I like Rick. I can't believe he went there.

 

» Video: Pitino says UK-U of L rivalry started on racial lines John Clay's Sidelines

I have no problem with what he said. It is true. I can't begin to tell you how many times I had people just assume I'm a Louisville fan. I don't think it is because I'm six feet tall. I like Louisville and have followed them but people just think automatically I'm a big Louisville fan.

It's true... What's the issue?

It's a "racial comment" just like saying that Tubby was the first black coach for UK men's basketball.

 

It's a fact.

It's a "racial comment" just like saying that Tubby was the first black coach for UK men's basketball.

 

It's a fact.

Bingo. It isn't a "racist" comment, just a comment about race.

 

I disagree with Pitino's implication that the rivalry continued to be racially motivated until UK hired Tubby, and then it changed. And maybe his intent was lost in that comment, but that is the way it came across. Any origin in the rivalry that was based on race was lost a long time before Tubby was named UK's coach. Other than that, I have no objection to any of this comments here.

No problem from me. I think Rick is 100% right as well. Tubby may have calmed it but I had to attend UK to find black UK fans. Black people generally supported UL and not UK.

No problem from me. I think Rick is 100% right as well. Tubby may have calmed it but I had to attend UK to find black UK fans. Black people generally supported UL and not UK.

 

RP I'm sure you recruited as many black UK fans as possible in your time there right?? God help you if you tell me you told them about those Blue Devils to our east.

I have no problem with what he said. It is true. I can't begin to tell you how many times I had people just assume I'm a Louisville fan. I don't think it is because I'm six feet tall. I like Louisville and have followed them but people just think automatically I'm a big Louisville fan.

 

 

 

I don't understand that. Why would people assume you're a Louisville fan?

I don't understand that. Why would people assume you're a Louisville fan?

Because I'm black.

No problem from me. I think Rick is 100% right as well. Tubby may have calmed it but I had to attend UK to find black UK fans. Black people generally supported UL and not UK.

 

While that tradition is waning it's still out there. Generations of blacks have said that they will support UL because of UK's history towards blacks.

While that tradition is waning it's still out there. Generations of blacks have said that they will support UL because of UK's history towards blacks.

 

Can't really say as I blame them. As petty as it may seem to some, UK's basketball tradition is built largely on a foundation built by a racist man. Many people don't take that lightly.

Rupp wasn't racist, only the norm back then. Why didn't everything coach recruit black kids, are they all racist.

Rupp wasn't racist, only the norm back then. Why didn't everything coach recruit black kids, are they all racist.

 

:lol:

Rupp wasn't racist, only the norm back then. Why didn't everything coach recruit black kids, are they all racist.

 

Texas Western did...

Maybe Rupp was, and maybe he wasn't.

 

One thing we can be fairly certain of is he wasn't interested in being a crusader. Since the excuse always was, as offered in Dick Gabriel's glossy defense piece, "the players' safety couldn't be guaranteed on SEC road trips," I would ask, why didn't UK pull out then, and go to another conference so those players' safety could be guaranteed? They weren't really benefiting much by playing SEC teams in those days, other than padding a win count.

 

I'll give him ambivalent and apathetic when presented the opportunity to do the right thing. Probably not as "virulently racist" as some of the more extreme critics have made him out to be, but at least somewhat complicit with the times he lived in. What's that quote about "the worst thing a good man can do is nothing" or something along those lines?