Herky rupp biography
- Rupp had been fighting cancer for about 10 years.
- Herky Rupp was a 6'4”.
- Rupp, who died in 1977, was larger than life, a cantankerous, iron-fisted coach who preached the fast break and pinpoint passing.
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Adolph F. Rupp Jr or “Herky” as he was known not only played basketball for his legendary father, but was his staunchest defender. Herky Rupp died Wednesday afternoon in Lexington, one week shy of his 76th birthday.
According to Herky’s son, Adolph F. Rupp III or “Chip”, his dad had been quietly dealing with a treatable form of cancer for the last eight or nine years, before his health began to deteriorate in the last couple of months.
Herky Rupp was a 6’4” forward who played at Kentucky for three seasons from 1959-1962 appearing in a total of 14 games and scoring 11 career points. But in a little known fact, the Kentucky coach let his young son score the first ever basket in Memorial Coliseum after the construction was complete and the goals were put in place.
After graduating from UK, Herky was a high school coach with successful stints at Lafayette, Shelby County and Louisville Atherton before concentrating solely on teaching and raising cattle on the family farm. But in his later years much of his time was spent defending his father’s legacy, particularly after the release
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Hometown: Lexington, KY(University High)
Position: F Playing Height: 6-4 Playing Weight: 170
Date of Birth: June 30, 1940
Date of Death: June 22, 2016
Legal Name: Adolph Frederick Rupp
Additional Photos:
Game by Game Statistics
Kentucky Career Notes:
Son of Kentucky Head Coach Adolph Rupp
Obituary - Adolph "Herky" Rupp, son of legendary UK coach, dies at 75,Lexington Herald-Leader (June 24, 2016) by Morgan Eads
Adolph "Herky" Rupp Jr., 75, died Wednesday. He was the son of legendary University of Kentucky basketball coach Adolph Rupp.
He grew up around UK basketball and played three varsity seasons for his dad, scoring 11 points in 14 career games from 1959 to 1962.
"He was a great supporter of not only our basketball program, but myself and my family," UK Coach John Calipari tweeted Friday afternoon. "I loved being in his company. . . . He was immensely proud and honored that his father was one of the great coaches of all time. He'll be missed."
Joe B. Hall, an assistant to Adolph Rupp before taking over as head coach at Kentucky, remembers w
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Bolin, James Duane. Adolph Rupp and the Rise of Kentucky Basketball. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. 2019. Pp. 394. Bibliography and index. $40 hardback.
Reviewed by Bob D’Angelo.
There are not enough adjectives to describe Adolph Rupp, but author James Duane Bolin gives it a good try.
“Successful, colorful, crusty and controversial,” (p. 17) Bolin writes in his sweeping, thorough biography of the man who coached University of Kentucky basketball for 42 years. Rupp won four national titles and 27 Southeastern Conference crowns at Kentucky. When he was forced to retire in 1972, the “Baron of the Bluegrass” was college basketball’s winningest coach with 876 victories. “He forged an identity that united a backward state,” Bolin writes in Adolph Rupp and the Rise of Kentucky Basketball(p. 8). Rupp, who died in 1977, was larger than life, a cantankerous, iron-fisted coach who preached the fast break and pinpoint passing. He was “the man in the brown suit,” superstitious to a fault, and held the Bluegrass state in the
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