Kentucky Colonels

The Kentucky Colonels were a member of the American Basketball Association for all of the league's nine years. The name is derived from the historic Kentucky colonels. The Colonels won the most games and had the highest winning percentage of any franchise in the league's history, but the team did not join the NBA in the 1976 ABA-NBA merger. The downtown Louisville Convention Center (now known as The Gardens) was the Colonels' original venue for the first three seasons before moving to Freedom Hall for the remaining seasons, beginning with the 1970–71 schedule.

The Kentucky Colonels were only one of two ABA teams, along with the Indiana Pacers, to play for the entire duration of the league without relocating, changing its team name or folding.

Overview and background

The Louisville-based Colonels started their time in the ABA as a colorful franchise, and not just because of their bright chartreuse green uniforms. Among the things they were known for was their "mascot" Ziggy, a prize-winning Brussels Griffon dog that was owned by original team owners Joe and Mamie Gregory. Some fans of the Colonels believed Ziggy was the real owner of the club. Ziggy went to owner's meetings and had a front row seat for games. The dog was even part of the team's logo for their first seasons.

Kentucky Colonels (band)

The Kentucky Colonels were a popular bluegrass band in the 1960s. They included Clarence White, later with The Byrds.

History

The White brothers started out as the Country Boys in 1954, with their brother Eric. With the addition of Latham, Mack and Sloane, and Roger Bush replacing Eric, they changed their name to the Kentucky Colonels in 1961. They soon became well-known on the bluegrass scene, performing at folk and country festivals. They appeared on Andy Griffith's television show twice. In 1964, they released their most popular album to date, Appalachian Swing!. The band's last performance was in the Fall of 1965. They reunited with Clarence White and performed a number of shows in 1973 as the New Kentucky Colonels, also known as the White Brothers. Clarence was killed by a drunk driver in July 1973. Before Clarence was killed, the White Brothers recorded an album called "Live in Sweden 1973."

Members

Kentucky Colonels (ABA 2000)

Kentucky Colonels (ABA 2000) were a member of the ABA 2000, the second version of the American Basketball Association. The first American Basketball Association played from 1967 through the 1975–76 season and included a team called the Kentucky Colonels. Both versions of the Colonels played in Louisville, Kentucky.

Since the departure of the original Colonels in 1976, Louisville had hosted a handful of professional basketball teams including the Louisville Catbirds of the Continental Basketball Association in the 1980s and the Louisville Shooters of the United States Basketball League. Unsuccessful efforts were made to bring the NBA's relocating Charlotte Hornets and Vancouver Grizzlies to Louisville, along with the Houston Rockets at a time that they were demanding a new arena. Then, the ABA 2000 was formed and brought professional basketball back to Louisville.

In 2004, the New ABA brought back the Kentucky Colonels to Louisville during the 2004 season. The roster included such names as former Kentucky Wildcats Anthony Epps and Antwain Barbour, former University of Louisville standout Luke Whitehead and Syracuse University alum Jeremy McNeil. In the front office, former NBA veteran Tree Rollins was the general manager and all-time ABA great Lou Dampier was director of player personnel. Henry Bacon was initially named head coach, but after a 2–5 start to the season, he was replaced by assistant coach Kevin Keathley. Coach Keathley would guide the team to a 19−12 finish overall and a second round playoff loss to the eventual ABA champion Arkansas Rimrockers. Antwain Barbour was named All-ABA for the 2004–05 season and Coach Kevin Keathley was named an ABA Coach of the Year. The Colonels played three exhibition games in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in the summer of 2005. In 2006, the Colonels finished the season 2−14.

Kentucky

Kentucky (ⁱ/kənˈtʌki/, kən-TU-kee), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state located in the east south-central region of the United States. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth (the others being Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts). Originally a part of Virginia, in 1792 Kentucky became the 15th state to join the Union. Kentucky is the 37th most extensive and the 26th most populous of the 50 United States.

Kentucky is known as the "Bluegrass State", a nickname based on the bluegrass found in many of its pastures due to the fertile soil. One of the major regions in Kentucky is the Bluegrass Region in central Kentucky which houses two of its major cities, Louisville and Lexington. It is a land with diverse environments and abundant resources, including the world's longest cave system, Mammoth Cave National Park, the greatest length of navigable waterways and streams in the contiguous United States, and the two largest man-made lakes east of the Mississippi River.

Kentucky (horse)

Kentucky (foaled 1861, died 1875), was a successful American Thoroughbred racehorse who won 21 of his 23 starts, including 20 consecutive wins.

He was by Lexington, who sired three colts in 1861 (out of Glencoe mares) and would each become one of the best race horses in America – Norfolk, Asteroid and Kentucky. Norfolk and Asteroid went undefeated throughout their racing careers, and one of the few horses who ever defeated Kentucky was Norfolk. Kentucky's dam was Magnolia, by the imported British champion Glencoe; Glencoe stood at John Harper's Nantura Stock Farm in Kentucky. His sire line traced back to Herod.

A rangy bay with a narrow white stripe and white off-fore pastern, Kentucky was owned by John Hunter, one of the founders of the Saratoga Race Course and co-owner (and the first chairman) of The Jockey Club.

Racing record

Probably trained by A.J. Minor (the facts are unclear), Kentucky won his only two-year-old start. At age three, racing for John Hunter, William R. Travers and George Osgood, he lost his second start in the inaugural Jersey Derby – coming in fourth to Norfolk. After that he won 20 consecutive races, including the first Travers Stakes in 1864 and the first two runnings of the Saratoga Cup at a distance of 2¼ miles. He also won the first Inaugural Stakes in four mile heats at the newly opened Jerome Park Racetrack. For three seasons (1864, 1865 and 1866), when races were two, three and four miles long, he was the undisputed champion of East Coast racing.

Kentucky (film)

Kentucky is a 1938 Technicolor film with Loretta Young, Richard Greene, and Walter Brennan. It was directed by David Butler. It is a Romeo and Juliet story of lovers Jack and Sally, set amidst Kentucky horseracing, in which a family feud goes back to the Civil War and is kept alive by Sally's Uncle Peter.

Plot

During the Civil War, Thad Goodwin (Charles Waldron) of Elmtree Farm, a local horse breeder resists Capt. John Dillon (Douglass Dumbrille) and a company of Union soldiers confiscating his prize horses. He is killed by Dillon and his youngest son Peter (Bobs Watson) cries at the soldiers riding away with the horses.

75 years later, in 1938, Peter (Walter Brennan) now a crotchety old man, still resides on Elmtree Farm and raises horses with his niece Sally (Loretta Young). Dillon's grandson Jack (Richard Greene) and Sally meet, her not knowing that he was a Dillon. Peter Goodwin dies when his speculation on cotton drops. The Goodwins are forced to auction off nearly all their horses and Jack offers his services to Sally, as a trainer of their last prize horse, "Bessie's Boy", who falls ill.