Legends speak at dinner

Friday, October 24, 2008

Local University of Louisville fans and alumni displaced from the campus and surrounding city got a chance to have dinner with two of the school’s most famous basketball legends on Thursday evening when former coach Denny Crum and player Darrell Griffith traveled to Madisonville.

The pair visited the Madisonville Golf and Country Club to help raise money for the Hopkins County chapter of the U of L Alumni Association and for a $100 donation, individuals could sit at a table with either man.

Crum was quick to make the cause of function clear though.

“Anything that has to do with raising money to help send kids to school, I’m in favor of,” he said.

With an unsteady financial situation these days, Crum said he understands the importance of providing assistance to the youth.

“The bottom line is the cost of education goes up and up, regardless of the economy,” he said. “You have so many kids whose family’s would have been able to help, but can’t help them now. It’s a tough time for a lot of ways and I think we sure don’t want the young people to stop going to college, so any thing we can do to help enhance that situation is a real plus.”

After 30 years of coaching, Crum now spends most of his time appearing as a guest speaker and working with one of his past adversaries in former University of Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall on the Joe B. and Denny Show.

Despite the heated rivalry between the schools, Crum had no problem joining forces with Hall on the program.

“Joe Hall and I have so many things in common that it was really easy for us to do this type of a show,” Crum said. “We both loved our coaching, we both have a strong passion for hunting and fishing. We both grew up doing that.”

When we would get together, we wouldn’t talk about basketball for the most part. We would talk about other sports, mostly fishing, hunting and fishing.”

Crum said he spent the better part of Wednesday fishing on the Kentucky River, but for eight or nine weeks each summer he heads west to his ranch in Idaho , about 15 miles from West Yellowstone, where he like to fly fish.

“It’s an art form,” he said. “It’s really fun to do, it’s challenging.”

Although Crum enjoys fishing in his spare time, he admitted he’s more of a catch-and-release type fisher.

“It’s not in the list of my favorite top 10 things to eat,” Crum said. “I’ll eat walleye. I don’t dislike crappie and bluegill. They’re good-eating fish, but I’d rather have a hot dog.”

Joining Crum at the fundraiser was “Dr. Dunkenstein” himself, the lone senior on Crum’s 1980 NCAA Championship team.

When asked if Griffith’s high-flying aerial displays ever worried the coach, Crum didn’t hesitate to say no.

“If you couldn’t enjoy watching Darrell play, well you didn’t like basketball,” he said. “Darrell was so much fun to watch, so physically talented and he played so hard and he was just such a talent.”

Griffith, tabbed Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball in 1976 out of Male High School, showed much gratitude, having the chance to be part of the school’s first ever championship, especially doing so with Crum.

“He’s just a wonderful person, got a great heart,” Griffith said. “I was glad to be one of his players.”

Twenty-eight years removed from the Cardinals’ championship run, Griffith said he enjoys watching Michael Beasley, who nearly came to Louisville.

“When I first met Beasley, I saw him for the first time, I said ‘This kid’s not going to be around but one year,’” Griffith said. “They had a high school game in Louisville and he played. He was just a massive kid and I was hoping we were going to get him, but he ended up going to (Kansas State University).”

I’ll be closely watching him mainly because of the connection with Nolan Smith.”

Smith, a sophomore guard at Duke University (N.C.), played with Beasley at Oak Hill Academy (Va.), and is the son of Griffith’s former teammate Derek Smith.

In addition to Smith and Beasley, Griffith said he also likes to watch Kentucky product Rajon Rondo.

Griffith said he enjoys following the trio of high-profile athletes just like the residents of small communities like Madisonville.

“They love the sports because they can’t really get to Louisville to see the Cardinals play,” he said. “They’re huge fans from afar.”

Griffith did not finish his thoughts on the area without recounting his memories of playing in Hopkins County.

“We used to beat up on you guys in high school. We played Madisonville in high school.”

Crum also displayed his knowledge of Madisonville by describing Oklahoma State University men’s basketball coach Travis Ford’s success.

“It’s not a big surprise,” Crum said of the Madisonville native. “His whole life has been basketball.”