Time for a personal disclosure.
Before the observer earned a graduate degree from the University of Louisville, he received an undergraduate degree from Kentucky Wesleyan College in Owensboro. So the exhibition game between the two schools Tuesday takes on added interest.
He grew up a UofL fan but was sports editor of the KWC student newspaper when the Owensboro school won its first Division II NCAA championship in 1966. That KWC team included Sam Smith, a 6-foot-8 center who had transferred from Louisville, and Dallas Thornton and George Tinsley, two all-state players from Louisville Male.
Wesleyan has since won seven more national titles but that was the first in which the observer had been involved, and it wouldn’t be topped until UofL won its NCAA Division I championship in 1980. He vividly remembers the closing minutes of each of those games and the ultimate thrill of seeing those nets come down.
As sports editor, he would have the thrill of writing eight stories on the championship for KWC student newspaper, including one with a 60-point headline on the front page, and in his SpringBoard column. Heady stuff for a young student.
Meanwhile, however, he was bemoaning the fact that UofL with a 16-10 record been ousted from the first round of the NIT Tournament by Boston College. The 1980’s were a distant future, but he would go on to witness UofL winning it all in Indianapolis in 1980 and in Dallas in 1986.
There is no divided loyalty here. But Wesleyan maintains a special place in his heart. In fact, the observer will be sitting in the KWC luxury suite during the game. Thankfully, it’s only an exhibition affair because he will have a difficult time being an dedicated alumnus in any game in which UofL is competing.
The suite was nice, of course. The amenities tend to distract from the game experience, which was not surprising. When you’re a guest in one of the suites, you have to hobnob and miss too much of the action on the floor.
How was the suite?