Thanks to the University of Indianapolis last week, we have a proxy for an NKU-Thomas More mythical basketball matchup. NKU beat U. of Indy, 66-64, in Indianapolis and then Indy returned to Northern Kentucky Wednesday to knock off TMU, 73-69.
That pretty much gives us an idea of how this game might go if the two Northern Kentucky programs re-instituted their I-275 rivalry that reached 35 games from 1971 through 2006. And as expected, after losing the first game in the series and five of the first 14, NKU – now NCAA Division I up from Division II – has won the last 21 straight against the now Division II Saints, up from the NAIA and NCAA Division III.
But while TMU was playing onetime GLVC rival Indy, NKU was playing former TMU Mid-South NAIA rival Cumberlands, winning 98-79. We note all this because we think – in this rivalry weekend when UC is hosting Xavier in the Crosstown Shootout and Kentucky and Louisville get together at Rupp Arena in Lexington – why isn’t the battle for Northern Kentucky happening?
The first time these teams played, back in 1971, Thomas More was the big dog in Northern Kentucky basketball and the then-Rebels said sure, they’d give newcomer NKU a shot — and a 92-74 defeat. But the Norse got right back with a 106-101 overtime thriller the next year to win The Kentucky Post Long Rifle Trophy – the next year. In the series through 2006, there were five seasons with no games and five with two, NKU leads the series, 30-5, and has a 21-game winning streak from 1985 through NKU’s 86-61 win in 2006. The teams also played an exhibition game before the 2018 season with NKU an 84-47 winner.
While I wasn’t around for the last game, I was there for the first one as the sports information director doing a little bit of everything at NKU then and that game was great for both programs and Northern Kentucky sports in general. And with as much as TMU has improved its program under Justin Ray, going all the way to the NAIA’s Final Four in recent years, this would be a great December matchup for Darrin Horn’s guys.
The same for UK and Louisville, who I’d been covering for The Kentucky Post and was there for the NCAA Tournament matchup that re-started that series in 1983 in Knoxville after a 61-year regular season interruption with three postseason games the only meetings. Not a person in the Commonwealth thinks the resumption has been anything but a boon for basketball here.
As for the Crosstown Shootout, as a Xavier alum and then SID and assistant AD at my alma mater, we were looking at the possible discontinuation of that now 91-game rivalry first played in 1928 to dedicate Xavier’s brand-new $350,000, 4,500-seat Schmidt Fieldhouse. The series immediately took 15 years off, then returned into the 1970s when it became truly ugly on occasion with one incident after another as the national champion and nationally ranked Bearcats pulled away from Xavier, winning 12 straight from 1956-67 and 22 of 24 from 1957-79.
It was becoming obvious that then-Cincinnati coach Gale Catlett wouldn’t have minded dropping Xavier. No upside for UC, he figured, as they recruited one top national class after another. Uh oh, I thought. What can Xavier do to lock down the UC-XU series? The answer I came up with was the Crosstown Shootout with the Cincinnati Enquirer as title sponsor and Skyline Chili as the corporate sponsor with a luncheon and week-long focus on the game.
Then we got a lucky break. Catlett left for his alma mater, West Virginia, with the NCAA looking into UC recruiting, and the rest of the UC athletic staff – and new coach Ed Badger – were very much enthused about efforts to make the rivalry between the two schools, just three miles apart, special. With Xavier’s improvement, the number of national TV appearances and sold-out arenas since then has made that come true and sustained it through times when the occasional old days’ ugliness returned. And with nine wins in the past 12 games, my Xavier has come back.
We say this because we think Northern Kentucky – and NKU and TMU – are missing a great opportunity here. This is the perfect week every year to do it – right before the holidays and conference schedules. We’re thinking of a Saturday doubleheader – new NKU women’s coach Jeff Hans is a three-time national champion at TMU and his successor Brian Neal at TMU is a former assistant.
As for the men’s game, why not add another interesting matchup at NKU’s Truist Arena where, without a doubt, the TMU game – especially a doubleheader bill – would outdraw the average 2,312 for home crowds thus far – not counting the Cincinnati game. NKU could use this game to market season tickets. TMU could sell all their own tickets for the game and keep that revenue. As for Truist, it’s another opportunity to get Northern Kentuckians who haven’t been to the outstanding 9,000-seat venue into the building and on campus.
Seems like a win-win-win deal. Let’s get a corporate sponsor and get it done.
From Old Latonia to Turfway Park
The cover sub-title describes Dr. James Claypool’s newest Kentucky racing book (with co-author Robert Webster) — A Tradition Reborn — as the story of “140 years” of Northern Kentucky thoroughbred racing from the days of “Old Latonia Race Track to the Turfway Park Racing and Gaming.”
In the foreword, Hall of Fame Triple Crown jockey – and Walton native — Steve Cauthen mentions some of the reasons anyone who cares about thoroughbred racing or Northern Kentucky might love this book. Did you know, Cauthen asks, that “cutting edge Latonia/Turfway Park produced the $2 bet, the largest mutuel payout ever, and the nation’s first sports book, all of which and more are chronicled in this book.”
Great Christmas stocking stuffer. Lots of terrific portraits of the interesting folks who made racing here and tons of photos to illustrate their stories.
December’s NKSHOF inductions Wednesday
Another one of those family sporting traditions that so often describes our sports hereabouts will headline the December inductions into the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame at the Arbors in Park Hills, Wednesday at 1 p.m. Leading off will be the three multi-sport Berger brothers from Ft. Mitchell – Dick, Chuck and Jimmy out of Covington Catholic.
Also to be inducted is coach/baseball scout/athlete Hep Cronin, whose history includes all the places before and after his time as baseball and assistant basketball coach at CovCath, where he got his coaching start. Also to be honored is Thomas More history professor and dean, Dr. Ray Hebert, whose athletic career started in his native New England and followed him here as an historian telling the story of TMU’s sports through the years.
Bob White: A sporting life well-lived
The world of Kentucky high school sports said goodbye this week to Bob White, the Louisville Courier-Journal’s high school sports reporter who covered all of Kentucky — “from Paducah to Pikeville” as it was described — for more than four decades when the C-J did the same. Bob was 89 and a great friend.
“I’d like to say God blessed me with the opportunity to work at something I loved — and be paid for it, too,” White wrote once before his retirement in 2000 before freelancing until 2017. “Who says you can’t have the best of both worlds?”
You were always thrilled to be at a game – or with a team in one – when Bob was there. You knew it mattered. Whether it was Darrell Griffith or Wesley Unseld or your local guy, Bob’s all-state teams were the absolute word. I knew that for a fact when we started football at CovCath more than five decades ago and because we were new, with only Highlands on our schedule here, none of our players got many votes from Northern Kentucky.
So there I was, a lowly CovCath assistant when the phone rang in 1970 and it was Bob on the other line, putting together his all-state football team. How he’d remembered me, I still don’t know. But he wanted to know whether our Bill Topmiller, an all-around athlete who could have been all-state in football, basketball or baseball, was good enough to be first team for the C-J that year.
I said absolutely that Bill, a 6-foot-2 wide receiver who was headed to Vanderbilt on a football scholarship where he’d help the Commodores to their first bowl appearance in decades, was more than worthy. And told Bob why. And that was it. Topmiller was first-team all-state because Bob had done his job – as he always did. He will be missed.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @dweber3440.