Kentucky Athletics: Welcome Home, Tubby

Feb 23, 2013; Lexington, KY, USA; A row of banners hang in Rupp Arena before the game against the Kentucky Wildcats and the Missouri Tigers. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports

On Monday, August 19, the University of Kentucky announced the members of 2013 class of the Wildcat Athletic Hall of Fame. Headlining the class (which you can get more information on here), is one of my favorite coaches, former men’s basketball coach, Orlando “Tubby” Smith. I know that I’ve already written a letter to Coach Smith, but this is welcome news and puts Tubby one step closer to the place where his name ultimately belongs: hanging from the rafters of Rupp Arena.

Tubby Smith was part of Rick Pitino’s first staff at UK when Pitino was given the job of rebuilding the great Wildcat program in the wake of “Kentucky’s Shame” and the scandal that devastated the university and the Big Blue Nation.  He was there at the beginning and he was the Coach in 1998 when the Cats won their seventh title, putting the cherry on top of one of the great runs in college basketball history.  He coached players that made it to the NBA and, like the NCAA commercials proclaim, he coached players that went on to go pro in something other than sports. Most importantly, Coach Smith represented himself and the university with class and with dignity for his entire coaching tenure, even when his son, Saul, became the target of very mean-spirited ridicule. Tubby’s grace and humility off the court was legendary.

With his induction into the UK Athletic Hall of Fame, Coach Tubby Smith is now just 5 years away from eligibility to have his name placed on a banner and put up in the rafters of Rupp Arena with the other legends in Wildcat history.  Not only does Coach Smith have the on the court resume warrant it, but his off the court work does as well. It cannot be underestimated what Tubby represented to a large faction of the Big Blue Nation. Rightly or wrongly, former head coach Adolph Rupp and the university as a whole had been categorized as racist and openly hostile toward African-American students and African-Americans in general . From my own experience in Lexington, I can say that was no longer true, but Tubby, for once and for all, finally put that nonsense to rest and allowed the school and basketball team to move on and move forward.

Even Tubby’s detractors have to admit that his biggest flaw is that he is loyal to a fault. Even when he had the opportunity to replace assistants, most notably to assist with recruiting, Coach Smith stuck with his staff, the folks that had helped him win a championship and field some very, very competitive teams (how can so many forget how great that 2003 team was? 19-0 in the SEC!).  Loyalty and some bad luck derailed his run in Lexington, but that doesn’t mean that what he did while roaming the sidelines in Blue and White was any less special. Once again, thank you Coach Smith, congratulations on your induction to the UK Athletic Hall of Game and welcome back to your old Kentucky Home.