< Previous8 @KentuckyMBB On Dec. 5, 1953, Tony Bennett’s “Rags to Riches” dominated the ra- dio airwaves as the No. 1 song in America. On the big screen, movie- goers flocked to see Lauren Bacall, Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe in the comedy “How to Marry a Mil- lionaire,” the top-grossing film in the U.S. More than half of Americans were watching Desi Arnaz and Lu- cille Ball and their antics weekly on “I Love Lucy”, the highest-rated TV show. Also, future head coaches Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith were both under the age of three. But, on the hardwood, the University of Ken- tucky men’s basketball team opened their season against the Temple Owls at Memorial Coliseum. What transpired over the next 94 days was something that has not been matched by the Wildcats since. This season marks the 70th anniversary of that special team, so I have decided to take a trip down memory lane and look back at what made that season so remarkable. The fans of the Big Blue Nation were starving for any basketball ac- tion, having waited 623 days since the last Kentucky basketball game, a disappointing loss to St. John’s in the 1952 NCAA Tournament East Region- al finals. Due to a point shaving scan- dal that was widespread throughout the country in the late 1940s and ear- ly 1950s, including the involvement of former Kentucky players Dale Barnstable, Ralph Beard, and Alex Groza, the NCAA banished the Wild- cats from playing any competitive basketball for the entire 1952-1953 season. To say that the team and fans were eager to get back to basketball was certainly an understatement. It was clear that head coach Adolph Rupp knew there was a chance to have a special season with the re- turn of three sensational seniors, Cliff Hagan, Frank Ramsey, and Lou Tsioropoulos. Perfection” Cliff Hagan, Adolph Rupp, Lou Tsioropoulos and Frank Ramsey “The Big Three” led the 1953-54 UK team to a 25-0 record that ended with no postseason play. By Corey Price@UKSportsNetwork 910 @KentuckyMBB It did not take long for the team to show what they were capable of, soundly defeat- ing Temple in the season opener, 86-59. The game was all about one player in particular, Cliff Hagan. Hagan set a then-school record, pouring in an astounding 51 points to lead the Wildcats. Two days after the victory, the first Associated Press Poll was released for the season, with Kentucky ranked No. 2 behind Indiana. Over the next two weeks, the Wild- cats breezed to victories over Xavier, Wake Forest, and St. Louis. The game against St. Louis was bizarre, with Tsioropoulos almost getting involved in a fight, a Billikens fan throwing a punch at Kentucky athletic director Bernie Shivley, and Wildcats’ assistant coach Harry Lancast- er throwing a punch at Pat Hickey, the son of St. Louis head coach Ed Hickey, for firing the timer’s pistol too close to his leg. Then, on Dec. 21, Kentucky hosted the inaugural University of Kentucky Invitation- al Tournament (UKIT). The goal was to have some of the best teams in the country come to Lexington around Christmas to play. The first UKIT did not disappoint, with Duke, La Salle, and UCLA being invited. The Wildcats faced off against Duke in the semifinals, and the Blue Devils put a scare into Kentucky in the first half, with the Wildcats clinging to a three-point lead at the break. But Kentucky pulled away in the sec- ond half for a 16-point win, where it would face No. 16 La Salle in the finals. La Salle kept it close for the first 20 min- utes, with Kentucky holding a five-point edge. But, once again, the Wildcats pulled away in the final 20 minutes, leading to a 73- 60 victory and its first UKIT championship. La Salle would go on to win the NCAA Tour- nament later in the season. After the UKIT title, Kentucky took over the No. 1 spot in the AP Poll. The Wildcats ended the month of December. with a top- 10 matchup, taking on No. 6 Minnesota. Kentucky did not have much trouble with the Golden Gophers, closing out the year with a 74-59 win. Kentucky kicked off the new year with a wake-up call when they played Xavier at Memorial Coliseum on Jan. 4. The Muske- teers gave Kentucky a much better game the second time around. The Wildcats jumped out to a commanding 22-point lead in the first half, but the Musketeers did not give up. Xavier clawed all the way back to put a scare in the Wildcats, but Kentucky did just enough to pull off the win, defeating the Musketeers 77-71, their smallest margin of victory for the regular season. Maybe a distraction for the players, the team was presented with a cake prior to the game to commemorate the 11th anni- versary of the last time that Kentucky lost a home game. Five days later, on Jan. 9, Ken- tucky opened Southeastern Conference play against Georgia Tech at Memorial Coliseum. It seemed like the Wildcats took out its frus- trations of a lackluster performance against Xavier on the Yellow Jackets. Kentucky followed up its closest game of the regular season with their biggest win of the year, defeating Georgia Tech by 52 points, 105-53. The senior trio of Hagan, Ramsey, and Tsioropoulos were outstanding, scoring a combined 83 points in the win, including a career-high 30 points for Tsioropoulos. Next, the Wildcats briefly left conference play to take on DePaul at Memorial Colise- um on Jan. 11 and defeated the Blue Demons 81-63. Kentucky finished January with three con- ference contests, breezing through Tulane and border rivals Tennessee and Vanderbilt. In the Tennessee game, Frank Ramsey set a career high, scoring 37 points to lead the Wildcats. The Vanderbilt contest was its first ever to be played in Memorial Gymnasium. The Wildcats opened February with its annual game played in Louisville, taking on Georgia Tech on Feb. 2. Kentucky once again dismantled the Yellow Jackets, almost matching their margin of victory from the first contest, winning by 51 points, 99-48. That game ended up being the penultimate game played in the Jefferson County Armory, later to be known as the Louisville Gardens, for Kentucky. The Wildcats then played Georgia twice Front Row (l to r): Head Coach Adolph Rupp, Linville Puckett, Jess Curry, Gayle Rose, Clay Evans, Willie Rouse, Dan Chandler, Pete Grigsby, Assistant Coach Harry Lancaster Second Row: Student Manager Mike Dolan, Hugh Coy, Cliff Hagan, Lou Tsioropoulos, Jerry Bird, Phil Grawemeyer, Harold Hurst, Bill Bibb, Frank Ramsey, Bill Evans12 @KentuckyMBB in a span of three days, defeating the Bull- dogs by 51 and 32 points, with the game on Feb. 6 being played in Owensboro, the last time that the Wildcats played at the Owens- boro Sportscenter. Kentucky made history two days later when they faced Florida in Gainesville on Feb. 8. The Wildcats had no trouble with the Gators, soundly defeating them by 42 points, 97-55. With the victory, Kentucky had a perfect 17-0 record, setting a then-school record for the best start to a season. The previous record of 16-0 was set by the 1933-1934 squad. Kentucky followed that up with a 26-point win over the Ole Miss Rebels on Feb. 13 at Memorial Coliseum. Two days lat- er, the new AP Poll was released, and it ap- peared as though the media had grown tired and perhaps bored with Kentucky being so dominant. At a perfect 18-0, the Wildcats inexplicably dropped one spot, from No. 1 to No. 2 in the poll. Later that night, the Wildcats demonstrated once again why it should be the top-rated team in the country, defeating Mississippi State by 32 points, 81- 49, at Memorial Coliseum. The Wildcats defeated border rival Ten- nessee for the second time on the season, by 27 points, before once again departing SEC play to take on DePaul at Chicago Stadium. The Blue Demons kept it competitive for the first 20 minutes, with Kentucky having just a five-point advantage at the half. But the Wildcats pulled away in the second half, re- sulting in a 76-61 win. The voters were not satisfied yet again, with Kentucky remaining at No. 2 in the AP Poll for the second con- secutive week. The Wildcats finished February with their second win of the season against border ri- val Vanderbilt and a 30-point win over Au- burn in a game played in Montgomery. Kentucky began March back on top of the AP Poll, returning to the No. 1 spot. The Wildcats took their top ranking into Tusca- loosa for their regular season finale against Alabama. Like the previous 23 games, Ken- tucky had no trouble, defeating the Crimson Tide by 25 points, finishing the regular sea- son a perfect 24-0 and 14-0 in SEC play. There was a second SEC team that was also 14-0 in conference play, No. 8 LSU. The Wildcats and Tigers, because of a sched- uling disagreement, did not play during the regular season. Since the SEC Tourna- ment had recently been discontinued, the conference decided to have Kentucky and LSU play in a one-game playoff on March 9 at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville to decide who would be declared the SEC champion and the conference’s representa- tive in the NCAA Tournament. As expected, a matchup of top-10 teams and teams un- beaten in conference play was highly com- petitive. The Wildcats delivered the first punch, racing out to an 11-point lead, their largest of the game, early in the first half and went into the locker room with a slim two-point lead at halftime. The Tigers delivered a punch them- selves, clawing back to take the lead by four points early in the second half. Ken- tucky delivered the knockout blow, thanks to Frank Ramsey, scoring 10 of his game- high 30 points in the final minutes of the game. The Wildcats won, 63-56, and de- clared the SEC champions. Bob Pettit, a fu- ture Hall of Famer, led LSU with 17 points. The team was on an emotional roller coaster after the victory when they learned that they could not participate in the NCAA Tournament. School authorities made the announcement, knowing that seniors Ha- gan, Ramsey, and Tsioropoulos would be ineligible to play. All three had recently re- ceived their undergraduate degrees, and, at the time, the NCAA did not allow postgrad- uates to play in the tournament. The players on the team voted to see if they wanted to play in the tournament without their three terrific seniors, and they voted 9-3 in favor of playing. But head coach Rupp vetoed the vote because he did not want the team playing in the tournament without the three players most responsible for getting them into the tournament. As a result, the Wildcats finished the sea- son with a perfect 25-0 record but with a disappointing end to their season. But that did not take away from their historic season. Kentucky’s average margin of victory was an incredible 27.2 points per game, still a school record. Six players from the team were selected in the NBA Draft, with four playing in the NBA. Six players were inducted into the Universi- ty of Kentucky Athletics Hall of Fame (Jerry Bird, Billy Evans, Cliff Hagan, Frank Ramsey, Gayle Rose, and Lou Tsioropoulos). The “Big Three” of Hagan, Ramsey, and Tsioropoulos combined to average 58.1 points per game, almost outscoring Ken- tucky’s opponents by themselves for the season (opponents scored 60.3 points per game). Hagan enjoyed a 13-season career in the NBA and ABA, being named an All- Star six times and winning the NBA title in 1958 and was later inducted into the Na- ismith Memorial Hall of Fame. He even came back to Kentucky to become the school’s athletic director. Ramsey played his entire nine-season career in the NBA with the Boston Celtics, winning an incredible seven NBA titles and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame. Tsioro- poulos was Ramsey’s teammate on the Bos- ton Celtics for three seasons, winning two NBA titles as well. The 1953-54 team finished the season 25-0 and won the SEC championship. All smiles as the team hoists Cliff Hagan after a victory.KENTUCKY BASKETBALL 14 @KentuckyMBB Arkansas Fayetteville, Ark. 6 p.m. Saturday January Tennessee Lexington, Ky. 8:30 p.m. Saturday February Gonzaga Lexington, Ky. 4 p.m. Saturday February Ole Miss Lexington, Ky. 9 p.m. Tuesday February Auburn Auburn, Ala. 6 p.m. Saturday February Vanderbilt Lexington, Ky. 9 p.m. Wednesday March Tennessee Knoxville, Tenn. 4 p.m. Saturday March SEC Tournament Nashville, Tenn. TBA Wed.-Sun. March 13-17 NCAA Tournament Final Four® Phoenix | TBA March- April TBA LSU Baton Rouge, La. 9 p.m. February Alabama Lexington, Ky. 4 p.m. Saturday February Mississippi State Starkville, Miss. 7 p.m. Tuesday February Arkansas Lexington, Ky. 1:30 p.m. Saturday March Florida Lexington, Ky. 8 p.m. January Mississippi State Lexington, Ky. 7 p.m. January Georgia Lexington, Ky. 6 p.m. Saturday January South Carolina Columbia, S.C. 7 p.m. Tuesday January Kansas Chicago 9:30 p.m. Tuesday November New Mexico State Lexington, Ky. 8 p.m. Monday November Texas A&M- Lexington, Ky. 7 p.m. Friday November Miami Lexington, Ky. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday November UNC-Wilmington Lexington, Ky. 4 p.m. Saturday December Penn Philadelphia 12 p.m. Saturday December Stonehill Lexington, Ky. 7 p.m. Friday November Saint Joseph's Lexington, Ky. 7 p.m. Monday November Marshall Lexington, Ky. 7 p.m. Friday November Louisville Louisville, Ky. 6 p.m. Thursday December Illinois State Lexington, Ky. 7 p.m. Friday December Missouri Lexington, Ky. 7 p.m. Tuesday January Florida Gainesville, Fla. 12:30 p.m. Saturday January Texas A&M 3 p.m. Saturday January North Carolina Atlanta Saturday December Home Neutral Away 2023-24 Basketball Schedule Vanderbilt Nashville, Tenn. 8:30 p.m. Tuesday February Wildcat Challenge presented by Kentucky Tourism Wildcat Challenge presented by Kentucky Tourism Wildcat Challenge presented by Kentucky Tourism ACC/SEC Challenge CBS Sports Classic State Farm Champions ClassicENJOY RESPONSIBLY 21+ © 2023 Anheuser-Busch, Bud Light ® Beer, St. Louis, MO OFFICIAL SPONSOR OF KENTUCKY WILDCATSThank You to Our CORNERSTONE PARTNERS OFFICIAL BANK OF UK ATHLETICSNENext >