While sailing near Williamsburg with Elizabeth and Chris Pack of Cincinnati, he turned out to be a big Kentucky fan. I asked why they’re so good in basketball but not so much in football. “One Christmas, Bear Bryant was given a fountain pen and Adolph Rupp was given a Cadillac. Bryant left shortly thereafter.”
Chris is coaching 11-12-year-olds this fall and seems to have the patience for it. “It’s an awkward age but they can develop skills.” We marveled at the skills of the recent UK team that went 38-0 before losing to Wisconsin in the Final Four semifinal game. “That would have been an epic matchup, Duke vs. an unbeaten Kentucky. But we lost to Wisconsin. Seven starters left for the NBA draft, so we’re having to rebuild. We’re still ranked in the Top 5 in pre-season.” Indiana was the last team to go undefeated and win the national championship, 40-0 in 1976 under Bobby Knight.
The topic of the day was sailing, and they once crewed together on an America’s Cup boat that is retired in St. Maarten. “We were on Stars & Stripes, racing the Canadian boat True North. It was very still, and we had a spotter constantly looking for the wind. I did some grinding. It was great fun. And we won.”
On another subject, Elizabeth got to talking about her father serving as an Air Force pilot in Vietnam. She knew what he flew (F-4s) and when (1967, ie. Tet Offensive) and was obviously proud of his service. Some grown children still don’t know. When our daughter was in sixth grade, she invited me to Show & Tell “to show us the medals you won in the Civil War.”
