Adolph Rupp

Adolph Rupp

Rupp in 1930
Sport(s)	Basketball
Biographical details
Born	(1901-09-02)September 2, 1901 Halstead, Kansas
Died	Lexington, Kentucky
Playing career
1920–1923	Kansas
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1926–1930	Freeport HS
1930–1972	Kentucky
Head coaching record
Overall	876–190 (.822)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
NCAA Championship (1948, 1949, 1951, 1958) Regional Championships - Final Four (1942, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1958, 1966)
Awards
National Coach of the Year (5-time, 1950, 1954, 1959, 1966, 1970) SEC Coach of the Year (7-time, 1964, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972)
Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted in 1969
College Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted in 2006

Adolph Frederick Rupp (September 2, 1901 – December 10, 1977) was one of the most successful coaches in the history of American college basketball. Rupp is ranked 4th (behind Mike Krzyzewski, Bob Knight, and Dean Smith) in total victories by a men's NCAA Division I college coach, winning 876 games in 41 years of coaching. Rupp is also second among all men's college coaches in all-time winning percentage (.822), trailing only Clair Bee. Adolph F. Rupp was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on April 13, 1969.

Early life

Rupp was born outside Halstead, Kansas, His father, Heinrich Rupp, was from Einsiedel, Galicia, Austria. His mother, Anna Lichi, was from Kisselhof, Donnersbergkreis, Rheinland Pfalz, Germany. Adolph Rupp was the fourth of six children. He grew up on a 173-acre (0.70 km²) farm which his father Heinrich's homesteaded. After Heinrich's death in 1910, the eldest brother Otto took over farming responsibilities. As a youngster, Adolph worked on the farm and attended a school in a one-room country schoolhouse.

He first became interested in basketball at only six, when Halstead won the first of two consecutive Kansas state high school basketball championships. 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, after growing to a sturdy 6-foot-2, Rupp was a star on his Halstead High School team, averaging over 19 points a game in both his junior and senior years. Rupp also served as team captain and unofficial coach.

After high school, 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 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 college seasons (1921–22 and 1922–23), Kansas (KU) had outstanding basketball squads. Later, both of these standout Kansas teams would be awarded the Helms National Championship, recognizing the Jayhawks as the top team in the nation during those seasons.

High school coaching

Rupp began his career in coaching by accepting a teaching job at Burr Oak High School, Kansas. After a one-year stay, Rupp moved on to Marshalltown, Iowa, where he coached wrestling, a sport he knew nothing about at the time and learned from a book. He did lead the Marshalltown team to a state wrestling title in 1926.

In 1926-30, Rupp accepted the basketball head coaching position at Freeport High School, (Freeport, Illinois) where he also taught history and economics. During his four years at Freeport, Rupp compiled a record of 66-21 and guided his team to a third-place finish in the 1929 state tournament. While at Freeport High School Rupp started William "Mose" Mosely, the first African-American to play basketball at Freeport and the second to graduate from the school.

University of Illinois head basketball coach Craig Ruby was invited to speak at the team banquet following the 1929-30 season. Ruby informed Rupp of the Kentucky head coaching job and followed up by recommending him for the job.

During his time in Freeport, Rupp met his future wife, Esther Schmidt.

University of Kentucky

Rupp coached the University of Kentucky men's basketball team from 1930 to 1972. There, he gained the nicknames, "Baron of the Bluegrass, and "The Man in the Brown Suit". Rupp's Wildcat teams won four NCAA championships (1948, 1949, 1951, 1958), one National Invitation Tournament title in 1946, appeared in 20 NCAA tournaments, had six NCAA Final Four appearances, captured 27 Southeastern Conference regular season titles, and won 13 Southeastern Conference tournaments. Rupp's Kentucky teams also finished ranked #1 on six occasions in the final Associated Press college basketball poll and four times in the United Press International (Coaches) poll. In addition, Rupp's 1966 Kentucky squad (nicknamed "Rupp's Runts") finished runner-up in the NCAA tournament and Rupp's 1947 Wildcats finished runner-up in the National Invitation Tournament. Rupp's 1933 and 1954 Kentucky squads were also retroactively national champions by the Helms Athletic Foundation; his 1934, 1947, and 1948 teams were retroactively named the national champion by the Premo-Porretta Power Poll.

In his 41 seasons as UK coach, Rupp coached 32 All-Americans, chosen 50 times, 52 All-SEC players, chosen 91 times, 44 NBA Draft Picks, 2 National Players-of-the-Year, 7 Olympic Gold Medalists, and 4 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame members. He was a 5-time National Coach-of-the-Year award winner, and a 7-time Conference Coach-of-the-Year award winner. Rupp was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, College Basketball Hall of Fame, Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, Kansas Athletic Hall of Fame, University of Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, and Helms Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame. Further, since 1972, the Adolph Rupp Trophy, considered one of the nation's premier basketball awards, has been given by the Commonwealth Athletic Club to the top men's college basketball player. In addition, the University of Kentucky retired a jersey in his honor in the rafters of Rupp Arena, a 23,500-seat arena named after him, dedicated in 1976.

Rupp was forced into retirement in March 1972, at the age of 70. At the time, this was the mandatory retirement age for all University of Kentucky employees.

1951 point shaving scandal

Rupp was the head coach at Kentucky during the point shaving scandal of 1951. On October 20, 1951, former Kentucky players Alex Groza, Bill Spivey, Ralph Beard, and Dale Barnstable were arrested for taking bribes from gamblers to shave points during the National Invitation Tournament game against the Loyola Ramblers in the 1948–49 season. This game occurred during the same year that Kentucky won their second straight NCAA title under Rupp. Rupp and the university were criticized by the presiding judge, Saul Streit, for creating an atmosphere for the violations to occur and for "failing in his duty to observe the amateur rules, to build character, and to protect the morals and health of his charges". Rupp denied any knowledge of the point shaving and no evidence was ever brought against him to show he was connected to the incident in any way.

At the conclusion of this scandal, a subsequent NCAA investigation found that Kentucky had committed several rule violations, including giving illegal spending money to players on several occasions, and also allowing some ineligible athletes to compete. As a result, the Southeastern Conference voted to ban Kentucky from competing for a year and the NCAA requested all other basketball-playing members not to schedule Kentucky, with eventually none doing so (this is now known as the "death penalty"). In lieu of these actions, Kentucky was forced to cancel the entire 1952–53 basketball season. Years later, Walter Byers, the first executive director of the NCAA, unofficially referred to this punishment as the first de facto NCAA death penalty, despite the current rule first coming into effect in 1985, thus the NCAA having no such enforcement power previous to that. Echoing Mr. Byers' view, the NCAA's official stance is very much the same, as they also state in hindsight, "In effect, it was the Association's first "death penalty," though its enforcement was binding only through constitutional language that required members to compete against only those schools that were compliant with NCAA rules. Despite fears that it would resist, Kentucky accepted the penalty and, in turn, gave the NCAA credibility to enforce its rules."

1966 Championship Game against Texas Western

An important game in Rupp's career was the 1966 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament championship game at Cole Field House against Texas Western, coached by Don Haskins. It featured Kentucky's all-white starting five versus Texas Western's all-black starting five as well as occurring at the height of the Civil Rights Era. The game, which Texas Western won 72-65, helped accelerate the ongoing integration movement in college basketball, as well as the overall recruiting approach of the SEC, ACC, and SWC conferences at large.

Coaching style and philosophy

Rupp was an early innovator of the fast break and set offense. His offense consisted of 10-15 set plays (with variations for each), complete with extensive offensive movement and screening. Early basketball innovations such as the "guard around" play and inside screen were first developed by Rupp in the 1930s. Likewise, he was an early proponent of the fast break, which his Kentucky teams utilized at every opportunity throughout his career. In addition, for most of his coaching career Rupp's defensive philosophy was largely exclusive, as he preferred only a tight man-to-man defense. However, during the 1963-64 season, Rupp became one of the first coaches to begin experimenting with the trapping 1-3-1 zone defense, and his Kentucky teams utilized this defense at times for the remainder of his career. Throughout his time at Kentucky, Rupp's recruiting focused largely on local and regional talent. In fact, over 80% of Rupp's Kentucky players came from the state of Kentucky.

Rupp strongly emphasized the fundamentals of basketball, both on offense and defense, and overall discipline. Rupp believed that excellence was achieved only through repetition, and his practices stressed individual instruction, precision, and continuity. Rupp was very demanding of his players, constantly putting extreme pressure on them in practice, and mercilessly berating them for any mistakes.

Superstitions

Rupp, a very superstitious man, was known to carry a "lucky" buckeye in his pocket. His favorite sign of good luck was finding a pin, especially a bobby pin, particularly on a game day. The depth of his superstitious nature was revealed while he was coaching at Freeport, when he had bought a new blue suit to replace his old brown one. He wore his new suit to a game, and his team got beaten badly. Rupp never again wore anything but a brown suit to games.

Head coaching record

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Kentucky Wildcats (Southern Conference) (1930–1932)
1930–31	Kentucky	15–3	8–2	4th
1931–32	Kentucky	15–2	9–1	T–1st
Kentucky:		30–5	17–3
Kentucky Wildcats (Southeastern Conference) (1932–1972)
1932–33	Kentucky	21–3	8–0	1st	Helms National Champion
1933–34	Kentucky	16–1	11–0	1st	Premo-Porretta National Champion
1934–35	Kentucky	19–2	11–0	T–1st
1935–36	Kentucky	15–6	6–2	1st
1936–37	Kentucky	17–5	5–3	T–5th
1937–38	Kentucky	13–5	6–0	1st
1938–39	Kentucky	16–4	5–2	3rd
1939–40	Kentucky	15–6	4–4	6th
1940–41	Kentucky	17–8	8–1	1st
1941–42	Kentucky	19–6	6–2	3rd	NCAA Final Four
1942–43	Kentucky	17–6	8–1	1st
1943–44	Kentucky	19–2			NIT 3rd Place
1944–45	Kentucky	22–4	4–1	T-1st	NCAA Elite 8
1945–46	Kentucky	28–2	6–0	T-1st	NIT Champions
1946–47	Kentucky	34–3	11–0	1st	NIT Runner-Up Premo-Porretta National Champion
1947–48	Kentucky	36–3	9–0	1st	NCAA Champion Premo-Porretta National Champion
1948–49	Kentucky	32–2	13–0	1st	NCAA Champion/NIT Quarterfinals
1949–50	Kentucky	25–5	11–2	1st	NIT Quarterfinals
1950–51	Kentucky	32–2	14–0	1st	NCAA Champion
1951–52	Kentucky	29–3	14–0	1st	NCAA Elite 8
1952–53	No Team*	No Team*	No Team*	No Team*	No Team*
1953–54	Kentucky	25–0	15–0**	T–1st	Helms National Champion
1954–55	Kentucky	23–3	12–2	1st	NCAA Sweet 16
1955–56	Kentucky	20–6	12–2	2nd	NCAA Elite 8
1956–57	Kentucky	23–5	12–2	1st	NCAA Elite 8
1957–58	Kentucky	23–6	12–2	1st	NCAA Champion
1958–59	Kentucky	24–3	12–2	T–2nd	NCAA Sweet 16
1959–60	Kentucky	18–7	10–4	3rd
1960–61	Kentucky	19–9	11–4**	T–2nd	NCAA Elite 8
1961–62	Kentucky	23–3	13–1	T–1st	NCAA Elite 8
1962–63	Kentucky	16–9	8–6	5th
1963–64	Kentucky	21–6	11–3	1st	NCAA Sweet 16
1964–65	Kentucky	15–10	10–6	5th
1965–66	Kentucky	27–2	15–1	1st	NCAA Runner-Up
1966–67	Kentucky	13–13	8–10	T–5th
1967–68	Kentucky	22–5	15–3	1st	NCAA Elite 8
1968–69	Kentucky	23–5	16–2	1st	NCAA Sweet 16
1969–70	Kentucky	26–2	17–1	1st	NCAA Elite 8
1970–71	Kentucky	22–6	16–2	1st	NCAA Sweet 16
1971–72	Kentucky	21–7	14–4	T–1st	NCAA Elite 8
Kentucky:		876–190 (.822)	399–75 (.842)
Total:		876–190 (.822)
National champion         Postseason invitational champion         Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion       Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion       Conference tournament champion

• ** Record includes SEC playoff tiebreaker games
• The team did not play in the 1952-53 season because of involvement in a point shaving scandal.

Career after Kentucky

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

In June 1973 Rupp quit as Tams president, calling the ABA "bush league" and saying it "would never survive". Three months later, Rupp was hired as Vice President of the Board of the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association.

Death

Rupp died of spinal cancer at age 76 in Lexington, Kentucky, on December 10, 1977, on a night when Kentucky defeated his alma mater, Kansas, at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas. The game that night was promoted as "Adolph Rupp Night". He is buried in Lexington Cemetery. The University of Kentucky and head coach Joe B. Hall, a long time Rupp assistant, honored Rupp's memory by winning the 1978 NCAA Tournament less than four months after his death. Rupp Arena, the current home of the Kentucky men's basketball team, is named in his honor.

See also

• List of college men's basketball coaches with 600 wins
• List of NCAA Men's Division I Final Four appearances by coach

External links

• Adolph Rupp at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
• Adolph Rupp at Find a Grave