Top 50 Kentucky Wildcats Prior to John Calipari Era

Sep 11, 2015; Springfield, MA, USA; Louis Dampier (left), John Calipari (center) and George Raveling on stage at the conclusion of the 2015 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony at Springfield Symphony Hall. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

7. Louie Dampier

Louie Dampier and John Calipari were both inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame this year. That is no small victory.

Dampier is one of only a few  to play all nine seasons in the American Basketball Association (ABA) (1967–1976). He played all nine seasons with the Kentucky Colonels. Clearly he didn’t go too far from Lexington after his time with the Wildcats.

He also was one of just two players to play all nine ABA seasons with the same team; the other was Byron Beck of the Denver Rockets, later renamed the Nuggets. If that’s not impressive, I don’t know what is.

In 1979, when ABA–NBA came together and just called themselves the NBA from that point on. Dampier opted to play three seasons (1976–1979) in the NBA with the San Antonio Spurs.

Dampier was one of a few to play more than one sport at the University of Kentucky. He played both basketball and baseball for the Wildcats.

Playing under coach Adolph Rupp, Dampier and company led the Wildcats to the 1966 NCAA championship game, where they lost to Texas Western College (now the University of Texas at El Paso).

During his three years playing varsity basketball Kentucky, Dampier was a two-time All-American and three-time All-Southeastern Conference selection.

He was also named Academic All-SEC twice and Academic All-American once.

By the end of his career with Kentucky in 1967, Dampier scored 1,575 points, at the time third-most in school history behind only Cotton Nash (1,770) and Alex Groza (1,744). This was before the Dan Issel days.

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