"Co-Game of the Week " 1975 UK Vs. IU

“If Kentucky ever, in its rich history played a more important game with more ferocity, someone will have to prove it to the 13,458 folks here.”

-- Dave Kindred, Courier-Journal - 3/22/75

Near the end of a humiliating 98-74 defeat at the hands of Indiana University earlier that season in December, the well chronicled “friendly tap” on the back of Joe B. Hall’s head from IU coach Bobby Knight took place near the scorer’s table. Hall took offense saying afterward that “all I want is another chance to play them. Knight personally humiliated me. I’ll never for get it.”

The #5 ranked Wildcats and their coach would get the opportunity for revenge against the 31-0, #1 ranked Hoosiers in the finals of the Mideast Regional tournament in Dayton, OH.

The 24-2 Wildcats were SEC champions and clearly the strongest of Coach Hall’s previous three teams. With a senior make-up from the legendary 22-0 Super Kittens (UK’s undefeated freshmen team during Adolph Rupp’s last season); Kevin Grevey, Bob Guyette, Jimmy Dan Connor, Mike Flynn(pictured above), G.J. Smith and Jerry Hale; along with the top freshman class in the country, Jack Givens, Rick Robey, James Lee and Mike Phillips – UK had won its first two NCAA tournament games by an average of nearly 20 ppg.

IU was poised to win the NCAA title. It was expected to by just about everyone who followed the game in 1975. It was written that “at some point in every game this season, Indian broke the other guy’s will.” Bobby Knight had won four straight over his rival to the south – and had never lost to Joe B. Hall.

In this all-time classic (a game in which Dave Kindred called the “greatest game ever played”), Kentucky refused to be broken like the other 31 IU victims that season.

After earning its seventh trip to the NCAA final four – one of the great scenes in the history of Kentucky basketball began to unfold along the Commonwealth’s portion of I-75. The Legendary Big Blue Nation began celebrating their Wildcat’s victory by following UK’s team bus and creating perhaps the first Big Blue Caravan all the way to a celebration in Memorial Coliseum. Along the way, the sea of blue was surreal to those who had the opportunity to witness just a portion of the trip home. Thousands of UK fans lined the interstate, draping signs of congratulations and jubilation from each overpass along the way in order to catch a glimpse of their beloved Wildcats.

WILDCATS THUNDER is once again pleased to present one of the greatest games in Kentucky basketball history – with a little twist. In 1999, Gannett News Services named Cawood Ledford as the “College Basketball Announcer of the Century.” The video you’ll see momentarily will be accompanied with a “voice-over” of Cawood Ledford’s call of the 1975 Mideast Regional Final game against the undefeated Indiana Hoosiers with a trip to the final four on the line.

Enjoy Wildcat Fans! GO BIG BLUE!

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Credit goes to Bogansback2basil Wildcats Thunder Execute Moderator for the game write-up and the photos from his dad's scrapbook and Blueworldorder Wildcats Thunder Administrator for the game.