My first college basketball game was a memorable one.
I was probably in the first or second grade when my dad took me to a UK game at Rupp Arena. We lived more than an hour away from Lexington, so I’m sure it was a very excited car ride for me. I don’t remember how we got tickets or who UK was playing, but I know it wasn’t somebody very good. Actually my memories from that first game were big, literally. I just remember everything being so big! Rupp Arena itself was huge, it was like a big shopping mall to me. I remember first riding the escalator up, and later riding it down, and when I did I could look into what I remember as a huge toy store.
Of course once I got into the Rupp Arena itself I realized just what big was. I mean 23 or 24,000 people together in one place with one common goal – cheering the Cats on to victory – it was amazing! I know the team UK played was bad, and that they were winning the game handily because I remember late in the game the crowd was chanting “Booooo” for little-used reserve Bo Lanter and I remember the same cheers going up when another human-victory-cigar Chris Gettlefinger, who like me then had bright orange hair, went into the game.
Afterward I remember we stuck around for a few minutes and looked around at the huge arena as we walked out – it was big and so was that night! It was one of the biggest, and best, nights of my life to that point.
I was probably in the first or second grade when my dad took me to a UK game at Rupp Arena. We lived more than an hour away from Lexington, so I’m sure it was a very excited car ride for me. I don’t remember how we got tickets or who UK was playing, but I know it wasn’t somebody very good. Actually my memories from that first game were big, literally. I just remember everything being so big! Rupp Arena itself was huge, it was like a big shopping mall to me. I remember first riding the escalator up, and later riding it down, and when I did I could look into what I remember as a huge toy store.
Of course once I got into the Rupp Arena itself I realized just what big was. I mean 23 or 24,000 people together in one place with one common goal – cheering the Cats on to victory – it was amazing! I know the team UK played was bad, and that they were winning the game handily because I remember late in the game the crowd was chanting “Booooo” for little-used reserve Bo Lanter and I remember the same cheers going up when another human-victory-cigar Chris Gettlefinger, who like me then had bright orange hair, went into the game.
Afterward I remember we stuck around for a few minutes and looked around at the huge arena as we walked out – it was big and so was that night! It was one of the biggest, and best, nights of my life to that point.
*****
My real religious love of basketball probably began when I was in the fourth grade and that’s when I started to memorize all the facts and the teams and the players, but before that I still loved the sport and loved to watch the games. I mean I remember bits and pieces of basketball stuff before then. I remember watching some of the local celebrations for UofL’s 1980 national championship team on TV. I remember the day that President Reagan got shot, but I don’t really recall watching IU beat North Carolina that night for the national championship. The following year I remember talk that UK and UofL might play in the NCAA Tournament, but that quickly disappeared after UK got beat by Middle Tennessee State (who?) in the opening round and a couple of weeks later I remember seeing highlights of North Carolina’s win over Georgetown in the national championship game and some skinny kid (who could that be?) hitting the game-winning shot.
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