It was also a very different era, in which neither you or I were alive. Society and culture was much different than it is now and segregation was still very common, especially in the south. It was a sign of the times. Everyone called black people the "n" word, or negro, or colored during that era. That doesn't mean they were all racist and had no compassion. Look at these photos from the Indiana title team in '53 and UNC in '57. How many black dudes do you see? Branch McCracken and Frank McGuire must've been raging racists too, right? The only reason Rupp's name was plucked from a hat to be the chosen "villain" of that era is because he happened to be the head coach of an all-white team facing an all-black team in the 1966 national championship game, during the height of the human rights movement. It could've been any number of other coaches of that era, but they weren't part of that game... Rupp was. Even after segregation most black players were terrified to play in the south. I would be too if I had people threatening to lynch me everywhere I went. Rupp was solely responsible for Jim Tucker (a black high school player from Kentucky) getting a scholarship to play at Duquesne in the early 50s. Rupp wanted him at UK but the SEC and UK were still segregated. What kind of racist would pull strings to help a black man like that, especially when he doesn't benefit from it? You can hear it straight from Tucker's mouth
here from the 6:30 to 8:00 mark. But we should probably just base our assumptions of Rupp on what we saw in a movie that came out 30 years after his death and was loosely based on a book that was co-written by a dude that was like 5-years-old when Rupp died.