Top 50 Kentucky Wildcats Prior to John Calipari Era
Mar 23, 2014; St. Louis, MO, USA; Kentucky Wildcats mascot performs during a time-out against the Wichita State Shockers during the second half in the third round of the 2014 NCAA Men
2. Wallace “Wah-Wah” Jones
Wah Wah Jones is by far one of my favorite Wildcats. I will forever remember seeing him and Anthony Davis both hold their Olympic Gold Medals. I found it awesome that both won an NCAA Championship and a gold medal, ironically both from games held in London, England.
From Harlan, Kentucky, Jones was all-in-all a Kentucky man.
Jones set a national scoring record in basketball and led his school to a state championship in high school.
He was all-state in football, basketball and baseball. Three sports, three all-state mentions, that’s completely unheard of in today’s game. Jones never ceases to amaze me.
Upon attending the University of Kentucky, Jones continued to play varsity football, basketball and baseball. That never happens anymore.
He was twice All-SEC in football.
In basketball, he was a three time All-American and four time All-SEC. He helped lead the Wildcats to 2 NCAA Championships, in 1948 and 1949. Jones was a member of the 1948 Olympic Gold medal winning team with Adolph Rupp’s “Fabulous Five” and the Phillips 66ers.
During his four years at Kentucky, the basketball team had a combined record of 130-10 and won the SEC championship every year. I sure wish I was around to see this, the Fabulous Five was by far one of the most impressive teams in the history of college basketball.
"He holds the unique distinction of being an All-American under both legends, Adolph Rupp (basketball) and Bear Bryant (football) when both coached at Kentucky. He is the only player to have his number retired in both football and basketball at Kentucky. In 1953 Jones was elected the sheriff of Fayette County, Kentucky. In 1956 Jones was the Republican nominee for Kentucky’s 6th congressional district seat in the United States House of Representatives. Though Dwight Eisenhower, heading the Republican ticket, carried the state, Jones lost the election to Democrat John C. Watts. In 1978, Jones started a charter bus company called “Blue Grass Tours” that was contracted to the UK Athletics department and more recently purchased a custom sleeper coach for the use of the athletic teams."
I had no idea he started Blue Grass Tours, busses you see often throughout Lexington. So, doing this research, I even learned a few new things about one of my favorite players in Kentucky’s past, Wah Wah Jones.
Next: Dan The Man