| # | Name | Pos | Class | Ht. | Wt. | Hometown (School) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | Charles Schrader (L) | F | Sr. | 5-11 | - | North Philadelphia, PA (High) | - |
| - | Robert Ireland (L) | F | Sr. | 5-10 | - | La Grange, KY (High) | - |
| - | Boone Simpson | C | Jr. | 6-3 | 200 | Lexington, KY (High) | - |
| - | Lawrence Longsworth (L) | C-F | Sr. | 5-6 | - | Somerset, KY | - |
| - | Pat Campbell (L) | F | Fr. | - | - | Lexington, KY (High) | - |
| - | Howard Kinne | G | Jr. | - | - | Stearns, KY (Somerset High) | - |
| - | Ben Marsh | C | So. | 6-1 | - | Maysville, KY (High) | - |
| - | George Gumbert | G | Sr. | 5-7 | - | Richmond, KY (Caldwell) | (Left after mid-year exams to take a teaching position in Marion.); |
| - | Garnett McKenney | G | Fr. | 5-10 | - | Winchester, KY | - |
| - | Paul Anderson | F | So. | 5-7 | - | Lexington, KY (High) | - |
| - | Doc Rodes (L) | G | Sr. | 5-10 | - | Lexington, KY (High) | - |
| - | Bart Peak (L) | G | Sr. | 5-4 | - | La Grange, KY | - |
| - | Alvin Thompson | C | Fr. | 6-0 | - | Clintonville, KY [University of Virginia Prep School, Charlottesville, VA] | - |
| Schedule |
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1916-17 Squad |
Front Row (l to r): "Dutch" Longsworth, Charles Schrader, Robert Ireland, Alvin Thompson, William "Doc" Rodes, Patrick Campbell |
Season Review - Basketball Season, 1917 (Kentuckian)
Pitch battle has a double significance. In the first place, when two teams squabble over trying to toss a ball into a basket it is a pitch battle. But in the true sense of the phrase, when there is a rough and tumble fight it is a pitch battle. Basketball ought to be played in a padded cell, anyway, instead of in a cramped gymnasium, for the chosen champions of one school to vent their manly power by taking picks on a parallel bar or horse or something and cannonading their rivals against them. What's that got to do with the 1917 season ? one might ask. Oh, nothing !
Now, in the beginning. "Dutch" Gumbert, the fleet guard, took the notion that he would try his luck at pedagogy and departed for the city of Marion. "Boo" Ireland, the limber-legged lad from La Grange, was then chosen to lead the Wildcats.
On the defending positions the Wildcats appeared strongest at the first of the season. "Doc" Rodes, veritable whirlwind and slapstick artist, and Schrader, with little to say and much to do, were at the guards, so it should be worried as to those positions.
The center position offered the biggest controversy. Who would be selected to serve as middle man was perplexing.
The forwards were also open for fighting, and Patrick Campbell, son of Erin; Longsworth, with the facial expression that gained him the cognomen, "Pug"; Boone "Beanpole" Simpson, and Alvin Thompson and Little Paul Anderson, the second, fought for these positions. In the end all got in the scrambles.
The season had an auspicious opening when Kentucky's wonderworkers Wildcatted away from Centre, while the chalk artist blackboarded up a 31 to 21 score.
Then Chauffeur Tigert sparked up his machine and thought he was going to ride away to glory, but he banged against his first obstacle with a dull, sickening bump at Georgetown. The Baptists baptized the sophisticated "State" crowd by a lamentable score, which has been kept hushed up by the returned collection.
On the 30th of January the Wildcats returned to the limelight by staging their best performance of the season against Rose Polytechnic Institute. The Roses were all withered when they left and looked like the last of r. of s.
Two games with Tennessee were rough enough to be highly entertaining and edifying from a collegiate view, but were not satisfactory in scores.
After that revenge was reeked on Georgetown, the dust of defeat was sprinkled gloriously over Cumberland College on the first game of the Southern trip, but the trip wasn't like a honeymoon in May, because Tennessee took the Wildcats' measure twice.
The results of the season are enumerated for the consideration of those who hovered in the galleries and peered down into the pit where the vortex raged.
