RUPP, ADOLPH

born Sept. 2, 1901, Halstead, Kan., U.S. died Dec. 10, 1977, Lexington, Ky. in full Adolph Frederick Rupp, byname The Baron Of Bluegrass Country the most successful American collegiate basketball coach of all time. His teams won 879 games and had an .821 winning percentage. Rupp grew up on a Kansas farm and was hardly aware of basketball until he went to college. He was a member of the University of Kansas (Lawrence) Big Eight Conference championship team of 1923. After coaching five years at Iowa and Illinois high schools, in 1930 Rupp became coach at the University of Kentucky (Lexington), where he remained until retirement in 1972. During his career, Kentucky won 24 Southeastern Conference titles and four National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships (194849, 1951, 1958), and his teams appeared in the championships 20 times. He was also cocoach of the U.S. Olympic team that won the gold medal in the 1948 games. Rupp was outspoken and a strict disciplinarian; he taught set offenses and aggressive man-to-man defenses that cut off opponents from the lanes to the basket. He was named coach of the year four times, conducted 11 overseas clinics, and coached 24 All-Americans and 26 players who became professionals. In addition, he served on the NCAA rules committee from 1961. After his retirement as coach he served as president of the professional Memphis Tams in the American Basketball Association. Rupp was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1968. Throughout his life in Kentucky he engaged in cattle breeding and tobacco farming.