Veteran sportswriter and NKyTribune columnist Jamie Vaught has penned another book about the University of Kentucky basketball.
The title of Vaught’s 408-page hardcover is Forever Crazy About the Cats: An Improbable Journey of a Kentucky Sportswriter Overcoming Adversity. The book is also part memoir about Vaught’s career of covering UK basketball and football while overcoming personal adversity — and hearing loss since birth.
(Photo from SKCTC)
In addition to Vaught’s personal struggles and stories about his severe hearing impairment, the volume features inside stories about the Wildcats. The featured individuals include Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall, Dan Issel, Cawood Ledford, Tubby Smith, John Calipari, Paul “Bear” Bryant, Ray Correll, Blanton Collier, Fran Curci, Jerry Claiborne, (SKCTC president) Dr. Vic Adams, Mark Stoops, Maci Morris, Oscar Tshiebwe (and his high school coach Rick Mancino), among others.
Also featured is a former super recruit from Kentucky who almost played basketball for the Wildcats. In addition, the book includes a chapter about Vaught’s childhood friend Roberto Clemente and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
“This new book actually was written outside of my comfort zone,” Vaught said. “It wasn’t an easy project to do in discussing my severe hearing impairment, but I was encouraged to do this type of book.”
Two well-known Kentucky personalities — ex-Wildcat basketball star and current UK broadcaster Jack Givens, and retired Kentucky Supreme Court Justice and author Bill Cunningham — wrote blurbs for the hardcover.
a longtime professor at Middlesboro’s Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College (SKCTC), is a two-time UK graduate who wrote columns for The Cats’ Pause for 13 years. He teaches accounting and business and serves as an advisor for the campus newspaper, The Southeasterner.
Several book signings are being planned for various locations throughout Kentucky in the coming weeks and months. The first event is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 17 from 10 a.m. – 12 noon at the Middlesboro-Bell County Public Library in Middlesboro.
The newly-released book is now available online on Amazon.com. It is also expected to be available at selected outlets in Kentucky after the Christmas holidays.
Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College
