While Jim Duff is probably better known for his current role as the top administrator of the U.S. Courts system in Washington, D.C., some UK fans would be pleasantly surprised to learn that he also played basketball as a member of legendary coach Adolph Rupp’s program.
Duff played for one of UK’s most famous basketball teams in history — the 1971-72 freshman squad which posted a perfect 22-0 mark and was named the top freshman team in the country by the Basketball News.
You can argue that the rookie team was even more popular than the varsity club, which finished with a 21-7 record with a final No. 18 national ranking. And that was during Rupp’s last season as the Wildcat varsity coach before top assistant/freshman head coach Joe B. Hall took over the program in the spring of 1972.
Duff said that he had to try out for the Kittens’ squad as a walk-on with the encouragement of seven scholarship players, which also included his childhood friend Kevin Grevey, Jimmy Dan Conner, and Mike Flynn, among others.
“All of the scholarship players were very encouraging to me,” said Duff, a graduate of UK Honors Program in 1975 with a degree in political science and philosophy. “Kevin, Jimmy Dan Connor, and Mike Flynn were particularly helpful. The day that coach Hall told me I had made the team
was one of the greatest feelings I have ever had.”
As a backup guard, Duff, who roomed with G.J. Smith during their freshman year, saw action in 15 games, scoring a total of 14 points.
For Duff, it was a life-long dream come true to play for the Big Blue.
“I spent much of my childhood dreaming of playing for UK,” said Duff, who declined an opportunity to play for the new junior varsity squad
as a sophomore to focus on academics. “My favorite players were Pat Riley and Louie Dampier. I went to high school with Kevin Grevey. Some of my enthusiasm for UK may have encouraged him to choose to go there, too.”
Duff’s parents were from Owsley County. His father, Cecil Duff, who had been the basketball coach at Owsley County High School, often took him
to UK games in Lexington, driving from Hamilton, Ohio (near Cincinnati) where the family lived. Sadly, the elder Duff passed away last summer.
“He took me to my first UK game when I was about five years old and we had gone to games together almost every year since then,” recalled Duff,
who still comes to Kentucky occasionally. “I will miss him greatly. He was an All-State high school player in Kentucky the same year Bill Keightley was. I bet many people did not know that Bill Keightley (who later became UK’s longtime equipment manager) was an All-State player. They were two of a kind — both were wonderful people.”
Duff has many stories about Grevey, a UK All-American who was also a two-time SEC Player of the Year and played 10 years as a productive NBA
standout. Both live in the Washington, D.C., area and they are planning to attend the Kentucky-LSU game at Rupp Arena on March 5.
Grevey is still seventh on UK’s all-time scoring list with 1,801 points.
“Kevin and I have been in the same town our entire lives — 62 years — and are the best of friends, so I have many stories about him,” said Duff. “I guess one of my favorites is that years after the 1975 national championship game which UK lost to UCLA, Kevin met Coach (John) Wooden at a banquet and had the courage to say to him, ‘Coach, I think if you had not announced your retirement right before that game, we would have been national champions….’
“And he was right. We had beaten Indiana’s undefeated team and it was not one of UCLA’s better teams. But Coach Wooden timed his retirement announcement to elevate his team’s play. And he was also very clever about how he got on the refs — he waited until the cameras were off during commercial breaks to work them over. In that game, though, he actually got a technical foul and he even went out on the floor yelling at them when Kevin was shooting the technical foul shot, which disturbed Kevin’s shot.
“We would have won nine out of 10 games against that team, but that isn’t how the tournament works. And just think, if we had won that one, we would have nine championships and UCLA 10. I hope we pass them in our lifetime.”
In his first game at UK, Duff’s parents sat with the other players’ parents and he fondly remembers that moment vividly.
“One of the proudest moments of my life was looking in the stands and seeing my mother and father in the good seats at Memorial Coliseum,” said Duff, an attorney who twice has been appointed by U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts to the position of Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, his current position, in 2006 and 2015.
“That (UK freshman squad) was a great team. We were undefeated and we averaged 100 points a game as team. I averaged one point a game, and I’ve told my teammates if it wasn’t for me the team would not have averaged 100 points a game. My high game was four points, but it was before the (era of) three-point shot, and I only recall two shots – a tip-in at Auburn and a fast break layup — that I ever took that would have been closer than a three-pointer.”
Before he returning to his current high-ranking federal job — his second stint — in January of 2015, Duff served as the president and CEO of
the Freedom Forum, and CEO of the Newseum and Newseum Institute in Washington since 2011. (Freedom Forum is a nonpartisan foundation that
champions the First Amendment as a cornerstone of democracy, and is the principal funder of the Newseum and Newseum Institute.)
As the top administrator of the federal courts system, Duff is responsible for the management of the administrative office, which has around 1,000 employees. The agency also provides administrative support to 2,400 judicial officers, and nearly 29,000 court employees throughout the nation.
Why did he come back to his current post after a somewhat less-stressful professional career at Freedom Forum and Newseum?
“I was honored when Chief Justice Roberts asked me to return,” explained Duff, who was Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist’s administrative assistant from 1996-2000, serving as the chief of staff at the U.S. Supreme Court. “It is a wonderful opportunity to conclude my career where I started 41 years ago, working then for Chief Justice Burger.
“The timing was also good at the Newseum where I truly enjoyed my work — our revenues and attendance were up, our expenses were down, and our endowment had risen by $100 million from the time I had started there. I felt comfortable leaving at that time.”
Duff also has been an adjunct faculty member in constitutional law at Georgetown University for many years.
Even though he is in Washington, Duff doesn’t attend many Washington Wizards games but he still follows them, especially former UK star John Wall, as well as NBA, which is loaded with many former Wildcat standouts.
“I like the way the Spurs play,” he said. “Their NBA championship a couple of years ago was the best passing basketball team I have ever seen. (It) reminded me of Rupp’s Runts.”
Has Duff met Wall yet?
“I haven’t met John Wall yet but my youngest son has and mentioned that I wore No. 11 at UK for one year, too. (Wall also wore that same jersey
number while at Kentucky.) I admire John Wall’s work ethic. He has made himself an All-Star after getting over criticized his first couple of years. He really puts in the work and deserves respect.”
Duff — who once showed his Kentucky Wildcat mementos in his Washington office to this columnist several years ago — is thankful to be a faithful member of the Big Blue Nation.
“I’ve been blessed with opportunity,” he said. “I worked with three Chief Justices, including Chief Justice Rehnquist during the (Clinton) impeachment trial and was a pallbearer in his funeral, but putting on that Kentucky uniform remains one of the greatest thrills and honors in my life.”
Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime columnist in Kentucky, is the author of four books about UK basketball. He is the editor of KySportsStyle.com magazine and a professor at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro. You can follow him on Twitter @KySportsStyle or reach him via e-mail at KySportsStyle@gmail.com.