Courtside Nostalgia: Love and Basketball at Kentucky's Sweet 16 Tournament

Picture a packed Rupp Arena, the echoes of bouncing basketballs, the roar of Kentucky crowds—it's not just a game; it's where I watched my first KHSAA Sweet 16 Tournament and found the love of my life, Linda. Join me, Dan Neal, as I take a solo ride down memory lane, reminiscing about the pulsating excitement of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association's Sweet 16 Basketball Tournament and how it played a backdrop to me meeting my future wife, Linda. We were part of the first graduating class from the newly consolidated high school in McCreary County, KY. This is not just a tale of young love but also a celebration of the traditions and community spirit that make Kentucky's heartbeat.

This episode steers you through the unique county-centric culture of Kentucky, my formative years in McCreary County, and the memorable consolidation of local high schools that shaped a significant chapter of my life. You'll be riding shotgun with me as I share the anticipation of stepping onto the court in warm-up uniforms, harboring the dreams of making it to the state tournament. Fasten your seatbelts for an homage to the places and memories that continue to resonate long after the final buzzer—this is an episode that taps into the heart of what brings us together in celebration of our past.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Absolutely nothing beats windshield time, a road trip and good conversation in the car. Welcome to another episode of Dan the Road Trip Guy, where we have entertaining conversations about cars and road trips, life lessons and maybe, every now and then, a little advice. I'm your host, dan Neal Road Trip Extraordinaire. And now buckle up and enjoy the show. I am on my way home and I thought no better time to record a little solo road trip episode.

Speaker 1: 0:38

If you're from the state of Kentucky or you follow college basketball and I mentioned Rupp Arena you probably think of the University of Kentucky Wildcats Basketball Program, or maybe you've been there for an event, a concert. This week, the Rupp Arena is hosting the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Sweet 16 Basketball Tournament. I still find this to be one of the best tournaments in the country. I don't know what other school systems do it like this, but in Kentucky there are 16 regions for basketball and this brings together the 16 best teams in the state, so you might find a small, tiny school going up against one of the powerhouses from maybe Louisville or Lexington or one of the other counties. That's the interesting thing, too about Kentucky. Sometimes you're not from a city in Kentucky, you're from a county Myself I grew up in. Macquarie County Happens to be the youngest county in the state. There was a change in the Kentucky Constitution back in the 1800s that put restrictions on forming counties. State has 120 counties so Macquarie County was the last county after that restriction was put in place. Anyway, this episode is a bit of a love story. That occurred at Rupp Arena, so that's my memory for Rupp Arena. It was probably in 1977-78,.

Speaker 1: 2:14

Our home county, macquarie County, decided to consolidate the North to High Schools. There were little elementary schools Pine-Knot, revello, stearns, smithtown, whitley City, eagle and those schools would go into two separate high schools Macquarie County High School and Pine-Knot High School. Pine-knot was in the south of the county and Macquarie High was in the north. All the elementary besides Pine-Knot attended Macquarie County High. I myself I was from Pine-Knot so I went to Pine-Knot High School through the 11th grade. As I said, the school board had decided to consolidate the two high schools. Now there were people in town that thought this was a very bad idea because they loved their high school. People thought there would be fights and all sorts of ruckus. I guess when the students all came together in this new high school my wife and I, linda, would be part of the first graduating class of that school. It's kind of cool to be the first, but it's also you miss out on some things, like the gymnasium wasn't even finished when we started. I was a basketball player, linda was a cheerleader. We actually played our opening games at the Macquarie County High School because the gymnasium wasn't finished and we actually played in our warm-up uniform because our uniforms hadn't come in. But we finally got into our new gym and started playing there. Now we had high hopes.

Speaker 1: 3:45

Oh, back up, this would be 1979, would be the first year that the high school basketball tournament would be played at Rupp Arena. It had been played for years in Louisville at Freedom Hall. Rupp Arena, I believe, had been built in 1976. It's seen to 23,000 people. It's more in the center of the state. So I think that seemed like it made sense to people. So it moved to Rupp Arena that year, of course we all thought, oh, our new little school, we can do this. We can end up in the state tournament and go to Rupp Arena. Well, it didn't quite work out that way. We tried our best but it didn't work out. But the school decided they would send the senior ball players to the state tournament at Rupp Arena, which was. That was cool.

Speaker 1: 4:38

There were four of us. Three of us were from Pinehawd High and one was from Macquarie High, so we headed out. I think we drove two cars, I don't remember. We stayed out on the east side of Lexington Settled in. The games start on Wednesday and they go through Saturday. They still do. They're going on. This week Went to the Wednesday afternoon games, watched those and then probably got something to eat and settled in for the evening game. Now, little did we know that on Wednesday at some point the school decided they would send the four senior cheerleaders to the tournament, so in they walked on that Wednesday evening.

Speaker 1: 5:21

Now, either I was blind or I just wasn't paying attention throughout the year as cheerleaders, but that evening I spotted this one which happens to be my wonderful wife, linda, of almost 42 years. So 45 years ago this month I met Linda and I was. I fell in love immediately. Now I would say she did not fall in love immediately and I would spend the next two years chasing after her. I chased off some boyfriends. Maybe I don't know if I chased them off, maybe I did chase off the last one.

Speaker 1: 5:59

It was two years, 1981, we were at Eastern Kentucky University and Linda had to take accounting. She didn't really enjoy accounting. I had had two years of accounting before I switched to technology. I said I will tutor you Now. Keep in mind her boyfriend was an accounting major and he was probably in his third, maybe fourth year of accounting, but I guess he chose not to tutor her for some reason. So every Tuesday afternoon I would head to her dorm probably around two o'clock best I remember and I would stay until they threw me out. Now we had to sit in the lobby because this is 1981 and guys didn't go up to girls rooms back then Much different today, I suppose. So I would sit in the lobby with her and tutor her. I could have probably sped it along, but looking back, I probably made it go as slow as possible and she did get an A in that class.

Speaker 1: 6:57

For me a lot of things played out. What would have happened if the schools didn't consolidate? What would have happened if the cheerleaders didn't go to Lexington to the state basketball tournament? Maybe I would have never met Linda. I don't believe in coincidences. I think this was all planned out by God. Still believe that. I know some people don't believe in soulmates. Well, they can stick to their belief and I'll stick to mine. I happen to believe Linda is my soulmate, anyway, 45 years. So I hope you have great stories. I hope you have great memories. Remember to write them down. Record them. Well, that's about it for this short episode. I hope you've enjoyed it. It's a good memory for me. I just wanted to record it Until we meet up again. You can find me on the internet at dantheroadtripguycom. I hope you will follow this podcast so that you don't miss any upcoming episodes, and share it with your family and friends so they can enjoy the stories of my guest also. Until we meet again on a future episode, keep having conversations with each other and keep driving.