Adolph Rupp

Adolph Rupp (born September 2, 1901, Halstead, Kansas, U.S.—died December 10, 1977, Lexington, Kentucky) was an American collegiate basketball coach at the University of Kentucky (1930–72). He retired as the most successful coach in men’s collegiate basketball, with 876 wins. In 1997 he was surpassed by Dean Smith, and the record is held—as of 2024—by Mike Krzyzewski with 1,202 wins. Rupp’s teams won more than 82 percent of their games.

Rupp grew up on a Kansas farm and was hardly aware of basketball until he went to college. At the University of Kansas, he helped the school’s basketball team win the Big Eight Conference championship in 1923. After graduating from Kansas later that year, he coached for several years at Iowa and Illinois high schools. In 1930 Rupp became coach at the University of Kentucky, where he remained until his retirement in 1972. During his career, Kentucky won 27 Southeastern Conference titles, 4 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships (1948–49, 1951, 1958), and 1 National Invitation Tournament (1946). He was also co-coach of the U.S. Olympic team that won the gold medal in the 1948 games.

Rupp was outspoken and a strict disciplinarian; he taught set offenses and aggressive man-to-man defenses that cut off opponents from the lanes to the basket. He was named coach of the year four times and coached more than 25 players who became professionals. In addition, he served on the NCAA rules committee from 1961. After retiring at the age of 70, he served as president of the professional Memphis Tams in the American Basketball Association (ABA) and as the vice chairman of the board of directors of the ABA’s Kentucky Colonels. Rupp was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1969. Throughout his life in Kentucky he engaged in cattle breeding and tobacco farming.

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