Epilogue: Celebrating A Lasting Legacy

THE 1965-66 SEASON turned out to be a watershed moment in the legacy of Adolph Rupp and in the history of college basketball.

The Wildcats finished the regular season 24-1 and ranked No. 1. After three wins in the NCAA tournament, Kentucky 's all-white squad squared off for the championship against Texas Western, a team that was fielding an all-black starting lineup, a first in title game history.

The Miners defeated the Wildcats 72-65, and racial barriers in college sports, which had come down in many parts of the country already, started falling in the SEC , ACC and Southwest Conference. Four years later Rupp signed Kentucky 's first black player, Tom Payne, to a scholarship.

Though Rupp's failure to sign black players stained his legacy, it's hard to discount his on-court success. The Baron retired in '72 as the winningest coach in college basketball history with an 876-190 record. (He was eventually passed by Dean Smith in '97 and Bob Knight in 2007.) In 41 years as a head coach he won four NCAA championships, 27 SEC titles and four national coach of the year honors. He had 23 Wildcats named All-America 35 times, and 52 were selected All-SEC 91 times.

Rupp died from cancer in December 1977 at age 76, but his impact lives on. Since '76 the Wildcats have played their home games in a 23,000-seat basketball palace that, like the program Rupp directed, is second to none. And its name, of course, is Rupp Arena .