(This story is one of six serialized highlights from the Ken Mink book “Big Blue Blues: The Inside Story of Kentucky’s Involvement in the Point-Shaving Scandal of the 1940s-50s.” The complete book is on sale on the Internet through Amazon Books, Smashwords Books and Barnes and Noble. Mink is a former Herald-Leader sportswriter who spent many hours with the late UK basketball Coach Adolph Rupp and other coaches and journalists researching data for the book. He is a native of Vicco, near Hazard, in Perry County.)
Chapter 4: After Great UK Success, Here Come the Gamblers
Following Kentucky’s college basketball domination of the 1945-46, 1946-47 and 1947-48 era Coach Rupp found himself with several thousand dollars left over from the Olympics exhibition games with the Phillips Oilers and UK fan donations to help pay for the team sending extra players to the Olympics.