Sunday Quickies: UK’s Impact on College Football Edition

The co-author of an upcoming book said Kentucky played a key role in the evolution of the NCAA

By Zac Oakes@ZacOakes Jul 12, 2020, 6:40am EDT

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The co-author of an upcoming e-book focusing on the history and evolution of the NCAA through a unique fiction/non-fiction writing style recently went on radio airwaves to talk about Kentucky’s role in the NCAA story, and not just from the basketball side of things.

Alex Kirshner is one of multiple writers involved with a new project titled Sinful Seven: Sci-Fi Western Legends of the NCAA.

Kirshner went on the show “Kentucky Roll Call” recently to talk about the project and specifically, Kentucky’s role in it.

“Kentucky keeps coming up and plays a central role, both in the football and in the basketball realm,” Kirshner said. “The thing about the football program that is so interesting to me is that I think if Kentucky does not make a decision in late 1945, just after the war, to really scale up its athletic spending and go big by trying to hire a big-name coach, which wound up being Bear Bryant. If they don’t do that I think the entire history of college sports starts to look a ton different.”

Kirshner also went on to talk about the legacy of Bear Bryant including his time at Kentucky and the long-circulated rumor of the gift disparity between he and Adolph Rupp, which Kirshner said did not occur, although Rupp and Bryant weren’t considered the best of friends.

The full interview is a pretty interesting listen, which you can do here.

And if you want to pre-order the e-book, which you can do for a minimum of 99 cents with a portion of proceeds going to Feeding America, you can do that here.