal information about former Kentucky players (and coaches). The basic information I look for include: playing height, playing weight, first name (if unknown), position, jersey number(s), date of birth, hometown. I'm also interested in any prep honors, reasons they might have left the team, information about players who transferred into the Kentucky program and who transferred out of the program etc. I'm also interested in the date of death along with any biographical information or obituaries for deceased players.

Below are lists I generated which highlite players who I am missing information.

Places which may have useful information include hometown records and newspapers, newspaper accounts, yearbooks, national publications, along with other types of general records such as armed service records, genealogical records etc. Once again, this link is useful in terms of showing which hometown newspapers are available in the UK library in microfilm. Much information is on-line with more becoming available every day. For example, people who died in the state of Kentucky between 1911 and 2000 can be searched for at the following web address, http://vitals.rootsweb.com/ky/death/search.cgi. In addition, the Social Security index lists deceased persons with a social security number, often providing the birth date, date of death, place of residence etc. This is extremely useful, although in some cases it's not known the legal name of the UK player in question.

Players can also be searched through general search engines like Google etc. Sites such as Lexington Herald-Leader archives, Newslibrary and Lexis-Nexis etc. offer free searching of news articles, however obtaining the full text includes a fee. Another great source for historical newspapers is Newspaperarchive.com and Newspapers.com, which are subscription based. There are other smaller newspapers, libraries, historical societies etc. which provide on-line obituaries and biographies. One example is the Lexington Public Library's local history index.

Information may potentially also be found from the players themselves.

Photo Information

Below are lists of known players, opposing coaches and arenas which do not have a photo or picture associated with them. Sometimes these can be found in old media guides, yearbooks or internet searches including Google, Yahoo Photos and ebay items.

Team Information

| Missing Team Summaries | Missing UK Team Photos |

Player Statistics Information

Another key piece of information is the complete game-by-game statistics of players, both recent and past. Unfortunately, the statistics for recent players were drawn from the media guide, which usually does not include game-by-game stats for departing seniors or those who left the team early. One method for getting the information is to go back to the microfilm (or other) and get the complete boxscores from the seasons in question. Below is a list of the boxscores going back to 1974 with less than complete information.

| Missing Game Info since 1974 | Minutes | Free Throw Attempts |

But that may not be necessary. If that information is available on a per player basis, I'd appreciate getting a list. Below is a listing of particular player statistics I don't have complete stats for from the late 80's/early 90's.

1986-87: missing (Off Reb, Def Reb) for Chapman, Lock, Davender, Blackmon, Andrews, Madison, Jenkins, Thomas, Miller, Bruce, Scott and Shigg

1987-88: missing (Off Reb, Def Reb) for Chapman, Lock, Davender, Bennett, Madison and Jenkins.

1989-90: missing (Off Reb, Def Reb) for Miller, Braddy, Cooper, McGaw and Parks.

1990-91: missing (Off Reb, Def Reb) for entire team.

Opponent Information

Although Kentucky players are the focus of the site, information is also steadily accumulating on opposing playes and coaches too. One of the key areas to look for are the full names of all opposing players. For great players, any biographical information is useful, especially if they were originally from the state of Kentucky. For opposing coaches, some information I look for include date of birth, date of death, hometown and career winning record.

| Opposing Teams Missing Full Names | Opposing Players with only Last Name | Missing Opponent Logos |

Opposing Coach Information

Officials Information

Additionally, the identities of game officials is often not included in many boxscores. The following pages are meant to highlight games where this information is missing or incomplete (flagged). Biographical information is also useful for officials with individual pages.

Non-Statistical Information

Beyond the statistical realm, the website also looks at the Kentucky program and its history. There are a number of events in the past which I hope to find more information. Three pages, one sorted by date, another by priority and the third by ease, provide information to such events along with a best guess at the date and suggestions for where to look for the information.

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