Whenever somebody from the national media goes up into Eastern Kentucky and does a documentary about coal and poverty, which are inextricably linked, you can bet that the elected representatives of the folks who live there will howl like scalded cats about the perpetuation of hillbilly stereotypes.
Of course, perceptions don't get to be stereotypes unless there's at least an element of truth in them and doggone if we Kentuckians, almost every time we're given the chance, make stupid choices that only lend credence to the stereotypes.
No, I'm not talking today about the people from the five small south-central counties who keep foisting the anti-progress, obstructionist David Williams upon our state senate. I'm talking about the decision by the University of Kentucky's board of trustees to approve “Kentucky Coal Lodge” as the official name for a new building that will house Coach John Calipari's basketball team.
I'm reminded of the old saying that goes something like this: “Everybody's a whore – the only question is the price.”
Well, at least now we know the price of the UK Board of Trustees is $7 million, which is what 21 operatives of the coal industry have pledged for the new basketball brothel – ah, lodge – if it has the world “coal” in its name.
Buckle up your chinstraps tight, folks, because the national media is going to have a ball with this. It's hardly a secret that when it comes to basketball, our state's values are grossly out of whack. Just about everybody either snickers at us – or pities us – because basketball is so obviously more important than education.
Now, courtesy of the UK Board of Trustees, the critics and the comics have this wonderful mother lode of new material with which to poke fun at the commonwealth and our warped values.
“Hey, maybe they should name that new basketball residence 'Nat King Coal” Lodge. Or since they love country music and have so much illiteracy, how about 'Your Coal, Coal Heart Lodge?' The coal industry wouldn't go for 'Mountaintop Coal Removal Sucks Lodge,' but how about 'Kentucky Coal Black-Lung Lodge?' The coal companies should do that to honor all the miners they've let die because they've fought healthy and safety measures so hard for so long.”
I'm not even going to get into the nasty racial jokes that could be made about making UK's basketball players, who are predominantly black, live in a lodge with “coal” in its name. But somebody will, rest assured. It's the nature of the mean-spirited, Limbaughian society in which we live.
You really can't blame the coal industry for trying to associate itself with UK basketball in a new way. The old way is the image of the coal barons, although with their brethren in the thoroughbred industry, making under-the-table payments to coaches and UK officials in exchange for prime seats in Rupp Arena and access to the basketball program.
Check the history of every UK basketball scandal and the fingerprints of “boosters” from the coal and thoroughbred industries will be there somewhere. Let them in the locker room and next thing you know, players are getting post-game handshakes with cash in them.
So you can't blame the same industry which is trying to develop “clean coal” technology with trying to develop a “cleaner image” strategy. But, heavens, you can certainly blame the whores and other assorted knuckleheads of the UK Board of Trustees.
UK President Lee Todd and Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart have so little respect for this motley crew of political appointees that they didn't even bother to tell them, during their sales pitch on Calipari's behalf, that the coach's program at Memphis was under NCAA investigation and might have its 2008 national runner-up finish vacated because of allegations that Derrick Rose, the one-and-done freshman star of that team, had somebody take his college-entrance exam in his place.
Make sure you have that straight: Todd and Barnhart had the information in their possession but did not share it with the board they were asking to approve a $31 million contract for Calipari.
You'd like to think that at least some of the board members would have found this information useful, especially considering all the questions being asked in the national media about Calipari's recruiting methods. It might not have changed the voted – probably wouldn't have –but at least all the facts would have been on the table.
But get this: Even when it was finally revealed that Todd and Barnhart had withheld that information from the board, the board didn't even bother to chastise the President and A.D., who, of course, are their employees.
The board also didn't even admonish Todd and Barnhart for screwing up the Billy Clyde Gillispie situation so badly.
He, of course, proved to be the worst hire in UK basketball history and yet he was allowed to work for two years without signing an official contract. During those two years, Barnhart repeatedly told the media that UK's memorandum of understanding with Gillispie was a legally binding contract – a position that he completely reversed when Gillisipie filed a lawsuit after he his firing.
Was the UK board embarrassed by this blatant bungling? Apparently not. Even after the UK Athletics Association had to cough up $3 million to settle with Billy Clyde – money that could have been otherwise spent to fund a couple of the Olympic sports that are so near and dear to the Barn's heart – the board never issued any kind of public reprimand to Todd and Barnhart.
And nobody made a peep when Todd and Barnhart clammed up and refused to publicly discuss their blunders. It's shameful that public employees – and that's what they are – should be allowed to act in such a cavalier fashion.
Can anybody imagine Governor Beshear blowing $3 million in this economy and not at least having a press conference to explain himself?
So considering all this, nobody should be surprised that the board of wh…ah, trustees was willing to sell out to the coal industry. Does anybody remember the uproar when a bunch of former Coach Joe B. Hall's cronies raised the money for the current lodge and demanded that it be named “Joe B. Hall Wildcat Lodge”?
The Hall boosters cavalierly bypassed the university's policy for naming buildings and drew the ire of then-president Otis Singletary, who promptly assured them that basketball was not bigger than the university. Although they eventually got what they wanted, it only happened after Singletary had chastised them publicly and showed them who was boss.
Kudos to the three board's members who had the guts and the integrity to vote against the coal industry's offensive proposal. They would not be strong-armed. They would not prostitute themselves for the sake of $7 million. It can only be hoped that their minority opinion will be vindicated by the Council on Postsecondary Education, which gets to vote on the deal on Nov. 5.
If we don't want to be stereotyped as a bunch of nutty basketball rubes, we must quit doing stuff to prove it.
Here's something good to say: brilliant piece, Billy. How refreshing to hear from a local journalist whose job isn't beholden to the wacky priorities that are basketball and/or coal.
BTW, I e-mailed each of the board members. The only responses I got were a couple automated "out of office" replies.
Whenever somebody from the national media goes up into Eastern Kentucky and does a documentary about coal and poverty, which are inextricably linked, you can bet that the elected representatives of the folks who live there will howl like scalded cats about the perpetuation of hillbilly stereotypes.
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