Adolph Rupp

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**Adolph Friedrich Rupp**
School as a player

Adolph Rupp
Date of birth	September 2, 1901
Place of birth	Halstead, Kansas
Date of death	December 10, 1977 (aged 76)
Place of death	Lexington, Kentucky
Sport	Basketball
College	Kentucky
Title	Head coach
Overall Record	876-190, 3rd most wins all-time
Awards	National Coach of the Year (Four-time) Basketball Hall of Fame (1969)
Championships won	NCAA Championship (1948, 1949, 1951, 1958)
1919-1923	Kansas
Coaching positions
1930-1972	Kentucky

Adolph Friedrich Rupp (September 2, 1901 – December 10, 1977) is one of the most successful coaches in the history of American college basketball. Rupp is the third winningest men's college coach (after Bobby Knight and Dean Smith), winning 876 games in 41 years of coaching, and set a remarkable standard of excellence. He was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame on April 13, 1969.

1 Early life
2 Coaching
- 2.1 High School
- 2.2 University of Kentucky
3 Career after Kentucky
4 Death
5 Legacy
6 Notes
7 External links

[edit] Early life

Rupp was born outside Halstead, Kansas to Mennonite German immigrants, the fourth of six children. He grew up on a 163-acre farm which his father (Heinrich) homesteaded. After his father's death in 1910, Rupp's oldest brother Otto took over farming responsibilities. As a youngster, Rupp worked on the farm and attended a school in a one-room school house in the country. He first became interested in the sport of basketball at the age of six years old when Halstead won the first of two consecutive Kansas state high school titles. According to interviews, he and his brothers stuffed rags into a gunnysack which his mother sewed up to use as a basketball on the family farm. Later, Rupp starred on his Halstead high school team, averaging 19 points per game his senior year while serving as captain and unofficial coach.

Rupp attended the University of Kansas from 1919-1923. He worked part-time at the student Jayhawk Cafe to help pay his college expenses. He was a reserve on the basketball team under legendary coach Dr. Forrest "Phog" Allen from 1919 to 1923. Assisting Allen during that time was his former coach and inventor of the game of basketball, James Naismith, who Rupp also got to know well during his time in Lawrence.

In Rupp's junior and senior seasons, 1922 and 1923, Kansas had outstanding squads which would later be awarded Helms titles as the top team in the nation those seasons.

[edit] Coaching

[edit] High School

After graduation, Rupp looked for opportunities in banking but soon opted to take a teaching and coaching job at Burr Oak (KS) High School. Disappointed in the facilities in Burr Oak, he later moved to Marshalltown Iowa where he coached wrestling, a sport he knew nothing about at the time and learned from a book.

In 1926-27, Rupp accepted the basketball head coaching position at Freeport High School where he also taught history. He stayed at the high school for four years, building a record of 59-21 and guiding his team to a third place finish in the 1929 state tournament.

During his time in Freeport, Rupp met his future wife Esther Schmidt. Rupp took summer classes at Columbia University in New York City where he earned a Masters degree in education. He was also known to have travelled to nearby Madison Wisconsin to observe and learn from University of Wisconsin basketball coach Walter "Doc" Meanwell.

[edit] University of Kentucky

Rupp coached the University of Kentucky basketball team from 1930 to 1972. At Kentucky, he earned the title "Baron of the Bluegrass". Rupp was a master of developing local talent. He took more than 80% of his players from Kentucky. He promoted a sticky man-to-man defense, and a relentless fast break offense that battered opponents into defeat. Rupp demanded 100% from his players at all times, pushing them to great levels of success.

His Wildcats teams won four NCAA championships (1948, 1949, 1951, 1958), one NIT title in 1946 (when the NIT was a competitive tournament of national contenders), appeared in 20 NCAA tournaments and captured 27 Southeastern Conference titles.

Rupp was forced into retirement in 1972 after reaching age 70, at that time the mandatory retirement age for Kentucky state employees.

[edit] Career after Kentucky

In April, 1972 Rupp was named as Team President of the Memphis Pros, soon to become the Memphis Tams, of the American Basketball Association.

In July, 1973 Rupp was hired as Vice President of the Board of the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association.

[edit] Death

Rupp died at age 76 in Lexington on December 10, 1977, the very night UK defeated his alma mater, Kansas, at Allen Fieldhouse in a game that was promoted as "Adolph Rupp Night". Rupp listened to the broadcast of the game from his hospital bed before finally succumbing to a protracted battle with spinal cancer and diabetes. He is interred at Lexington Cemetery in Lexington, Kentucky. He died the same day as President Theodore Roosevelt's younger daughter, Ethel Roosevelt Derby.

[edit] Legacy

24 of Rupp's players earned All-America honors, seven won Olympics gold medals, and 28 played professionally. A four-time Coach of the Year, Rupp established a winning tradition at Kentucky later achieved only by John Wooden at UCLA and Dean Smith at North Carolina. In 1969 Rupp recruited Tom Payne as the first African American to play on Kentucky's squad. This late date lead many to conclude that Rupp held racist views. This conclusion is inferred in the 2006 basketball film Glory Road. A little more than a year before his death, the Wildcats moved from their on-campus Memorial Coliseum to Rupp Arena, named after him, in downtown Lexington; the team continues to play there. The Adolph Rupp Trophy, named in his honor, has been awarded annually to the best player in men's college basketball since 1972.

He is portrayed by actor Jon Voight in the 2006 film Glory Road, which depicts the 1966 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament.

Rupp is a Past Potentate of the Oleika Shrine Temple in Lexington, Ky.