A Great Bret Bearup Story

Like a lot of people we were shocked and deeply saddened to learn that former Kentucky big man Bret Bearup had died. He was a huge personality and we enjoyed talking to him immensely. As we said when we heard that he died, he told us a few great stories. We weren’t sure about passing them on but upon reflection we figured we could drop the name of the other person here and it would be okay to pass on.

Remember that this was during the Joe B. Hall era at Kentucky so it was all long ago and far away. Eddie Sutton, Rick Pitino, Tubby Smith, Billie Gillispie and John Calipari have all coached Kentucky since then. We believed him when he told us this - why would we not? - but obviously have no idea who was responsible for the corruption.

Bearup told us that in his first semester at Kentucky he called his father to ask for money. When he hung up, a teammate who happened to be in the room at the time said “what did you just do?”

Bearup explained that he needed money and that he called home to ask for it.

“Bret,” he explained, pulling a roll of bills out of his pocket, “we don’t do that at the University of Kentucky.”

He then peeled off several hundred dollars off his roll and handed them to Bearup and told him not to bother his father for money again.

Again, we have no idea about the source of the money, but Bearup told us that story as we told it to you and it’s awesome.