My Books-Cyber-Cat Fans

CYBER-CAT FANS



University of Kentucky Basketball Season

2005/2006




Preface:



This will be my fifth book since 2001. I’m a retired University of Kentucky

metallurgical engineer who started my books upon retirement in 1998. I’ve chosen

topics I know somewhat about, but, normally pick interviewees who know the

topics much better than I do. This will not be a team insiders’ view of the program,

rather it will be a copying and pasting of threads or posts onto my book site,

mainly, if not entirely, from the www.wildcatnation.net site.


I’ve been a fan of Kentucky basketball since my Highland schoolyard basketball playing

days (in Portsmouth, Ohio) around 1946, when Kentucky perennially led the nation in college basketball.

It is no secret that Kentucky is still a team to beat in college basketball.

Wildcat fan sites have proliferated in the nineties and the two thousands

because of UK’s continued success with a variety of coaches and players and the growth of the internet.


I’ve solicited the approval of a few UK friends whom my wife, Jeanie, and I have

met through the web sites and through attendance at Kentucky games at many

different venues. Jeanie and I were very fortunate to meet Mel McCane, the

originator of www.wildcatfaithful.com , who died in November 2005 at too young an age (in his

fifties). God, please rest our beloved benefactor.


My intent in beginning this current venture is to select pertinent and

interesting posts by the many different posters. I must apologize to those

journalists (I am not a journalist), who report every incident about a topic,

good or bad, so long as it is sensational. I am looking for the good and will

stop the project, rather than write anything which embarrasses the great

University of Kentucky or the Commonwealth of Kentucky.


I am a Portsmouth Ohio native whose dad migrated eastward about 30 miles to

from Vanceburg, Kentucky. Dad , Forest E. Kegley, Sr., was only ten years old then.

After attending Ohio University Portsmouth Branch for four years to obtain a year

and a half of credits for engineering, I transferred to UK to obtain my Bachelor of Science in Metallurg-

ical Engineering. After a thirty -seven year engineering career, I retired and began

by writing my unpublished memoirs for my then too-young -to-read grandchildren, with hopes

that they may read them with a little interest later on in their lives.


I have always enjoyed Studs Terkel’s writings. Studs became 93 years old on

May 16 , 2005 and has interviewed over 9,000 people to write their stories in his books.

Of course he is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a very well known Chicago author and

radio host. I’m sure that my mother must have listened to him because he was also an

actor on radio soap operas.


As a young reader, I read many sports hero’s books (such as those written by

Clair Bee and Matt Christopher) where the main character would

usually attend a small fictional college and excel to win the big game-with

small conflicts and resolutions along the way. I also enjoyed listening to

Friday night Bill Stern sports stories on the radio. My four previous books have been

interview stories of the people I have chosen, depending upon the topic I have chosen. I have interviewed just over 150 people to date.

I am 73 now, and young, relative to Studs.


The love of Kentucky basketball is, more or less, a sickness, which, when people

are inflicted with it, they are not likely to seek nor desire a cure during

their lifetime of sports entertainment. With no disrespect for the

great “esprit de corps” of the United States Marines (I was a draftee onto the

Army during the Korean conflict), I declare that Kentucky basketball fans, with their extreme loyalty

for Kentucky basketball teams, have the similar dedication I believe each marine has for our great free country.


The National Basketball Association (NBA) is attracting the most

exceptional athletes today with its big, big money, while

the college coaches must continue to swim in shark infested waters (scouts

seeking talent for the big leagues); however, college basketball always presents

better entertainment in my honest opinion. Coaching in the pros takes

special talent, but the players appear often to have condescending attitudes to their

professional coaches who are often paid a salary that is lower than themselves.


This will be a different book for me because the threads or posts by the individual posters on the

internet will actually be the story presented, rather than interview stories. If our glorious God in Heaven grants me

continued living and lets me be able, the book should not be completed and

published until the Spring of 2006 after the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) season Final Four. I know that

Jeanie and I will enjoy Kentucky basketball, but none of us knows what this season will bring the

University of Kentucky basketball team, or any other college team. We will see what occurs and how the

posters portray the events.


Sam Kegley aka SamKat -

Preface written in the spring of 2005- edited by Sam in the spring of 2006