Rick Stansbury grew up in western Kentucky – the region – during Western Kentucky – the school’s – heyday.
Stansbury hails from the tiny community of Wolf Creek in Meade County. His officially listed hometown is almost-as-tiny Battletown because “Wolf Creek doesn’t have a post office so you’ve got to go to Battletown to get your mail,” he said Monday.
And while the 56-year-old Stansbury was coming of age in the 1960s and 70s in small-town Kentucky, the Hilltoppers were thriving.
Stansbury was 11 years old when coach John Oldham took WKU to the 1971 Final Four.