Former University of Kentucky men’s basketball coach Joe B. Hall passed away Saturday morning. He was 93.
Joe B. Hall (UK Athletics photo)
The legendary coach replaced late Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp and led the Wildcats to an NCAA Championship in 1978. He compiled a 373-156 record in his 13 seasons as coach of the Wildcats. He retired followed the 1984-85 season.
“Joe B. Hall took over a program and carried on the winning tradition and legacy of excellence of Kentucky basketball,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said this morning.
Calipari often invited Hall to his practices and forced a relationship with the Cynthiana native and kept Hall close to the program that he once presided over. Calipari visited Hall on Thursday.
“Coach Hall always met me with a smile, including two days ago when I went to see him and hold his hand,” Calipari said. “He understood everything that was said, and as I prayed for him, he squeezed my hand tight.”
Calipari added that Hall was appreciated and loved by Big Blue Nation.
“Coach Hall is beloved by everyone,” he said. “What makes me happy on this extremely somber day is that before he left this earth, he knew how much all of us appreciated and loved him. I would ask that everyone keep him and his family in your prayers. I love you, Coach.”
Bronze in honor of Hall at UK’s Wildcat Lodge
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell issued the following statement:
“College basketball is part of Kentucky’s heritage. Elaine and I learned with sadness the loss of one of the icons responsible for that tradition. Coach Joe B. Hall led the University of Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball team for over a decade, winning the 1978 National Championship and earning a spot in the College Basketball Hall of Fame. Today, Big Blue Nation and all of Kentucky remembers Coach Hall, a man who distinguished himself here and around the globe for his leadership, his passion, and his philanthropy. We send our deepest condolences to his children and family.”
As Kentucky’s head coach from the 1972-73 season through 1984-85, he compiled a record of 297-100 (74.8%). Hall won National Coach of the Year honors in 1978 and four Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year awards. He had seven players win All-America honors 11 times.
Hall’s squads recorded a 172-62 (73.5%) record versus SEC competition during the regular season, winning eight regular-season titles in 13 seasons and one league tournament championship in seven tries.
Hall, who grew up just 30 minutes north of the University of Kentucky in Cynthiana, began his association with UK as a student-athlete during the “Fabulous Five” era. He played one year of junior varsity and one year of varsity basketball before transferring to the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, where he finished his eligibility and set a single-game scoring record. Following his college career, Hall toured Europe with the Harlem Globetrotters in 1951, but later returned to UK and completed his degree requirements.
His coaching career began at Shepherdsville (Ky.) High School in 1956. It continued at Regis College in Denver, where he spent five years (57-50 record), and Central Missouri State for one season (19-6 mark) before returning to UK as an assistant to Rupp on July 1, 1965. As an assistant, he spearheaded landing future All-Americans Dan Issel, Mike Pratt and Kevin Grevey.
Hall played a large role in the integration of Black student-athletes into the Kentucky men’s basketball program, first as an assistant coach under Rupp, then recruiting Reggie Warford as the program’s second Black recruit in his first freshman class. Four of his seven All-Americans were Black, and eight of the 13 players on his final team were Black. He also hired Leonard Hamilton, the program’s first Black assistant coach, and his 1978 national championship team was led by Jack “Goose” Givens and James Lee.
For all of Rupp’s success, the program had gone 20 seasons without a national title when Hall made the defining run of his career to the top of college basketball. In the opening game of the NCAA Tournament of that run, Hall courageously benched three starters with his team trailing at halftime. The reserves inspired a comeback, and UK pulled away. In the national title game, Kentucky defeated Duke 94-88 led by 41 points from Givens, still the most points scored by a Wildcat in an NCAA Tournament game.
Click to see UK Athletics’ tribute to Coach Hall
“I was honored to have had an opportunity to play for Coach Hall, but the honor really grew when we got older and I got to know him as a friend as opposed to just a coach,” Givens said. “I wish I would tell you all the things I learned from him – not just about basketball – but about life and being a man. The friendship that we had the last 10 years of his life were some of the best days that I ever had with him. I’m going to miss him, but I hope and pray that my life is as long and as full as his life was.”
As successful as Hall was as head coach, assistant and player at Kentucky, he was revered in the latter stages of his life for his unwavering love of UK. Long after his coaching days, Hall remained a fixture at practices and games.
“Coach Hall will forever be remembered for his success in keeping the Kentucky men’s basketball tradition alive following Adolph Rupp,” said former player and UK Athletics Hall of Famer Kyle Macy. “Very few coaches have been able to follow a legend with the success Coach Hall did. His homegrown love and respect for the Kentucky program constantly motivated him to achieve that success. On a personal level, I have not only lost my former coach, but someone I considered a good friend. He will be missed.”
The revival of the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry happened under Coach Hall. Although the Wildcats lost to Louisville in the 1983 Mideast Regional finals – called the “Dream Game” – Hall’s team defeated the Cardinals twice the next season, including in the 1984 NCAA Tournament. The series has been played in every season since.
Once a rival with former Louisville head coach Denny Crum, the two would go on to team up for a five-days-a-week radio show for more than a decade that lasted until 2014.
Hall was a winner on the court, but his players best remember him by his impact in the community and his love for the state in the latter stages of his life.
The tradition of Midnight Madness started under Hall, when fans got a first glimpse in October of the team’s first practice. It has since evolved into Big Blue Madness, a celebration at a packed Rupp Arena to mark the start of the men’s and women’s basketball seasons.
Hall was key in the creation of the original Wildcat Lodge, the dormitory for the men’s basketball team that was just a few hundred feet away from the Wildcats’ practice facility at Memorial Coliseum. It was named in his honor. The new dormitory, the Wildcat Coal Lodge, features a bronze statue of Hall out front.
Hall was preceded by his wife of 55 years, Katharine, who died in 2007. His is survived by three children, daughters Judy Derrickson and Kathy Summers, and son, Steven Hall, and three grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements will be forthcoming.
UK Athletics/Kentucky Today/Staff
