Let me get it out early so I can build my defense.
I am an obnoxious Kentucky fan. Many Kentucky fans are. Kentucky fans come across as obnoxious because we tell the true story of the greatest college basketball program in the United States. For decades Kentucky basketball tickets came at a premium. If you got season tickets and wanted good seats that required paying the Athletic Association more money. Kentucky fans traveled to road games just so they could get a seat. I have been to several road games where the UK fans outnumbered the home school.
Most schools don't like the comparisons because it casts their programs in an inferior light. Plus, many of the better schools have not been great that long. Duke never won a title until the early 90’s. UCLA had one glorious decade. Kansas have been great for decades and basically only three or four schools can claim such success over time: KU, UK, IU, UNC. Others came and went but those four are historically good. Now you all don’t attack IU’s late flames, because they have been good for a long, long time.
Kentucky’s following goes back to the early days of radio. Back in the days of radio you could pick up UK in most States of the Union because it had two 50,000-watt clear channel radio stations carrying them, along with over one hundred smaller stations. Hell, one small station located around DC carried the Cats. It made it handy for me when I lived in Baltimore because I could listen to Caywood instead of some clown like Dick Vitale call the game.
In the 1950’s demand to see Kentucky basketball was great enough that WAVE in Louisville and WKYT in Lexington started joint productions of the games on TV. Later they added many other TV stations in and around Kentucky. Those were the first games that I saw on TV as a kid because the networks had not started coverage of college basketball games. Then that group of TV stations created the UK TV Network and guys like me could record every game. In fact, the UK Network got all the games not picked up nationally and we got to see them whether ESPN, NBC, CBS or whatever did not carry. The last game that I did not record was November 26, 1997 (UK versus Missouri). Arizona beat UK in Maui and at that time ESPN did not carry the games between the losers and they refused to give the UK Network the rights to that game. We had to listen to it on the radio. The UK Network ended when the SEC Network came into being; however, part of the agreement was that the SEC Network would carry the Blue White and all scrimmages just like the UK Network did. So, we still get them all. To my knowledge UK is the only team where all the preseason scrimmages and exhibitions games are still shown on the SEC Network. (Many detractors will say they can see all their team’s game, but I get all the networks and they are not all on. Note I am not talking about streaming on U-Tube.)
The problem that I had with the UK Network early on was that I was out of State, the games were distributed by satellite. So, I was forced to have the big dish and in some nice neighborhoods they frowned on satellite dishes in your yard. I had to buy the “undercover” satellite dishes. They cost a lot more than the plain Janes.
I have had folks on this board tell me that Duke, Kansas, UCLA, North Carolina, and others had the same access to their games as Kentucky, but they simply did not have a network that would pick up the games not carried by ESPN, NBC, CBS etc. I can prove I got all of the UK games because I recorded every one of them and have them stored upstairs. Many of my original tapes are available because I gave copies to others and those copies end up getting on the internet in various ways.
I will get hit soon by some fans that say Duke draws more eyes on TV than Kentucky. You can believe their polls if you want, but I go with what I see. Duke in three decades has done a wonderful job of building a good program. They enjoy a big market in the Northeast but those are not Duke fans that will travel with the team, in my opinion. I have gone to many tourney venues that have Duke and they don’t travel like KU, IU, UNC and UK. On the other hand I don’t find the Duke fans obnoxious.
North Carolina has been really good for a long time and lately they have kicked butt. But I still see them a little behind Kentucky. Kansas has now taken over the most wins but still is slightly behind across the board. I don’t fine UNC fans obnoxious; however, I would bet a Dollar that UNC has twice the number of actual fans than Duke has.
Indiana is on a drought since the 80’s; however, prior to Bob Knight leaving IU I don’t think any team was more feared than Indiana. Even then I did not find the IU faithful obnoxious; I found them to be cocky and confident. There is a big difference. I did not like the way they treated the IU/UK series by making demands instead of negotiating. Indiana, in my view, is the second closest to Kentucy for the largest following. There are a bunch of Indiana crazies all over the place, plus Indiana is a very large University and pump out grads.
I hope that I did not bore you with this diatribe, but if so it is
@Random UK Fan fault, he started the thread.
