Sunday Morning Sports Talk - July 27, 2025 - Hour 3

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the home of the Wildcats. Six thirty WLAP
Welcome back, Stockyards Bank, Sunday Morning Sports Talk. I am
Anthony White, along with Larry var and boul Robinson.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
We are now.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
I'm proud to be joined. But Kevin Cook, author of
Memorial Coliseam seventy five years, Monument, Stage and Arena, also
other books House of Champions.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good morning, mister Cook. How's it going well?

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Good morning? Thank you so much for having me. It's
it's an honor.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Now, well, we appreciate you for joining us. Let's get
get down to the business. What was the inspiration in
Memorial Colie Sam seventy five years as a monument, stage
and arena.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Well, A part of it is timing and history. I
did a previous book you mentioned, House of Champions that
was a general history more nuts and bolts of UK's
basketball arenas. But you know, just had a few black
and white pictures. I thought, mad, it'd be nice could
see kind of what what we're talking about here, and bigger,
you know, color pictures when possible. So it was coming

(01:08):
up on the seventy fifth anniversary of the coliseum and
also UK was doing their major renovation, so I thought
it'd be a good opportunity to lay out, you know,
memories for the old timers, for the new timers, you
let them know about the history of the arena that
it is, you know, first and foremost, originally a World

(01:28):
War two memorial to the state's war did of World
War Two, about ten thousand people who died from the State,
so that was the kind of foundation of it. But
also just wanted with the renovation upcoming or it's already passed,
the document what the Colosseum looked like before the renovation,
because once it's changed, you can't remember or you never knew,

(01:49):
and then also document just the amazing renovation that the
university bed.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
And August eleventh is the is the launch date? Monday,
August eleventh is the the launch date. Is that the
seventy fifth Is that the particular date or that's just
a date that you selected in general, Well.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
It's close to it. The seventy fifth anniversary exact date
was Memorial Day this year and UK did have a
sort of rededication service program for that. August eleventh is
a date where the UK Alumni Association is hosting a
release of the book and that will be in the coliseum.

(02:30):
So there's about fifteen and counting former players, a couple
of former broadcasters such as Ralph Hacker and Tom Hammond.
They'll be signing the book. The book. The proceeds from
the evening are going to scholarships from the UK Alumni
Association and folks. They do ask the folks registered for

(02:50):
that online and I'd be happy to give you the
web address for that.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yeah, you could share that. We'll also share it on
We'll also share it on our web page. Is that
the UK Alumni dot net Ford Slash Memorial book?

Speaker 3 (03:09):
That is correct? I appreciate that. And after that date
the book will be available generally on Amazon, local bookstores
and through Acclaim Press their website there they're the publisher.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
And uh, I know it's been published or it's been
in the media a little bit, But can you talk
about some of the people that you said there are
going to be a present I know you named Hacker
and some of the other people that will be present,
but in the list of seems to be growing. But
as now, who are some notable people that you plan
to participate?

Speaker 3 (03:40):
Well, the ones that that that knew that kind of
knew they could be there. They allowed us to use
their names. There's a couple more that would like to
be there, likely will be there, They're just not ready
to share. So they could be a handful of additions
to this, but I'll kind of start the list I have.
I think he's an authletical order. Jim and Dicky Beale,

(04:02):
Doug Flynn, Mike Flynn, Jack Goose Gibbons. They mentioned Ralph Hacker,
Tom Hammond, Coach, Dick Parsons, Jared Cricket, Chip Rup, Jay Scheidler,
Larry Stamper, Kenny Skywalker, and Sean Woods.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
That is a very across the ears, and that a
very good group. Are you familiar with the Blues Brothers.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yes, I am, uh and uh. I hear they they
might make an appearance. They are welcome to do so.
That would be I would be honored if that was
the case.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
Thank Kevin bo Robinson as the Blues Brothers booking agent.
I am heavily working on them making an appearance at
this event. I'm such a fan of your books and
what you've been able to accomplish with the research and
the history. But what I find really fascinating about these buildings,
these structures is the military background and the meaningful purpose

(05:02):
in connection with the military. Talk about that for us.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
Well, you know UK you know starting Alumni Gym down
down the road which is now Fitness Center on Avenue
of Champions, and almost from the beginning of the nineteen
twenties uk knew they needed a bigger arena. So for
you know, a couple of decades, I've had different plans.
It's never had the money. With the World War Two
there's kind of a convergence. UK went was able to

(05:29):
go to the state legislature and together as a really
a state project make it not only an arena for sports,
for an auditorium for art events, but to also make
it the whole building as a memorial to the originally
World War Two, and then they added Korean War, Vietnam War,

(05:52):
go War up into our century of folks that have
our Kentucky citizens that have passed away in the service
of their country. So the way they originally memorialized that,
they had a memorial Day in nineteen fifty they dedicated
Memorial Coliseum. They had a full house families of the

(06:12):
ten they advited families of the about ten thousand soldier,
sailors and marines of Kentucky who had died, they came,
they had a special service to dedicate the arena to that.
To remember it. They had a one of the UK
engineering professors, doctor Haraie, hand lettered all ten thousand names,

(06:37):
county by county and they originally until very recently were
in the concourses and people could see them as they
walked up to the seating. But over the years those
had faded, they were getting water and moisture damage. UK
removed those are in the archives, but they replaced them
out front with these pillars that they had these names
now eshton stone on the front. Another way that they

(07:01):
memorialized the building was they took bronze stars for everybody
who was associated with the university students, faculty staff. If
they had passed away to World War Two, they had
a bronze star with their name on it put on
the concourses. With the recent renovations, those blonde those bronze

(07:23):
stars have now been relocated into the main front lobby
hype on the wall, so those are still there. And
there's a poem called for the Fallen which is etched
on in stone in the entrance to the lobby. So
the number of ways that that building, uh personifies itself

(07:44):
as a monument to those who sacrifice for the country.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
And without ruining the release day, what are some of
the I've you know, we were giving a little preview
of what are some of the things that the readers
and fans can look forward to that are out of
kind of the ordinary because it does a monument stage
and arenas.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
That that is that is going officially mentioned that I
can promise folks that they'll be you know, new things,
because I found a bunch of new things. I it
is an illustrated history, so I was looking for interesting
pictures that illustrated the history, but also sort of off
offbeat things about the coliseum, and those are taken from

(08:31):
UK archives, UK yearbooks, game programs, things like that. But
you mentioned the stage. You know, from the beginning there
was a community arts program for the community come to
and very cheaply come and see things like everything from
Bob Hope to orchestras to famous singers orators. They also had,

(08:57):
you know, memorial services such as for Kennedy after he
was assassinated. You talk about presidents that have come and spoken.
Lynon Banks Johnson was the main speaker in the coliseum
of the nineteen sixty five centennial of the university. You

(09:17):
talk about the arena, of course, a lot of that
originally was men's basketball. When they left for rupp Ana
in the mid seventies, the women's basketball team was just
starting they now have. It's still used just about every
day of the week by stunt teams, by volleyball, by gymnastics,
so it's still as an arena. It is still a vibrant,

(09:42):
fantastic showplace for UK women's sports.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
I do want ask Larry Vaught, are we going to
see any pictures of you in the nineteen seventies over
memorial at on the stage portion, because I have heard
that you you know, you're known to get wild back then.

Speaker 5 (10:00):
Well, it nearly fell off the balcony one time watching
a UK women's basketball game at the end where or
the upper deck there where it had a where you
could sit, and I had got a little xuberant one
night and did that and had a little fun of
the slide in the family Stone concert there at once.
But now I don't think there's any pictures of me

(10:20):
in there or anything like that, So I don't think
you have to worry about that, But I did wonder, Kevin,
you talked about the how to use for the for
the women's athletes. Now is there mention in the book
about the accomplishments of the I can't get a chance
to read it all about what the women have done.
Is it's just mainly just sticking just strictly with the
history kind of from the men's basketball perspective.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
Well, I would say, you know, probably the bulk of
the sports end is the men's basketball, but there is
a whole thing. I've mentioned some of the highlights of
your famous athletes in women's basketball, like Valerie still in
the gymnastics, volleyball, so all those are documented with photos,
as well as the swim team, which used to have

(11:05):
a swimming pool. Uh, that part of the building is
in a wing. It's still there, but I mean the
pool is not there, that was filled in. That's now
a tutoring classroom for the athletes. So all those things
pictorially are are in there, every aspect of the sports.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
And Kevin, in kind of a culmination to where we
are now, is it possible that there's gonna be some
Kenny Brooks sightings in there or is that was it?

Speaker 5 (11:33):
It?

Speaker 2 (11:33):
Was have they been in completion before he actually come here?

Speaker 3 (11:41):
That was kind of happening. I was finishing it up.
The books take a long time. Unfortunately. You get them,
you submit them, and then they have to be looked
over corrected. So he is not in the book, although
I'd love to do revise, additions and add more to
that because that the history keeps going on and he's
done an amazing job.

Speaker 4 (12:02):
Hey, Kevin, your previous book House of Champions, the story
of Kentucky Basketball's home courts, when that came out a
few years ago, let's kind of go back in your
preparation and your research. How easy was it for you
to roll from that and transition into this book about
Memorial Colisene because you have done the lord's work and

(12:24):
your research and your dedication to this project. How easy
was that for you just to kind of pick up
where you left off with your previous book.

Speaker 3 (12:31):
Well, I see this book overall probably had more fun
because it is I can promise you it doesn't have
any footnotes. The previous book the way that it was done,
and it was a good thing they had had footnotes.
This one does not, So I think that's an easy
to read funny for me. It's easy print to read

(12:51):
for if you're if you're you know, an older reader,
and books are kind of hard. I think that the
whole experience would be good. I wanted the picture to
be as big as possible, and so that part was fun.
It was fun to pick out pictures and then find
the stories behind them, and yet I want to double check.
So everything has mistakes, but I would say hopefully that

(13:15):
we've reduced those and what you've see in there you
can count on it. But it's just a joy to
me to look at. I mean, I'm just a big
Blue Nation fan like you know, a million other people,
and it's been enjoy to me to kind of have
access in the opportunity to do this. So hopefully that
comes out and hopefully, you know, I can share some
things that really interested me that will interest other other people's.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
Well, well, how much fun did you have reaching out
to former players, former UK personalities notables reaching out asking
them to submit their memories of memorial colisseum And then
as you're going through and you're reading these stories, how
much fun was that?

Speaker 2 (13:54):
That's going to be just a great process to go through.

Speaker 3 (13:58):
Well, to me, I would love to do a whole
book on just people's memories, because they're all different and
you see things from different eyes. And that was one
thing I really I wanted to do was include a
chapter and thank you for mentioning that where I could
ask not just players, but people I ran into that
were just fans, maybe not even associated with university. That

(14:21):
was even better. And you got memories from you know,
the very beginning all the way up to you know,
present day, and it wasn't always necessarily sports. It was
a concert they went to, or someone I know talking
about big blue madness such as as as Bo did,
So there's a you know, it made me laugh. It

(14:42):
really made me appreciate, you know that what I knew
and saw and felt was just a small piece of
the puzzle. I knew, you know, looking at all UK
fandom you would get these things. So I'm very honored
to be able to to share those.

Speaker 4 (14:56):
Can you put total hours on both books? Of how
much research you put into him?

Speaker 3 (15:02):
A lot more than I thought it would, both of them.
You know, I probably thought a year and they turned
out to be like, well over two years. I have
a day job, so I didn't sit here and do
it all, and if the Internet did not exist, they
wouldn't I would not have been able to research him
because better thing I did was online. I went to
the UK Archives in person a couple of times. Otherwise

(15:24):
it's just hard to do unless she can you have
you know, you kind of retired or self employed, so
anyway that I would say, my wife is probably glad
because a lot of weekends were taken up by this
and evenings.

Speaker 4 (15:36):
Well, the stage aspect of this book has me curious
because all these concerts was before my time, and Anthony knows,
Larry knows that I'm such a fan of the music
from the fifties, sixties and seventies, and we had talked
about slash Stone a few weeks ago when he passed away.
But here's the one question I happen to know about
concerts and Memorial Coliseum. Larry touched on this a couple

(15:59):
of years go. For me, was it true that zz
Top locked the doors at Memorial Coliseum and played all night?
If I do not know the answer to that, I've
always heard that rumor.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
I can see that as definitely possible. I can believe
that if you told me that.

Speaker 4 (16:23):
Well, I cannot wait to read this book. Congratulations on it, man,
it's gonna be a fun release.

Speaker 3 (16:29):
Well, I appreciate I hadn't had a ball doing it,
and I'm just happy to talk about it. I really
appreciate you'all having me on and.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
Kevin to close out.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
UH. To register, you go to www dot UK alumni
dot net Ford slash Memorial book. There's ten dollars to
ten bucks to come to the event, and the book
itself will be forty dollars and what type of payments?

Speaker 2 (16:58):
Who are they acception of that?

Speaker 3 (17:00):
Well, the UK alumni representatives will be at that event,
so they'll be taking that. I know they have a
little you know, the credit card scanner. I think that's
probably the way that they like to do that. The
price of the book is the retail price, it's not
an upsell or anything like that for that night. And again,

(17:21):
all all the proceeds are going to student scholarships. So
it's kind of it's really a you know, you look
at as a fundraiser, good cause, and then I don't
think you'd you know, typically see that many players and broadcasters,
you know, one place across the eras well.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
Kevin, thank you for joining us this morning.

Speaker 1 (17:39):
Look forward to seeing you Monday, August eleventh at five
thirty Memorial Coliseum.

Speaker 3 (17:45):
Thank you so much, y'all, take care.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
We will be back after this.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
You're listening to Stockyards Bank Sunday Morning Sports Talk on
news radio six thirty WLAP. This is the home of
the Wildcats. Six thirty w l a p. Welcome back
to Stockyards Bank Sunday Morning Sports Talk. I'm Anthony White,
along with Larry Vaught and Bo Robinson. Larry Vaught. Pretty
interesting stuff there from Kevin.

Speaker 5 (18:14):
Larry should be interesting. Should be an interesting book to read,
especially if you're kind of a history buff. I'd like
to know a lot about the origins of a Memorial
Coliseum and what went on back in the days when
I was young, could when that was the big place
in Lexington and then the state of Kentucky really was
Memorial Coliseum. A lot of different and unusual things went

(18:39):
on there, and some terrific basketball players played there for many,
many years. And it's kind of hard for me to
believe in a way that has now been fifty years,
since almost fifty years since UK men's basketball played there.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
See, that's what's funny. I think there's gonna be some
picture show up of you. You know who does that
all the time on Twitter x whatever, Facebook, Audio, Instagram.
Corey Price always comes up with some pictures of me
at at eighteen, nineteen years old or something. I think
one time he came up with the Twinsburg picture. So
I'm not gonna be surprised if we got pictures of
you in that book.

Speaker 5 (19:13):
Larry VAUP, no kind of do. I'm not what nearest
photogenic because you were at that a at a young age.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
That is Larry vaugh We'll be back after this.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
You're listening to Stockyards Bank Sunday Morning Sports Talk on
news Radio six thirty WAP.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
This is the home of the Wildcats. Six thirty w LAP.

Speaker 1 (19:34):
Welcome back Stockyards Bank Sunday Morning Sports Talk. I'm Anthony
White along with Larry vaut This. Uh, we got another segment.

Speaker 3 (19:44):
Get on it.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
We've had some great calls in here.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
We're gonna convince Larry Vaulk's tail to get on this
bandwik We got a new alternator. I think the transmission
has been a timing on the transmission has been fixed,
Larry va. I think that's what happened last year that
I think it jumped time, that submissions jump time, so
we're gonna get.

Speaker 2 (20:02):
That back on.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
So if you'd like to join the show and convince
Larry Vaught eight five nine to eight zero two two
eight seven eight five nine to eight zero cats Larry Vaught.
Before we went into an interview mode, we had Mike
on and Mike kind of kind of straightened you out
about you know what happened last year was you know,
you the last eight years, you don't give credit for it,

(20:25):
but last year gets all the credit, and you think
that they could possibly possibly be worse than last year.
They had one bad year, and now you think that's
the direction we're going, Larry Vaught, And I'm trying to
tell you, I've been trying to convince you all a
show because you have. You were Hall of Famer, you
have a history of journalism, and you are really good
at what you do. I don't want you to lose

(20:46):
your fan based Larry Vaught, and I don't want you
to get discredited, but I do want you to understand something,
Larry Vaugh. When I talked to you, I know, okay,
maybe I was I was listening to Evins. To some people,
I was overly optimistic the past couple of year. But
I'm not gonna be over the pessimistic either. And Larry
va this, this is what this is. I'm just gonna
throw this nugget at you just so you may convince

(21:08):
you to listen to me.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
Larry Vaught.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
Four years ago, three years ago, we had Alex Safari
on this show, interviewing him when he was still in huh,
Lakota West High School?

Speaker 2 (21:22):
Right right?

Speaker 3 (21:25):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
I watched Alex Safari play, I watched his film. Alex
Afari was a physical defensive back. Larry vau do you
know what? At that point, the co host asked Alex Safari,
I remember you're a physical I mean you're a pretty
nice sized corner. You're a physical guy. Would you mind
getting in the box? Would you mind if they ask

(21:48):
you to play in the box? You're so physical? Now
this is three years ago, Larry Vauch, this guy was
still in high school?

Speaker 2 (21:53):
Or right.

Speaker 5 (21:56):
Right?

Speaker 2 (21:56):
And what position does Alex Safari gonna be playing this?

Speaker 5 (22:00):
Sure, it sounds like it could be middle linebacker.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
And that is inside of the said box, right.

Speaker 5 (22:07):
Touch as inside as you can get.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
So point being is I may know a little bit
about something is why I asked him that a long
time ago that he had the mentality to do it.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
I'm not certain.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
I'm not even certain he has the size to do
I think he's going to be great at it. Like
Marlon McCree was undersized but can but could get to
the ball. But the point was, I saw something a
long time ago that I commented on and I don't
know if you believed it or not. And I don't
even know if you know why I asked him because
I saw in the future. Hey, man, if you keep
me in this physical they may get you in the box.

(22:40):
But if I tell you that this football team has
an opportunity, and I see you over there on Twitter
acts talking to people about where do I think we
can get the five I'm not sold on five wins, Larry,
But I'm definitely not sold on five wins. But I'm
being more and more convinced. And it's kind of what
Mike said. Around the program, there are people who are

(23:03):
angry that everybody's discounting them, not just the coaches, like
the players, like Man, there's Seth and some of those
guys have never even played here. Zach has never even
played here, And people are coming in and telling them
we're gonna we're gonna be three and three and nine.
Some people, some people on this show, three and nine,
four and eight is the best you can do.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
I can't find four wins. That's that's lightweight, disrespectful. Now,
if you want to ask Rock vandergriff and ship train
them and some of those guys that played last year,
even Maxwell Harrison. I mean, he probably didn't expect to
go four in eight, but there are some things that
happened with him. But just the whole idea of what
happened last year is getting so much credit. I think

(23:44):
that's disrespectful to the to the players, and I'm not
against it.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
I am.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
I'm not against people being pessimistic because of what happened
last year, but just give me some reasoning on why.
It's the same way I asked you, and I asked
Alex Safari what you might being in the box. Four
years later he ends up in the box.

Speaker 5 (24:06):
I think you also told me they're gonna win nine games.
I mean, not to discreditude, I'm just saying what I've
done for fifty plus years has tried to be honest
with people and based on what I do based on facts,
and as I've said, I just haven't seen enough. I'm
waiting to be convinced one way or the other. I've

(24:26):
not seen anything because we've not been privy to see it.
So I've got to see something to make me know
that this year it's different because, as you said, it's
easy to talk about changing and doing things, it's a
little bit harder to do it. I do think that
I've always told you this. I've always thought the Kentucky
football dealt with adversity better than a dealt with prosperity.

(24:47):
I think that's been the case all fifty some years.
I follow Kentucky football, and normally it handles adversity better
than it handles prosperity. Where there's certainly a lot of
adversity this year because you went four last year, you
flipped your roster over over fifty percent, and now you're
just sitting here kind of wondering. I'm still one for

(25:10):
years guys like you, And I mean, I'm not picking
on you, I'm just saying pure football. People talked about
the need for the continuity and the offensive line. Well,
Kentucky's got no continuity in the offensive line because they've
decided to live in the transfer portal. I still got
to see it work, kind of believe it because my
philosophy would be, if an offensive alignment is really really good,

(25:32):
why would a school ever let him leave? I mean,
it seems to me that'd be something you would never
want to happen. So I've just got to see these
guys all in action. It's got to see what the
quarterback can do. I mean, got to see what the
new running backs can do. Got seventeen receivers. Who's going
to do what out there? Let's give it a few
games to see and then we'll have a more realistic

(25:55):
evaluation of this team. Now, I mean you're just you're
just guessing whether you pick seven, five or two and
ten because nobody really knows.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
But does that does it give you pauses?

Speaker 5 (26:05):
Does it?

Speaker 1 (26:05):
Does it give you a little bit more optimism just
from knowing Stoops, knowing our program, like you said, you
said for years we were I don't know if ever
we handle prosperity well, we will win, win a big game,
lose a game like or just even our best years,
we would lose some games we shouldn't on we were
on the right trajectory. Last last couple of years, we've

(26:27):
gotten the top fifteen, top twelve and then just lose
a bone headed game. But I do think I'm with
you on that. I do think we don't handle prosperity
very well. But the fact that we are back, have
been pushed up against the wall, does that not give
you even a little more edge to start saying, you
know what? Maybe five and seven? But like you said,
like Mike said when he called in, and we were

(26:48):
talking about before Mike even called in, was I I
under I agree with everything you're saying, Larry. I just
don't know how everybody can just discount us to the
point where everybody else is gonna be or like Ole
miss is gonna be mad. And because we beat them,
like the first time we beat Florida after all those
years with Liam Bold and then that group Terry Wilson,

(27:11):
You think Florida didn't come back the next year mad
that they lost to Kentucky. Do you think they didn't
come back to the next year mad because they lost
to Kentucky? Like do we never get on the right
side of our own fan basis optimism?

Speaker 5 (27:25):
Well, I think the clip side of that would beat.
Is Kentucky not get mad that it lost to Georgia.
I mean, it loses the Georgia year after year. I mean,
so I think all those things they don't mean a
lot when games start anyway, As you know, you played
enough to know to know that. So I just want
to I gotta see from a purest talent standpoint, is

(27:46):
Kentucky good enough to beat these teams this year? And
that's just that's not being pessimistic, it's not being optimistic,
that's just being realistic. You got to show what you
can do because I think last year, I mean I
would the guy that's picking on to go four and
a last year, and so I was wrong about last year.
I over expected. Maybe this year maybe I am being

(28:07):
a little under sold on what they're gonna have. But
I've got to see something to convince me, to let
me know what to believe. I mean, you can you
hear good things about Zach Calzada, but you don't hear
there's good things about him. It's what you heard at
this time of year ago about Brock Vandergriff. So what's
right and what's wrong? And I mean I don't know,
so we'll find out soon though we're on about a

(28:29):
month away. If you need to find out sooner. Antadis
noticed that the SEC networks replaying the Kentucky Old Miss
game on Friday, So maybe we can tune into that.

Speaker 3 (28:38):
Huh.

Speaker 2 (28:38):
I wonder why would they be playing that.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
Would that be fuel for whole miss or would that
be few because if Kentucky has been on the SEC network,
they've been in the news a little bit here lately,
like trying to give us hope.

Speaker 5 (28:52):
I think it's just the need to feel time. This
is time here. You've got to feel twenty four hours
a day on the SEC network, so they have to.
They reshow a lot of games like that.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
But I'm saying, but I thought typically they show like
a nail biter or an instant classic or something like
Who Want. And I'm saying, if you're not a Kentucky
fan base, who Want Who? Do you think Old Miss
fans are gonna turn on to watch that?

Speaker 5 (29:17):
I wouldn't think so. But no, one of those type
of games you're talking about, they show in prime time.
This I think is on at noon on Friday. Uh, okay,
And plus we'll get it. Maybe we'll get some more
answers tomorrow. Mark Stoops is having his media day tomorrow,
so we'll see what Marque has to say tomorrow, whether
he shares information that he's kind of kept quite all summer,

(29:39):
or whether he's really optimistic. And I'm anxious to see
what kind of Mark Stoops we get tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
Yeah, I'm kind of interested to see that.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
And one thing we do not know to be discussed,
but it's been discussed on social media while we've on
this show, because I made a comment earlier to then.
It's about us allocating seventy five percent of the twenty
point five million dollars to football, and someone said that
they thought the median in the SEC for football was

(30:11):
like eighty six eighty five percent, which is seventeen point
four million dollars. Seventeen million dollars of the twenty million,
which you and I have talked off air.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
About.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
Dennis seems to think that if we're not putting enough
into football, then he's upset or whatever. But that only
leads three million to be spread around once everybody else
and I guess fifteen percent it's well, no, well, with
Kentucky it would be seventy five percent with the expectations

(30:44):
seventy five percent to football, fifteen percent of basketball, and
then the other one gets split amongst the other one
like baseball and women's basketball and all that other stuff.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
But do you think that the the.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
I guess the rumors are true, and do you think
Mark stups is going to address that? And do you
still stand behind no matter what the number is for football,
if it wasn't equivalent or enough for us to perform
it as he see the Mark stoops to do something
or you think he just wouldn't have any say so
he's still gonna get ten million dollars or nine points.
I keep saying ten million sounds like bad, like I'm

(31:18):
not being truthful, But nine point whatever million, he's gonna
get that no matter what. So why not, you know,
let's just keep Barnhart happy and don't worry about how much.

Speaker 5 (31:30):
Well that would maybe a thought that enner in the
back of your mind, but I think the competitor in
you would let that happen. And it seems like based
on the past history when Stupents has not been happy
about finances, he's let it be known. So I don't
really expect him to say a lot about that tomorrow.
Mitch Barnhart will be on the podium at UK's second

(31:51):
media day on Friday, when the coordinators and the players
at Mitch Barnhart. But Mitch Barnhart is going to open
the media day session on Friday, which is unusual, and
I would think all twenty minutes that he's allocated to
be on the podium will deal with revenue sharing. What
I would think, I can't imagine there's really anything else
anybody's going to ask him. He may try to talk

(32:13):
for a while, but I think once deals different questions,
it's all gonna be about revenue sharing.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
Is there any way for him to to I mean,
I guess I don't know why it would be a secret.
I don't know if it gives you a competitive advantage
by keeping that information away from people because the product
is still got to be the product, or you could
show the league that I don't care, I'm only gonna
put fifty percent toward football, which I mean, that's how
obviously something they wouldn't do. But what would be a

(32:38):
reason for him not discussing it? Maybe just because he's
a private person.

Speaker 5 (32:44):
Well, I think the reason not to discuss is because,
I mean, the journal sent me would like it. But
the reason that you wouldn't get into specific it's because
no matter what you say, now, everybody's gonna be happy.
If you give eighty percent to football on ten percent
to basketball three percent, people are going to be upset.
If you give fifty percent to football forty percent to basketball,

(33:07):
people are going to be upset. I don't know that
there's an answer that he can give that anybody's going
to be happy with, because everybody's wants more. I mean,
it's just the way it is. If you're a huge
basketball fan, you want the basketball team to have the
most of anybody. If you're a football fan, you want
a football team to have at least equal to whatever
o the SEC team has. And somewhere along the line,

(33:30):
somebody's going to be the one to try to balance
those numbers, and that's Mitch Barnhardt. I think what we've
got to try to remember, though, is the way I
read things now, the collectives are still going to play
a much bigger part than what it's originally thought they
were going to. And just because money is allocated from
the UK revenue portion doesn't mean that no other money

(33:50):
is going to go into that program. So if Anthony
White still wants to give two million dollars to basketball,
I think he can still give two million dollars to
basketball or football, whatever he wants.

Speaker 3 (33:59):
To do it.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
Yeah, that does make sense. See, Dennis, hold on to
your horses, hold on to your bridges. Somebody on Twitter
is mad at you, Dennis. They don't think that. They
think you were a little too football happy. They don't
like that because they think this is a basketball school,
and Larry Vaught for years has not agreed that this
was a basketball state or school at all. We will

(34:22):
continue this conversation after this. You're listening Stockyards Bank Sunday
Morning Sports Talk on News Radio six thirty WLAP. This
is the home of the Wildcats. Six thirty WLAP. Welcome
back Stockyards Bank Sunday Morning Sports Talk. I'm Anthony White
along with Larry Vaught. This hour Sunday Morning Sports Talk
has been brought to you by a country boy brewing

(34:45):
Larry Vaught. Really two questions before we get up out
of here, but one of them is I'm gonna say
for the end because I think it's pretty fascinating. But
I did we'd appreciate Chris Collins coming on. Thanks for
setting that up. I think he echoed a lot of
things that I question I do. Did he not convince

(35:07):
you at some point that they do realize there are
problems and they are they're being addressed, whether we think
they're going to be successful or not. Did it sound
and none of the coaches we really bring on with
sugar coat or anything. Vince may be a little bit
more overly optimistic than most coaches, but most of them
shoot us straight. But did you not get the sense that, uh,
Chris Collins knows that we had problems last year and

(35:28):
they seems that they're being addressed internally.

Speaker 5 (35:32):
Yeah. Yeah, I think definitely got that dive from him
at all. So, uh, that's really good to hear from
from Chris. I think Chris is one of those young
coaches that I really really like. I mean, he's just
a really, really good guy. So I think he's very honest,
very straight shooter. I think his guys really liked playing

(35:53):
for him, and so I'm really anxious to see everything
that he has going on with his group this year.
I'm really anxious to see d J. Waller like say,
listen to Jordan Love to talk about him and see
SEC media Day really kind of got me excited about him, and.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
They are looking for leadership, and it's kind of head
scratching that edwarsh Soon seems to think that David can
do it. But as a as a first year player,
as a transfer player in I don't know how much
buying you get from guys because you kind of come
in kicking doors and it kind of might offend people.
But I was kind of interested also in Chris kind

(36:33):
of saying that they didn't have the leadership last year,
and it's something I've said about Stoops the whole time,
like how can you go through a whole season without
identifying the leader.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
I'm not saying the.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
Position coaches should do that. The players maybe should do
that themselves, but I would assume Mark would establish that.
And I also know that even I've heard that if
players try to do it themselves a lot of times
they've been detoured by Mark.

Speaker 5 (36:56):
Well. I mean, I'll trust your information on that, So
hopefully whatever the issue is, they've got that straight now.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
And my big information I wanted to ask you about
is Savannah bananas are coming on to you.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
Do you know what Savannah bananas are?

Speaker 5 (37:14):
Yep, my grandson and son went to see them not
too long ago.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
In Louisville last week or was it. I think it
was a week or two ago.

Speaker 5 (37:20):
They went to Cincinnata to Salem.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Yeah, they were close.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
They were, And you have to you got to get
on that waiting list like months south, like months south.
You can't just you can't just get on the ticket. Okay,
that sounds about right as well. I wanted to go
see them, but I didn't know they were in Louisville.
I think they were in Louisville and Cincinnati around the
same time, but I didn't get Oh, they they got
to see them.

Speaker 5 (37:42):
Yeah, they got to see them. Yeah. I've watched some
several times recently on ESPN.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
Also, they're coming on today. I think at three o'clock.
This is gonna be the first chance I get to
see them live. I usually just watch them on YouTube
or something.

Speaker 5 (37:55):
They are very, very fun. It's all I will say.

Speaker 2 (37:58):
Dog going, man, I'm jealousy your grandkids. Man, shucks, And
I love it.

Speaker 5 (38:03):
The game's over two hours now.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
That as good too.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
You can check them out. I think it's three o'clock.
But anyways, thanks to Jack Pilgrim for joining us. Thanks
to Kevin Cook for joining US, coach Chris Collins for
joining US. Thanks to Larry Vaught as always, Bo Robinson
for keeping us on air, Gavin still learning keeping us
on air as well. I'm Anthony White and this has
the Stockyards Banks on when the Sports Talk on news

(38:28):
right now six point thirty WLAP