{"id":527909,"date":"2026-01-10T21:33:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T21:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/527909\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T21:33:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T21:33:14","slug":"pat-riley-and-rupps-runts-have-returned-to-lexington-you-all-laid-the-groundwork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/527909\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat Riley and Rupp’s Runts have returned to Lexington: ‘You all laid the groundwork’"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most iconic groups in the history of Kentucky basketball <\/a>has returned to Lexington for its 60th anniversary celebration \u2014 14 of 15 Wildcats in attendance ahead of UK\u2019s home matchup vs. Mississippi State. The biggest names are Pat Riley and Louie Dampier, certainly, but it\u2019s a juggernaut team overall that went 27-2 (15-1) on its way to an SEC title and the national championship game to finish ranked No. 1 overall.<\/p>\n

Mark Pope<\/a> welcomed back Rupp\u2019s Runts on Friday, every player outside of Larry Conley (health) coming together for a team dinner celebrating that 1965-66 squad all these years later.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow amazing it is to have all of you here. I\u2019ll tell you this \u2014 you all laid the groundwork for what I got to enjoy here as a player and what we get to do here now,\u201d Pope told the VIPs. <\/a>\u201cYou guys started this tenure of this program being this incredible connection point. These people still want to touch Kentucky basketball because of what you did here. I know you felt it while you were here, I know you\u2019ve felt it over the last \u2014 what\u2019s it been, 100 years since you guys played here [laughs]? 60? <\/p>\n

\u201cI know you\u2019ve felt it, but I want to echo it. It matters. It\u2019s so much bigger than basketball and the gratitude I feel in my heart is real. Our former players are so important. We recognize what you built here and you are always welcome here \u2014 any practice, any game, any time. Bring family and friends. You should walk in this gym every time like you own it. Your family should get to enjoy that, too. That\u2019s really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley is the biggest name and headliner, winning SEC Player of the Year that season while leading Kentucky with 22.0 points and 8.9 rebounds per game before going on to become a legend in the NBA as a player, coach and executive, winning eight championships in his various roles. The No. 7 overall draft pick in \u201967 won as a player with the Lakers in \u201972, then five more as a coach in Los Angeles (\u201982, \u201985, \u201987, \u201988) and Miami (\u201906) and team president (\u201912, \u201913). You can give him a ninth, too, if you\u2019d like, as he was also an assistant on the Lakers when they won it all in \u201980, too. <\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, Pat Riley is a name that, like, reverberates. Everybody knows what that means,\u201d Pope told the media early Friday afternoon. \u201cEverybody sees the Showtime Lakers. Everybody sees the gritty, New York Knicks teams and the flashy Miami teams, right? And what he\u2019s done now is a GM and the president and an owner and whatever position he has there right now, so his impact on the basketball has been so incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Dampier averaged 21.1 points and 5.0 rebounds, followed by Thad Jaracz with 13.2 points and 7.5 rebounds, Conley with 11.5 points and 5.6 rebounds and Tom Kron with 10.2 points and 8.3 rebounds to round out double-figure scorers on that squad.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s one of those guys outside of Conley or any of the other 10 bench players, Pope is trying to figure out if they have remaining eligibility to help this struggling group of Wildcats on the floor tonight.<\/p>\n

60 years later, maybe they\u2019ve still got it?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited to have those guys back,\u201d Pope said. \u201cA couple of guys we might actually suit up and see if they can help us in the game with all these changing rules. And so, it\u2019s gonna be a great night for the Cats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Take a look at some of the sights and sounds from Rupp\u2019s Runts making their return to Lexington this weekend:<\/p>\n

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\nPhotos via UK Athletics<\/p>\n

Rupp\u2019s Runts will be honored at halftime for the official 60-year reunion, right back where they belong. Welcome home, Cats!<\/p>\n

Kentucky\u2019s 1965-66 team, \u201cRupp\u2019s Runts\u201d<\/p>\n

No. 42 Pat Riley<\/p>\n

No. 10 Louie Dampier<\/p>\n

No. 55 Thad Jaracz<\/p>\n

No. 40 Larry Conley<\/p>\n

No. 30 Tommy Kron<\/p>\n

No. 45 Cliff Berger<\/p>\n

No. 24 Bob Tallent<\/p>\n

No. 32 Steve Clevenger<\/p>\n

No. 44 Brad Bounds<\/p>\n

No. 12 Jim LeMaster<\/p>\n

No. 22 Gene Stewart<\/p>\n

No. 25 Tommy Porter<\/p>\n

No. 50 Gary Gamble<\/p>\n

No. 54 Larry Lentz<\/p>\n

Bob Windsor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the most iconic groups in the history of Kentucky basketball has returned to Lexington for its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,4000],"class_list":{"0":"post-527909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-kentucky-basketball"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115872950263183167","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}