[Truth]

Those who would call The Baron a racist demonstrate a complete ignorance of the facts. Kentucky played in the SEC. During nearly all of his tenure as coach at Kentucky, it would have been foolhardy and dangerous to take a black player on the road to play in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, etc. Like it or not, that is just the absolute truth.

Rupp was an arrogant egotist, to be sure. He said what he thought whether it was liked or not. Unlike too many today, he did not suffer from political correctness. He was disliked by most sportswriters around the basketball world. He didn't play "kissy butt" with the "powers that be". He was enormously successful. Thus, he was a convenient target for those who either were less successful (and that includes everyone in college basketball at that time) or jealous of Kentucky's success.

Rupp was no more a racist than was the "adored" Dean Smith or most all of the others coaching south of Pennsylvania at that time in our history.

Rupp lived in a different time. You cannot use the ridiculous politically correct rules of 2010 to judge those who lived and coached in the world of the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s.

Coach Rupp was and is a legend. Was he the greatest coach of all time? That is open to argument. After all, Wooden was much more congenial. Still, Rupp was clearly one of the two or three most influential coaches of all time. No Kentuckian, particularly those who follow Kentucky basketball, should ever believe otherwise. After all, there are reasons why it is called Rupp Arena.

One other fact is for sure. Coach Rupp wouldn't put up with the crap from some of the prima donna players that coaches put up with today. Coaching needs a few more Coach Rupps. America needs a lot more Coach Rupps.

Only an uninformed fool would cast a shadow on the monumentally positive results for Kentucky basketball and the sport of basketball which resulted from the life of The Baron.