My best time of the year is coming up next week: The Boys’ State Tournament at Rupp Arena.

The Sweet 16 and Adolph Rupp are a good fit because the great coach always tried to get at least one standout player from each State Tournament, preferably from the championship team, for his University of Kentucky team.

“Coach Rupp’s thinking,” said Guy Strong, who played two years for him, “was that he wanted  proven winners.”

Wah and Beard!

Rupp’s greatest one-year catches came in 1945 when two members of state championship teams signed to become Wildcats and led them to the most glorious period in UK history.

With Wallace “Wah Wah” Jones scoring 23 of Harlan’s points, Coach Joe Gilly’s Harlan Green Dragons defeated the Dayton Green Devils 40-28 for the 1944 state championship at UK’s Alumni Gym.

Wah and a sparkplug named Ralph Beard from Louisville Male High both made All-Tournament  as juniors. The next year, at Louisville’s Jefferson County Armory, sure enough there were Wah and Ralph leading their teams to another Sweet Sixteen.

This time was Ralph’s turn to lead his team to the state title. Coach Paul Jenkins’ team trimmed Central City 54-42 for the championship. Beard once more made All-Tournament. So did Wah, whose Harlan team was nipped by Central City 34-30 in the semifinals. Jones and Billy Rice represented Harlan on the All-Tournament team.

Beard, who scored 19 points in the final, was one of three Male players on the All-Tournament team. The others were  Gene Rhodes (10) and Ed Mudd (6). Male’s Dale Powell scored 13 in the final, but didn’t make All-Tournament.

Diddle wooed both

When Jones and Beard went to Bowling Green to practice for the Kentucky All-Stars’ game in Indianapolis, they were treated like kings by Western Kentucky coach Ed Diddle, who also coached the Kentucky All-Stars.

They both considered attending Western. But Beard and Jones were getting strong pressure from UK to sign with Rupp’s Wildcats. And when Wah visited the University of Tennessee, he was all but sure that he would go to school in Knoxville, especially because somehow he got a new car to drive back to Harlan!

Wah was madly in love with a pretty girl from Middlesboro. When Wah told Edna Ball that he was going to Tennessee, she told him, “That’s fine, but I am going to the University of Kentucky!”

Those were magic words. Edna’s proclamation convinced  Wah that he loved her much more than a new car.

Humzey returned car

But how to get the car back to Knoxville? Wah talked his Harlan teammate,  Humzey Yessin, into driving the car back to Tennessee – and Wah was home free to become a Wildcat.

And what a Wildcat! He is the only Southeastern Conference athlete to be honored as an SEC Legend in both football and basketball. And he also is the only person to make All-SEC in three sports (baseball was his other sport).

Beard joined Wah as a starter on the UK football team, coached by Bernie Shively (the year before the great Paul “Bear” Bryant came to UK).

But let’s have UK quarterback George Blanda take up the story now of Beard’s football career at UK.

“I handed off to Ralph in the first game of the season against Ole Miss in Memphis and Ole Miss broke his shoulder!”

Beard corrected Blanda: “Podge, they broke BOTH of my shoulders.”

That ended Bead’s football career. Rupp told him, “Little man, I believe that college football is a little too much for you to be risking your basketball career.”

Olympic Gold!

In basketball at UK, Beard and Jones joined three other members of the famous team that became the Fabulous Five, Cliff Barker, Kenny Rollins and the great Alex Groza. They won the NIT when it was the equal of the NCAA, and captured back-to-back  NCAA national championships, and capped everything with Olympic Games Gold Medals in London, England in 1948.

Among other members of Sweet 16 championship teams that helped Rupp win national titles were Cliff Hagan of Owensboro, Johnny Cox of Hazard and Vernon Hatton of Lafayette. Hatton and Cox were stars of Rupp’s fourth and last national championship team in 1958.

The point is this: When you go to the State Tournament, you see the best of the best players and you get to renew friendships with people from all parts of Kentucky. Enjoy!

Oh, and if you see Barney Thweatt,  please tell him that no team has done what his 1948 Brewers team did when the Jackson Purchase team was an undefeated state champion. Remarkable.

So the record is safe for another year.