Adolph Rupp

He was known as the "Man in the Brown Suit." And when it comes to Kentucky basketball, he is the first and most important person to know.

Born in Halstead, Kansas, in 1901, Adolph Rupp grew up in a state that would become known for its basketball history. At 6'2", he starred at the local high school, averaging 19 points per game. Sometimes he also served as the unofficial coach of the team. This led to a playing career at the University of Kansas.

A reserve on the Kansas team, Rupp learned from one of the masters — Kansas coach Phog Allen, who himself learned from James Naismith, the inventor of the game. In fact, Naismith was still serving as an assistant on that Kansas team when Rupp was playing. It was only fitting that Rupp would become a coach himself. After a couple of high school coaching jobs, Rupp landed as the head coach at Freeport High in Freeport, Illinois. Many have undoubtedly heard about Rupp's supposed aversion to recruiting African American players, but it was in Freeport that he coached his first black player. In 1930, after coaching at the high school for four years, Rupp invited Illinois coach Craig Ruby to speak at their postseason banquet. Ruby had heard of a job opening for the head basketball coach at the University of Kentucky.

He recommended Rupp for the job.

It was a position Rupp held for the next 41 years, where he accumulated 876 wins, 27 conference championships, four NCAA championships, and an NIT title. He coached his teams to 27 Southeastern Conference championships and 13 SEC Tournament titles, and 32 of his players were named All-American. By the time he retired in 1972, having reached the state-mandated retirement age of 70 for university workers, he was the all-time winningest coach in college basketball history.

In an age where basketball was still being accepted in many southern states, Rupp was an innovator. He wanted to play fast. He wanted to score points. In order to do so, he emphasized a fast-break style of offense where points could be easily scored in transition.

A superstitious man, Rupp always wore his brown suit to games (it was said he once wore a blue suit to a high school game and lost, so he never wore the blue one again) and he always carried a lucky buckeye in his pocket. He did not mince words when it came to his love of winning — or how important he thought it was to win.

"If it doesn't matter who wins or loses, then what in the hell is that scoreboard doing up there?" he famously asked.

And then there are the stereotypes that have followed Rupp through history.

In 1966, "Rupp's Runts," a team nicknamed for its lack of height, was ranked No. 1 in the nation and played Texas Western, also a team ranked in the top 5, for the national championship. What made the game even more interesting was the fact that it was the first time an all-white starting five played an all-black starting five for the title.

Kentucky lost the game 72–65, and the game seemed even more important as it occurred during the time of the Civil Rights movement.

Because many of the schools in the south were slow to integrate, the stereotype became that Kentucky and Rupp did not want black players. It wasn't true. Rupp tried to recruit many black players from across the state, beginning in 1965 with star Butch Beard and he signed Tom Payne in 1969. Kentucky was the fourth school in the SEC to integrate the basketball team.

How did Rupp really feel about black players? No one can know for certain. But we know he hated to lose. And if a player was talented, Rupp wanted him.

"I know there have been a lot of people who thought he was a racist," former UK coach Tubby Smith told the Chicago Tribune in 1997. "But I think the times can dictate how people act — where you're brought up, how you're brought up. If he was a racist, he wasn't alone in this country. I'm never going to judge anybody. That's a long time ago, too. ... You learn from the past, and you...