{"version":"1.0","provider_name":"The News Journal","provider_url":"https:\/\/qa.thenewsjournal.net","title":"Jay Atkerson: Memories of a UK championship &ndash; The News Journal","type":"rich","width":600,"height":338,"html":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"CsU6b2htoF\"><a href=\"https:\/\/qa.thenewsjournal.net\/jay-atkerson-memories-of-a-uk-championship\/\">Jay Atkerson: Memories of a UK championship<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/qa.thenewsjournal.net\/jay-atkerson-memories-of-a-uk-championship\/embed\/#?secret=CsU6b2htoF\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" title=\"&#8220;Jay Atkerson: Memories of a UK championship&#8221; &#8212; The News Journal\" data-secret=\"CsU6b2htoF\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\/* <![CDATA[ *\/\n\/*! This file is auto-generated *\/\n!function(d,l){\"use strict\";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&\"undefined\"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!\/[^a-zA-Z0-9]\/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),c=new RegExp(\"^https?:$\",\"i\"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display=\"none\";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute(\"style\"),\"height\"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):\"link\"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute(\"src\")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener(\"message\",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll(\"iframe.wp-embedded-content\"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute(\"data-secret\"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+=\"#?secret=\"+t,e.setAttribute(\"data-secret\",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:\"ready\",secret:t},\"*\")},!1)))}(window,document);\n\/* ]]> *\/\n<\/script>\n","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/qa.thenewsjournal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Gary-West-mug.jpg","thumbnail_width":417,"thumbnail_height":316,"description":"No matter where you live in Kentucky or what month it is, Kentuckians are ready to talk a little basketball. With summer all-star games, college recruitment and NBA playoffs in the news, it seems fitting to tell a basketball story that has been lost to the ages. If you will step back in time with me to 1955 when a young man from Woodburn, Kentucky, in Warren County set out to enroll at the University of Kentucky know-ing his family would pay his way for the first two years and after that he was on his own. Jay Atkerson began high school at Warren County High School as a freshman hoping to somehow make the basketball team. When he didn\u2019t, his coach, Eddie Diddle, Jr., asked him to be the team manager. \u201cI was all in,\u201d said Atkerson. \u201cI\u2019d get to go to all the games and still be a part of the team.\u201d By the time he was a senior, Atkerson knew he wanted to be a coach and teach-er someday. \u201cEddie told me his dad would be needing a manager for his team at Western,\u201d he said. \u201cHe said Hardin McLane (who went on to be a successful coach) would be leaving and I could step right in with a full scholarship. I talked to Coach Diddle \u2026 even spent a couple of nights in Diddle Dorm.\u201d Atkerson, almost in disbelief, turned the offer down. Instead he had his heart set on going to the University of Kentucky. He still had not lost sight of being a college basketball manager, and through a family friend arrangements were made for him to meet Wildcat coach Harry Lancaster, Adolph Rupp\u2019s assistant. \u201cCoach Lancaster made the decision and he said I was the first to express an in-terest in the manager\u2019s job for the season ahead. I was really surprised.\u201d One might think that students would be lined up to be a part of a basketball team that had won NCAA titles in 1948, 1950, and 1951. They weren\u2019t, and the kid from Woodburn became the team\u2019s student manager. \u201cThat first day of practice when I walked in I was shocked at how much of a business affair it was,\u201d said Atkerson. \u201cPractices were tough. Rupp was very hard on his players \u2026 no clapping, cheering or laughing. No one spoke but Rupp and Lancaster.\u201d That first year Atkerson, far from a full scholarship, got books for his effort. \u201cMy sophomore year I got books and tuition and by my junior year I was up to books, tuition and one meal a day, and had become head manager and with that I also got four tickets for every home game.\u201d The entire time Atkerson was at UK, Coach Rupp never called him by his name. Always, it was \u201cmanager.\u201d \u201cOne day Rupp said, \u2018manager where are you from?\u2019\u201d \u201cI told him Bowling Green. \u2018That\u2019s a damn lie, you\u2019re from Woodburn.\u2019\u201d By the time 1958 rolled around little did Atkerson know what was in store for him and the team. They had plodded their way to a 23-6 record and an SEC title, but despite that they were ranked no higher than ninth in one poll and fourteenth in another. This was one of the reasons Rupp referred to his team as \u201cfiddlers.\u201d \u201cThey fiddle around and fiddle around and then finally pull it out,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019d be good at a barn dance. You need violinist to play in Carnegie Hall and we don\u2019t have any of these.\u201d From then on it was \u201cThe Fiddlin Five.\u201d With Johnny Cox, John Crigler, Vernon Hatton and Adrian Smith, it would be a long time, if ever, before that many Kentucky boys would start for a Wildcat squad much less win a national title. Ed Beck from Georgia was the other starter. By 1958, the number of teams invited to play in the NCAA tournament had been increased from 16 to 24 teams and schools were usually assigned to play their games within their own geographic area. And did the Wildcats hit the jackpot. Playing the first and second round Mideast Regional in the relatively new on-campus 11,500 seat Memorial Coliseum they disposed of Miami Ohio, and then Notre Dame to advance to the Final Four in, you guessed it, Louisville\u2019s Freedom Hall. The rest is history as Kentucky and Rupp won their fourth title with wins over Temple and then Seattle and the great Elgin Baylor in the championship game. For Rupp, who was forced into retirement at the age of 70 in 1972, it would be his last. That championship game has been talked about and discussed for decades and Jay Atkerson had a hand in what happened. \u201cThe Final Four back then was played on back-to-back nights, Friday and Saturday,\u201d recalled Atkerson. \u201cRight after we beat Temple, Coach Rupp and Coach Lancaster already had their game plan on how to beat Seattle and especially Elgin Baylor. It was Saturday afternoon when Coach Rupp called my room. I think we were staying at the Kentucky Hotel, and said, \u2018manager go over to the Seelbach Hotel and get some film a man has for us.\u2019 That film and the man Rupp spoke to showed how Kentucky could beat Seattle by getting Baylor in foul trouble.\u201d Everything Rupp had planned went out the window once they placed the film in the projector and turned it on. What the mystery man told and showed proved to be the key to the Kentucky win. Atkerson is full of memories of being a part of one of the greatest basketball programs in history and he enjoys passing them on in hopes they are not lost to passing decades. \u201cCoach Rupp never seemed to get close to any of his players and small talk was out of the question,\u201d says Atkerson. \u201cDuring my time there we were at his house, maybe twice during the holidays to watch a football game.\u201d The stories kept coming. \u201cCoach Rupp asked me [&hellip;]"}