RICE: Reed was scout for Rupp before joining staff

Ask and you shall receive. That is what happened when we asked Neil Reed for more information on his life after UK. Reed recently was one of the major sources interviewed by Dick Gabriel for his excellent documentary, "Adolph Rupp: Myth, Legend and Fact." Here's how Gabriel introduced Reed:

"But the most riveting Q & A session we had was with former UK assistant coach Neil Reed. Even the staunchest UK fans had never heard of Reed; he was an assistant under Rupp from 1962-65. Rupp had hired Reed, who at the time was coaching at an inner city high school in Cincinnati, specifically to spearhead the recruitment of blacks.

"Reed now lives in Texas, where he shies away from attention. But he was willing and anxious to talk with us, and spent seven hours telling us stories (only two of which were on camera). He told us how Rupp not only had been unfairly stereotyped, he'd been sold short.

"Not only was he NOT a segregationist, according to Reed, Rupp was progressive, backing a move by UK to formally desegregate the SEC in the early 60's. He even had Reed draw up a mock schedule of northern teams to gauge the difficulty of leaving the conference. Reed said it wouldn't have been hard to do, but Dr. Frank Dickey, who was UK's president at the time, told them it would not have been economically feasible, and the move was turned down by the Board of Trustees."

Reed came to UK in 1962-63 as a part-time, graduate assistant observing coaching methods and working toward an advance degree in athletic administration. He previously had coached two years at Waconda (Ill.) High School, where he won "Coach of the Year" honors.

Prior to that Reed coached at a junior high in Milwaukee. He took his schooling at hometown Lawrenceburg (Ind.) High and collegiate work at Illinois and Millikan. In addition to basketball, he was a standout baseball player at Illinois.

During Reed's tenure in Lexington, Rupp's staff recruited such outstanding freshmen as Larry Conley, Tom Kron, Louie Dampier and Pat Riley. In Gabriel's documentary. Anyway, here is Reed's answer to our request:

Russell,

I was orphaned before I was two. I lived with quite a few families while growing up in Long Beach, California; St. Louis, Missouri; several cities in Illinois – Decatur, Peoria, Mount Vernon, and Springfield. Baseball was my sport, as it was for anyone growing up in Southern California and St. Louis.

I visited Lexington while Jack Tingle, from Milton across the bridge from Madison, Indiana, was making All-America for UK. Later I visited often watching Wildcat practices.

I coached baseball, basketball and football while living in Cincinnati and St. Louis. In Cincinnati I taught at black schools in the basin as well as Garfield School, a black school to the west of downtown Cincinnati. We had many successful teams and some wonderfully gifted youngsters during those years.

It was during those years that I began to scout opponents for Mr. Rupp on assignment from Coach Lancaster. Among the teams beginning in 1956-57 was Loyola (Ill) in January and February; in 1957-58 there were Ohio State, St. Louis, Minnesota, Loyola (Ill) in December and Miami (Ohio) and Notre Dame in March; in 1958-59 there were St. Louis, Ohio State in December; Notre Dame in February; and Marquette and Michigan State in March.

In 1959-60 my assignments were cut back since I had now certified to be a full time teacher and had my own team in the Chicago suburbs. The teams were Ohio State in December and Notre Dame in February; in 1960-61, I was assigned Notre Dame, Miami, and Missouri in December; in 1962 I had a wonderful team resulting in my scouting only Miami (Ohio), St. Louis, and Notre Dame in December.

The next year I was at UK.

My final scouting assignment was UCLA in February of 1968. After Ohio State beat UK in the Mideast Regional final, Mr. Rupp permitted me to sell the report to Dean Smith of UNC. The Tar Heels played UCLA in the championship game. That deed did not make Mr. Wooden happy. More on that situation later.

Now to my coaching; most of my coaching was in baseball in American Legion Junior Baseball in Cincinnati and St. Louis. I also assisted in basketball at Hughes High School, Elder High School, Taft High School, and Withrow High School in Cincinnati during the years I was coaching Legion Baseball. I would attend the University of Illinois in the fall, most years, then coach Legion baseball while being a long term substitute in Cincinnati.

I had my degree but no education hours. My degree was in Soviet Affairs. After I had enough semesters teaching as a long-term sub to be fully certified in Ohio, the State of Ohio changed the law. A teacher must now have matriculated in enough education hours, including student teaching, to be certified.

Actually, it was a break for me. I spent three semesters at Milliken University in Decatur, Ill., and did my student coaching under a legend, Mr. Gay Kintner, at Decatur High School, arguably the top program in Illinois, equivalent to Muncie Central in Indiana, Middletown in Ohio, or Lafayette under Ralph Carlisle in Kentucky.

I was fortunate to have a marvelous group of youngsters on the ninth grade team that year of 1958-59. In March of 1962, I sat on the DHS bench in Huff Gym at the U of I as that group of youngsters upset Carver High and Cazzie Russell and Joe Allen for Decatur's fourth state championship, tying Mount Vernon for the most in state history.

In 1960-61 I took over the program at Wauconda High School that had lost, with 20 game seasons plus the tournament, fifty-two games in a row over two plus seasons; 84 of 88 over four plus seasons; and finally 141 of 147 games over seven seasons. Over 37 seasons in the Northwest Suburban Conference (Chicago), the school had finished in the first division of the eight team conference only four times and never higher than fourth.

During the first season we finished 17-8, finishing 2nd in the league and winning the District Championship, but losing to an outstanding team badly in the Regional. The following year we were 12-2 as conference champions and lost by one to a highly ranked team in the Regional final.

I was named Illinois High School Coach of the Year by both the Chicago major papers and the Champaign News-Gazette. Coach Combes told people that it was an unbelievable coaching job. Mr. Rupp was told by Dale Barnstable's dad and Jim Enright that it was the best coaching job that they had witnessed in their lives. Dale came out of Antioch High School, which was a conference member. Heavy stuff. That summer I came to UK.

Following Kentucky, I moved to Santa Monica, planning to take some classes at UCLA, take the DAT (Dental Aptitude Test) and enter UCLA Dental School to become an orthodontist. At the time, the UC system had a major in Orthodontia with the California Dental Association certifying such.

Until I was admitted to the UCLA School of Dentistry I worked with the UCLA staff to put in an offense I have called the Cockeyed 1-3-1. I also worked with them to put in the 1-3-1 defense so as to keep opponents from stalling during the Lew Alcindor years. Mr. Wooden was quoted in the LA papers as "using the same 1-3-1 defense that Mr. Rupp uses at Kentucky." It was the defense that I learned from Frank McGuire and Clair Bee in the '50s, the one that Coach McGuire used in the 1957 NCAA championship game.

The State of California, due to pressure from orthodontists, changed the certification requirements for Orthodontia as I was to enter school. It would have meant eight years for first accreditation. I went back to coaching at Santa Ana High School.

There will be many articles and an accounting of each stop along the way following my e-mail. It has been a wonderful life. Along the way I have spent some time with Coach Rupp, Louie Dampier, Pat Riley, Tommy Kron, Larry Conley, and Mike Pratt.

My favorite coaching jobs were taking teams at the bottom and schools with no pride, changing them dramatically. It has been as a great a feeling as winning state and national championships.

I don't know if this is what you had in mind. I hope this will help you.

Neil

Dear Neil:

Thanks for the letter. The thing I remember most about our recent conversation is that you used the Rupp ball-handling drills throughout your coaching career, and that others did the same. Pat Riley has used some of the Rupp plays throughout his pro career. I'll probably misquote it but Bob Cousy reportedly told you that he would rather watch Kentucky practice that most teams play.

Rupp started every game on offense with the old guard-around play. He said it would determine the type of defense being used by the opponent. Everybody knew the plays that Rupp ran, but they were so disciplined that it was hard to stop them. On defense, the 1-3-1 was the closest he got to a zone defense, but as you may recall he called it something else.

I wish we could put to rest all the falsehoods about Rupp's race relations, but that is something that just won't go away. We lived those days, but none of the current "historians" seem to seek us out.

Best Wishes, RR

Russell Rice is the former sports information director for the University of Kentucky.