Kentucky-Louisville rivalry

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The Kentucky Wildcats and Louisville Cardinals are part of what is widely considered one of the most intense college rivalries in the U.S. Due to its intensity, the rivalry between the Wildcats in Cardinals is often jokingly referred to as the "Wildcati and Cardinalinian conflict", a parody of the Israeli and Palestinian conflict. It is also one of the only rivalries to be equally intense in basketball and football, and practically every other sport as well. The men's basketball game is called the Battle for the Bluegrass, the football game is officially called the Governor's Cup

Unlike many in-state rivalries that have been played continuously for many decades, these two schools went through a long period from the 1930s to the 1980's of rarely facing each other. They did play frequently from the 1900's to 1920's, with UK dominating in both sports. The results have been mixed since the renewal of the men's basketball rivalry in 1983 and football in 1994, with UK dominating the basketball rivalry (16 of 23 or 69.5%) and U of L dominating the football rivalry (8 of 12 or 66.6%) by almost identical percentages.

Much of U of L's recent success in football has been aided by UK alumni who are now on the U of L side, such as former football coach Howard Schnellenberger, defensive coordinator Mike Cassidy, assistant coach Mike Nord, and Lexington area players such as Eric Shelton, David Akers, Frank Minnifield, and Travis Leffew. This has also occurred with the basketball team since former UK coach Rick Pitino took over and brought in UK transfer Marvin Stone and assistant coach and former UK player Steve Masiello. The Lexington media often refers to such people as the "Cat-birds".

In 2004, the two schools began a "media war" by placing ads in each others home news papers and with billboards. This was begun by UK's top of the sport's page ad in the Courier-Journal edition containing the results of the 2003 UK/ U of L basketball game, in an effort to "rub in" UK's "win". (UK lost). The ad proclaimed "There's a wildcat loose in Freedom Hall", to advertise UK's upcoming annual non-conference game in Freedom Hall, which isn't against U of L. U of L then infuriated University of Kentucky officials and fans by running a statewide billboard campaign with the phrase, "Louisville Football, Kentucky's finest". U of L also countered this with ads on the Herald Leader's online sports page. Further, a billboard along I-64 on the way from Lexington to Louisville shows the Cards' logo with the slogan "Louisville... We're Miles Ahead."

The rivalry has taken another interesting turn in recent years, with each team making in-roads in the respective team's core fan base; with UK drawing more African American fans since the hiring of black head coach Tubby Smith, and U of L gaining more fans in areas outside the Metro Area as the school has become less of an "urban, commuter school" and is now drawing many traditional students from across the state. This is evidenced by the fact that over 1/3 of Kentucky counties have more enrolled U of L students than living U of L alumni.^{[citation needed]} In 1990 74% of U of L students where from Jefferson County, by 2005 that number had fallen to 50%, while surrounding counties have remained steady.^{[citation needed]}

In 2006, UK President Lee Todd added further fuel to the already overheated rivalry when he spoke on July 28 at the annual UK Football Kickoff Luncheon. He told a partisan Cats crowd,

We need to kick some Cardinals. I'm tired of listening to them. Some places overmarket and underperform, and others undermarket and overperform. You can pick which you want to apply with.^[1]

[edit] References

1. ^ Clay, John. "Trash talk shows Todd's shock-jock side", Lexington Herald-Leader, August 3, 2006. Retrieved on August 13, 2006.