Dicky killed us when I was assistant coach at Oregon State in 1968. Kentucky beat us 35-34 at old Stoll Field. I reminded Dicky of that and he didn’t realize that I was involved in that game.”

University of Kentucky football coach Rich Brooks was talking to Earl Cox, columnist with the Village-Voice, while discussing 17 true freshmen who will suit up for the Wildcats this fall.

The conversation centered around Dicky Lyons Jr., whose father was an all-purpose offensive and defensive back at UK in 1966, ‘67, ‘68. The elder Lyons set several then-school records, including:

-- Career: Most kickoff returns (56), most kickoff return yardage (1,188); most punt returns (69), punt return yardage (1,065) and average per return (15.4 yds);

-- Season: Most punt returns (25) and most punt return yardage (419 yards in 10 games), both in 1966. Most kickoff returns, 22 in nine games in 1968, and most kickoff return yardage ( 474 in 10 games in 1967).

-- Single Game: Longest punt return – 97 yards (TD) vs. Houston in 1966; longest kickoff return – 95 yards (TD) vs. LSU in 1967, tied by Noah Mullins vs. Washington & Lee (1940).

The only UK records Lyons still holds are career average yards per punt return (15.4) and the 97-yard punt return vs. Houston. He shares with 12 other players the record for a kickoff return touchdown in a game. Derek Abney broke most of those records over the past four seasons.

Lyons combined with Dave Bair for a 92-yard TD pass vs. Georgia in 1968, which now ranks second to Tim Couch’s 97-yarder to Craig Yeast vs. Florida in 1998.

During his senior year, he led the Wildcats in rushing (134x392 yds., 8 TD’s), scoring (66 pts.), and punt returns (20x256 yds.). Lyons also caught 11 passes for 201 yards and three TDs.

“He’s bigger and stronger than Derek Abney and runs a 10.6,” Rich Brooks said of Lyons Jr. The Wildcat coach just hopes the freshman can play “quite as good as his father.”

In 1968, Brooks was an assistant coach on the staff of Dee Andros, who brought to Lexington an Oregon State team that had electrified the grid world the preceding year with upset victories over National Champion USC and high-ranked Purdue. The Beavers also tied UCLA en route to a 7-2-1 season.

The visitors featured a backfield that returned intact from the previous year. They were led by Bill “Earthquake’ Enyart, a 6-foot-4, 236 pound bruising fullback who along with returning center John Didion earned second-team All-America honors. Enyard played two years with Buffalo and one year with Oakland in the NFL. Didion played one year with Washington and four years with New Orleans.

Dicky Lyons felt the best game he ever played was against Oregon State that season. He scored three touchdowns as the Wildcats came from behind as many times. The most dramatic moment came midway into the fourth quarter, when the Beavers pulled to 35-34 and Larry Richard’s try for point from placement was wide.

Enyart scored four touchdowns and the Wildcats stopped his fifth attempt inches short of the goal line.

It was the first one-point win for UK since a 1964 game with Vanderbilt. Oregon State’s 34 points represented the highest total ever made against UK by a losing team. It erased the 1903 mark of UK vs. KU, 38-28.

Although the Wildcats finished 3-7-0 that year, Lyons felt they had a good ball club and might have won six or seven ball games if they hadn’t lost to Ole Miss. After opening with a 12-6 win over a good Missouri team, the Wildcats journeyed to Jackson, where they were leading the Rebels, 14-0, going into the fourth quarter when Lyons fumbled a punt that led to an Ole Miss score. That opened the door to a 30-14 Ole Miss win.

The Wildcats lost at home to Auburn before defeating Oregon State. They won only one other game that season, defeating West Virginia, 35-16, at Morgantown. Lyons scored all of UK’s points in that game. He ran for three touchdowns, kicked an extra point, and made good on his first and only collegiate field goal attempt.

In returning the opening against kickoff 34 yards against Vanderbilt, Lyons injured a shoulder, but he set a national career record of 2,199 yards for combined kickoff and punt return yardage. The Commodores won 6-0 for their first blanking of the Wildcats in 23 games.

Lyons played only three plays in UK’s final two games, losses to Florida and Tennessee. He finished the season with a career record of 2,253 yards in returns.

“I never had any regrets about attending UK,” Lyons said later. “People say, ‘Dicky, you lost for three years. Nobody likes to lose, but I had a great time.”

Let’s hope his son, with UK sporting a better record, can say the same a few years down the road.

Duffy resigns as Henderson coach. Tom Duffy, one of Lyons’ Wildcat teammate’s pulled a surprise when he resigned as Henderson County football coach in mid-June. According to the Henderson Gleaner, school officials thought it was too late to go through a full-fledged application process, so they named Duffy’s son Duffer interim head coach. He’d been an assistant the last three years.

Tom Duffy will stay on as defensive coordinator. After next season Dufffer will either be rehired, or the job will be opened up to applications. Duffer was a quarterback and All-State defensive back at Henderson County in 1995. His dad coached the Colonels for 10 years. Before that he won two state titles at Danville and two at Highlands. His career record is 213-79.

Tom Duffy starred at Bishop Egan High School in Levittown, Pa., before joining UK in 1967. He was held out his sophomore year after injuring a knee in a scrimmage against the varsity at the end of his freshman year. Tom lettered as a defensive back the following year.

New Uniforms. The university shrouded its new football uniforms in mystery, turning the change into a pay-per-view project. That is a new wrinkle in marketing Wildcat football and we wish them success; however, my curiosity is so minute that instead of purchasing a replica, I’ll just wait for the live showing.

One mystery is why Coach Rich Brooks and UK waited so long to make the change. It has been a UK custom for new coaches, football and basketball, to make changes just for the sake of changing. Perhaps Bear Bryant started it all 58 years ago when he took over as UK’s head football coach.

When Bryant moved into his newly painted office in cramped Alumni Gym, he immediately began to change everything. “If the uniforms were blue on white, he changed them to white on blue,” said Carl “Hoot” Combs, a former Wildcat backfield ace who served as the first of four publicity men to serve under Bryant. “He had the ticket manager, team trainer, and equipment manager replaced.”

While the coaches were subject to make uniform changes at any time prior to a season, here is a general idea, assuming all jerseys mentioned are blue:

1898 – Players on the “Immortals of 1898,” UK’s only undefeated team (7-0), wore turtleneck jerseys. Coach Billy Bass had a big “K” embodied on a dark jersey. Socks were striped. The 1893 team wore “KSU” – Kentucky State University – on its jerseys.

1900 – Plain long-sleeved jersey with darker pants.

1910 – White V-Neck, long-sleeve wool sweater with big white block K” on front. Unadorned helmets and pants.

1920 – Solid jersey with four broad vertical stripes. Unadorned helmet and pants.

1930 – Solid jersey with small number on back. Unadorned helmets and pants; later large number on front and four stripes across top of helmet.

1940 – Solid jersey with small number on front.

1950 – Solid V-neck jersey with large number on front, solid helmet with stripe across top. (Babe Parilli’s jersey in 1950 contained a large No. 1 on the front and large white bands, with two narrow stripes each, on the sleeves).

1960 – Solid blue jersey with large numbers in front; helmet solid blue with white Wildcat on side and white stripe down middle.

1970 – Solid blue jersey with numbers on front, white helmet with logo on side and double stripe across top.

1980 – Solid jersey with large white number on sleeve, triple stripe and “K” on helmet. Double stripe down white pants.

2000 – Solid jersey with numbers on front, white helmet with broad blue stripe across top.

2000 – Solid blue numbered jersey with blue UK and triple striped helmet.

The new home and away uniforms maintain the traditional and authentic Kentucky Blue. They are adorned by appliqué “Kentucky” across the chest of the uniform with white appliqué numbers. A white stripe is tapered four inches from the armpit and extends through the bottom of the jersey until it tapers again six inches above the knee.

(In case you’re also wondering , “applique” is a decoration or ornament made by cutting pieces of one material and applying them the surface of another).

Additional players’ names will be on the reverse side of the jersey. The neck and sleeve ring will have colors opposite of the jersey’s primary colors.

The Cats will don a throwback uniform on Oct. 2 vs. Ohio. See it and you there?

The new uniforms were designed in conjunction with Nike and will be worn by the Wildcats beginning this year. The reported objective in the updated uniforms is to create and enhance instant brand recognition. The unique uniform silhouette with the traditional team brand across the chest salutes the past and represents the present and future of Kentucky football, according to a UK press release. It also provides instant visual identification of the brand “Kentucky.”

Let’s hope it helps to win some games.