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Joe B. Hall, former Kentucky basketball coach, dies at 93

Andy Wolfson, C. Ray Hall

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Joe B. Hall, who coached the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team to three Final Fours and the 1978 national championship but could never escape the shadow of his predecessor, the legendary Adolph Rupp, died Saturday morning. He was 93. 

Hall led the Wildcats to 297 wins over 13 seasons from 1972 to 1985 and to its first title without Rupp.

But fans never fully embraced Hall and routinely second-guessed and even savaged him on sports talk radio.

Even after after he led UK to its fifth national crown at the Final Four in St. Louis, he famously called it “a season without celebration,” thanks to the all-or-nothing expectations placed on his team from the outset. 

“I think that the pressure of following somebody like Adolph Rupp can absolutely eat you up like acid, just destroy your whole system,” Hall told The Courier Journal in 2003, the year he turned 75. 

UK vs. UL in college basketball at Rupp Arena. Former coaching rivals Denny Crum and Joe B. Hall whoop it up.
12/17/05

Kentucky basketball:Giving Joe B. Hall 'proper respect' for integrating UK basketball part of Rupp Arena debate

'No surprises'

He claimed the pressure never bothered him because had had served as an assistant for seven years and knew how demanding its fans were. “There were no surprises,” he said. 

But his longtime friend, Lexington lawyer Terry McBrayer, told The Courier Journal Magazine in 1985 that Hall was far more sensitive than he would ever admit. 




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