Kentucky Wildcats

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Kentucky Wildcats
University	University of Kentucky
Conference	Southeastern Conference
NCAA	Division I
Athletics director	Mitch Barnhart
Location	Lexington, KY
Varsity Teams	21
Stadium	Commonwealth Stadium (Kentucky)
Arena	Rupp Arena
Mascot	Blue, The Wildcat, and Scratch
Nickname	Wildcats
Fight Song
Colors	Blue and White
Homepage	UKAthletics.com

The Kentucky Wildcats are the men's and women's athletic teams representing the University of Kentucky (UK), a founding member of the Southeastern Conference. At one time, women's teams and athletes were called "Lady Kats", but the women's programs adopted the "Wildcats" nickname in the early 1990s. Teams sponsored by the UK athletic program include football, men's & women's basketball, women's volleyball, baseball, softball, men's & women's cross country, men's & women's swimming/diving, women's gymnastics (known as the GymKats), men's & women's soccer, men's & women's track & field (indoor & outdoor), men's & women's golf, men's & women's tennis, and the coeducational sport of rifle. The men's soccer team competes in Conference USA because the SEC does not sponsor that sport for men.

The University of Kentucky cheerleaders have won the UCA Division I-A Cheerleading Championship 15 times, more than any other school.

UK has some of the most loyal fans in the country. The recent renovation to Rupp Arena has added the E-Rupp-tion Zone, a popular place for students during basketball games.

Contents 1 Basketball 2 Football 3 Baseball 4 Cheerleading 5 Mascots 6 All-time records by sport 7 See also 8 External links

[edit] Basketball

The University of Kentucky men's basketball team is considered one of the elite NCAA basketball programs, having earned a total of seven NCAA titles. Its seven titles were won by four different coaches - Adolph Rupp in 1948, 1949, 1951 and 1958; Joe B. Hall in 1978; Rick Pitino in 1996; and Tubby Smith in 1998 - a record for men's Division I basketball (North Carolina (3) is the only other school with more than two.) UK is also the winningest men's college basketball program in the nation. Through the completion of the 2006 NCAA basketball tournament on 04/03/06, the Wildcats have a total of 1926 wins (North Carolina is second with a total of 1883 wins, and Kansas is third with a total of 1873 wins). UK's Rupp Arena has attained legendary status as one of the most difficult venues in the country in which opponents must play.

Several Wildcats teams are especially remembered by fans:

• The Fabulous Five: The 1948 team not only won the NCAA title, but provided the core of the United States 1948 Olympic team that won the gold medal in the London Games.
• NIT Scandal: 1952-53 - UK's season is suspended by the NCAA after a point shaving scandal.
• The 1954-55 Undefeated Team, which went 25-0 in the regular season and defeated LSU in a playoff to earn the Southeastern Conference bid to the NCAA tournament. However, several of the team's players had technically graduated during the 1953-54 season (when Kentucky was banned from intercollegiate play due to the point shaving scandal) and were prohibited from tournament play. Despite the wishes of the players, Rupp refused to allow the team to play in the tournament, thus leading to the team's reputation as one of the best teams ever to fail to win an NCAA title^{[citation needed]}.
• The Fiddlin' Five: The 1958 team was given its nickname by Rupp due to his perception that they tended to "fiddle" early in games. However, they would right their ship in time to give Rupp his fourth and last national title.
• Rupp's Runts: The 1966 team, with no starter taller than 6'5" (1.96 m), was arguably the most beloved in UK history. Despite its lack of size, it used devastating defensive pressure and a fast-paced offense to take a 27-1 record and top national ranking into the NCAA final against Texas Western. However, the Miners would deny Rupp another title. For more details on the game, see the articles for Rupp and the Miners' coach, Don Haskins. Future NBA coach Pat Riley was a starter on this team.
• "The Season Without Celebration": Going into the 1977-78 season, the Wildcats faced perhaps the most suffocating expectations of any UK team. As freshmen, that year's senior class lost in the 1975 final to UCLA in John Wooden's final game as the Bruins' head coach. The seniors had an outstanding supporting cast, and most Kentucky fans would have accepted nothing less than a national title. Despite its successful run to the title, the team was widely criticized, especially by its own fans, for being too serious and focused, giving rise to the "season without celebration" moniker.
• Kentucky's Shame: March 19, 1989 - In the wake of an NCAA investigation, Eddie Sutton resigned as UK basketball coach. On May 19, 1989 the NCAA placed Kentucky's basketball program on probation prompting the infamous Sports Illustrated cover.
• The Unforgettables: This refers to the 1992 team—more specifically, to the team's four seniors, Richie Farmer, Deron Feldhaus, John Pelphrey, and Sean Woods. They chose to stay with UK despite a major scandal involving academic fraud and improper payments to a recruit that engulfed the program during their freshman year (1988-89.) During their senior year, after a two-year absence from postseason play due to NCAA probation, they led the Cats to a deep run in the NCAA tournament, losing 104-103 in the East Regional final to Duke in an overtime game often called the greatest game in NCAA basketball history.

[1][2] Adding to the team's popularity was the fact that three (Farmer, Feldhaus, Pelphrey) of the four seniors were from small towns in the eastern half of Kentucky. The quartet's jerseys (not their numbers) were retired by UK immediately after the Duke loss; it is very unusual for any team to retire a jersey so quickly after a player's career is finished.

• The Untouchables: The 1996 team was one of the most talented teams in college basketball history, with nine players who would eventually play in the NBA:
  • Derek Anderson
  • Tony Delk
  • Walter McCarty
  • Ron Mercer
  • Nazr Mohammed
  • Mark Pope
  • Jeff Sheppard
  • Wayne Turner
  • Antoine Walker

Since the Sagarin ratings have been in use, the 95-96 Kentucky ranks first among the all-time best teams^{[citation needed]}:

• Kentucky (34-2) 1995-96 103.26
• Indiana (32-0) 1975-76 102.36
• UNLV (34-1) 1990-91 101.14
• Indiana (31-1) 1974-75 101.06
• North Carolina (34-4) 1992-93 100.10

This team became the first SEC team in 40 years to go through the conference regular season unbeaten. After stumbling in the SEC tournament final against Mississippi State, they would make a dominating run to the Final Four. They avenged an early-season loss to UMass in the national semifinals, and defeated Syracuse in the final. Many of these players, including Scott Padgett, another future NBA player who was academically ineligible in 1996, returned the following season as part of The Unbelievables.

• The Unbelievables: The 1997 team just missed repeating as national champions when they lost to Arizona in overtime in the NCAA championship game. The nickname comes from the fact that early on in the season, few Wildcats fans gave Kentucky much of a chance of repeating their magical 1996 season. It also gained in importance as the team only had nine total players for the 1997 NCAA Tournament due to injury and transfers. Mohammed, Padgett, Sheppard, and Turner would be back the following season to play on the Comeback Cats.
• The Comeback Cats: The 1998 national champions earned this nickname in their last three games. In the South Regional final against Duke, they gained a measure of payback against Duke for the 1992 defeat, coming back from a 17-point deficit with 9:38 remaining. In the national semifinal, they came back from a double-digit halftime deficit again, this time against Stanford. In the final against Utah, they became the first team to come back from a double-digit halftime deficit in the final game.

[edit] Football

As a member of the football-heavy SEC, they compete against many of the top college football programs in the nation. They play at Commonwealth Stadium. Paul "Bear" Bryant was Kentucky's head football coach for eight seasons.

Under Bryant the Wildcats won the 1947 Great Lakes Bowl, lost the 1950 Orange Bowl, won the 1951 Sugar Bowl and the 1952 Cotton Bowl. In final AP polls, the Wildcats were ranked #11 in 1949, #7 in 1950, #15 in 1951, #20 in 1952 and #16 in 1953. The final 1950 poll was taken prior to the bowl games; Kentucky then defeated undefeated and #1 ranked Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl and claims that this win earned them a national championship for the 1950 season, since they were ranked #1 in the Sagarin Ratings.

The last Wildcats football coach to leave Lexington with a winning record during his tenure at UK was Blanton Collier, who was fired after the 1961 season.

In 1976 under coach Fran Curci Kentucky won a share of the Southeastern Conference championship and won the Peach Bowl, finishing #18 in the final AP poll.. The 1977 Kentucky team went 10-1 and was undefeated in SEC play but, despite finishing the season ranked #6 in the AP poll, did not play in a bowl game due to NCAA sanctions. Kentucky finished at #6 and Penn State at #5 despite the fact that Kentucky defeated Penn State at Penn State during the regular season.

Coach Jerry Claiborne led the Wildcats to the 1983 Hall of Fame Bowl. In 1984 Kentucky returned to the Hall of Fame Bowl and defeated a ranked Wisconsin team to finish the season with a 9-3 record and a #19 ranking in the final AP poll.

The Wildcats played in the 1993 Peach Bowl under coach Bill Curry. Coach Hal Mumme led the Wildcats to the 1998 Outback Bowl and the 1999 Music City Bowl but the program was hit with severe sanctions for infractions during Mumme's tenure.

Under coach Guy Morriss the Wildcats posted a 7-5 record in 2002 but were not eligible for postseason play due to NCAA sanctions.

The team's current coach is Rich Brooks, who led the team to an 8-5 regular season record in 2006, including a memorable win over perennial SEC power University of Georgia, snapping a nine-game losing streak to the Bulldogs. Brooks has also led the football team to its first bowl game since 1999 and its first bowl game victory since 1984, as Kentucky defeated the Clemson University Tigers 28-20 in the Music City Bowl. [3]

[edit] Baseball

The baseball program, partly hampered by being the northernmost school in the heavily warm-weather SEC, has historically achieved only modest success at best. Wildcats baseball hit bottom at the turn of the 21st century, with only one winning season from 1997 through 2004, and last-place finishes in the SEC East division in every season from 2001 through 2005. In 2003, after the retirement of longtime coach Keith Madison, Kentucky hired Florida assistant John Cohen as head coach. Cohen was able to lead the Cats to a winning overall season in 2005, despite another SEC cellar finish.

Few could have expected the Cinderella season the Cats would have in 2006. They literally went from worst to first in the SEC, winning a regular-season conference title for the first time in three decades, and being ranked as high as fourth in the country by one major baseball poll during the season. However, the newly energized Kentucky baseball faithful saw the Cats crash out of the SEC tournament early and fail to make it out of the regionals of the NCAA tournament at home.

[edit] Cheerleading

The University of Kentucky cheerleaders have won the UCA Division I-A Cheerleading Championship 15 times, more than any other school. They are the only school to win more than two consecutive championships, having won each year from 1995 through 2002 and from 2004 through 2006, and are the only school to win consecutive championships on multiple occasions, having done so three times (1987-1988, 1995-2002, and 2004-2006). They have won championships in 1985, 1987, 1988, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006, have also placed second four times, and have finished in the top ten every year since the existence of the UCA National College Championships[4]. The squad has been featured on the "CBS Evening News", Connie Chung's "Eye to Eye", and the "CBS Morning Show", NBC's The Today Show, in "Southern Living" and Gentlemen's Quarterly, "ESPN the Magazine", and "Seventeen" magazines.

[edit] Mascots

The University of Kentucky has three official mascots:

• Blue — A live bobcat (note that in American English, "wildcat" generally refers to this particular mammal). He lives at the state-operated Salato Wildlife Education Center near the state capital of Frankfort. Unlike the school's two costumed mascots, he never attends games, because bobcats are very shy by nature and do not react well with large crowds.
• The Wildcat — A costumed student, he made his debut in the 1976-77 school year.
• Scratch — A later addition, he is a more child-friendly version of The Wildcat.

[edit] All-time records by sport

All records are through 2005-06.

Sport	First season	Win	Loss	Tie	Win Pct.
Baseball	1896	1468	1315	22	.523
Basketball (men)	1903-04	1926	596	1	.763
Basketball (women)	1974-75	509	384		.570
Football	1881	531	536	43	.478
Gymnastics	1981	212	386	2	.353
Soccer (men)	1991	174	120	32	.534
Soccer (women)	1992	167	114	25	.546
Softball	1997	222	374	1	.372
Swimming and Diving (men)	1936	337	272	1	.552
Swimming and Diving (women)	1983-84	148	86		.632
Tennis (men)	1916	974	564	8	.630
Tennis (women)	1974	516	300		.632
Volleyball	1977	602	414	1	.592

[edit] See also

• Commonwealth Stadium
• Tubby Smith
• Adolph Rupp
• Frank Ramsey
• Rich Brooks
• Mickie DeMoss
• Rupp Arena
• Memorial Coliseum
• Alumni Gymnasium
• Cliff Hagan Stadium
• Big Blue Nation
• Rick Pitino

[edit] External links

• Official UK site
• Official UK athletics site
• Dedicated Wildcat Wiki
• WildcatNation.net - UK Athletics for fans site
• Jon Scott's Kentucky Basketball Statistics site
• Ryan Parker Songs - I Bleed Blue

Southeastern Conference
Eastern Division: Florida • Georgia • Kentucky • South Carolina • Tennessee • Vanderbilt Western Division: Alabama • Arkansas • Auburn • LSU • Mississippi • Mississippi State