UK legends: Ralph Beard

The litany of Kentucky basketball greats rolls off the tongue of most longtime fans or UK hoops history buffs: Chuck Hayes, Tayshaun Prince, Jamal Mashburn, Kenny Walker, Jack Givens, Rick Robey, Dan Issel, Kyle Macy, Pat Riley, Alex Groza, Cliff Hagan, Wah Wah Jones. And maybe the best of them all, Ralph Beard.

Many fans (myself once included) may wonder how this 5'10" guard came to be considered among the five best players in UK history. And even more may wonder why, if he's one of the all-time greats, there's so little said about him. There are valid reasons for both. For the benefit of all, here's a little Big Blue history:

Raised in poverty in Louisville, Beard was a four-sport star at Male High School, and led his Bulldogs to a state title in basketball in 1945. At the time, for any player of his caliber from in-state (or out of, honestly) there was no choice of where to continue his hoops career. He would head to Lexington and play for Adolph Rupp.

Beard was given a rare four years in blue and white. How successful was Beard over his career? How does a record of 130-10 sound? What about two NCAA titles and an NIT title when it meant something? What about leading the Kentucky squad as the backbone of the US Olympic team and winning the Olympic Gold Medal? What about three-time Consensus All-American? Not too shabby for a poor kid from Kentucky.

After hitting the game-winning free throw in 1946 to bring the NIT title over Rhode Island, Beard, as part of the legendary "Fabulous Five" with Alex Groza, Wah Wah Jones, Kenny Rollins and Cliff Barker, helped UK to back-to-back NCAA championships and the 1948 Olympic championship. Four of the five went on to become the Indianapolis Olympians of the NBA in 1949.

But after making the 1950-51 first team All-NBA team (with George Mikan and teammate Alex Groza), a dark period of Kentucky's recent past caught up to Beard and several of his present and former teammates. A point-shaving scandal centered around the 1950 NIT in New York brought down Beard's world, and left he, Groza, Barker and big man Bill Spivey banned from the game for life.

Eli Kaye, one of the handful of game fixing masterminds, and his associates (which included Nick Englisis, a Brooklyn native but former football player at the University of Kentucky) first approached Kentucky starters Ralph Beard, Alex Groza and Dale Barnstable in 1948 and after much pressure, got the players to agree to $100 each to beat their upcoming opponent, St. Johns, by more than the point spread. -- Jon Scott's UK history Web site.

Beard, whose whole world was basketball, was crushed.

"There was absolutely no justice," says Ralph. "They didn't catch all of them. The only thing I ever wanted was to be a professional basketball player and someday be in the Naismith Hall of Fame. That was my whole life, and it's gone. But I'm not longer interested in retribution. I realize we all have our own private guilt and our own private innocence. If taking the money makes you guilty, then I'm guilty. But if doing something to influence the score of a basketball game makes you guilty, then in my mother's eyes, I'm innocent. Yes, I took the money. We were always poor and financial insecurity was ingrained in my childhood. I needed the money and I wanted the money. But in my heart, I still know I'm innocent. I'm forty-eight years old now and I will never understand why it all happened to me. I thought I'd get over it when I grew too old to play ball, but I've had to learn to live with it like an alcoholic. I also realize that I've been lucky enough to be able to make another life for myself. In fact, everything's going along pretty good and I really can't complain. I don't even mind talking about it. All my dirt has already been dug up. There are plenty of days when I don't even think about scandals. But, let me tell you something, partner. I know I won't be completely over it until they hit me with that spade." - Scandals of '51, by Charley Rosen, pg. 220-221.

Fellow disgraced Wildcat Barker noted before he died in 1998 that he never saw true evidence of point-shaving.

"I still don’t think Ralph and Groza fixed games," Barker said. "I think they just played the games the same way they would have anyway, then they took the money."

Beard is old now, and in failing health. History has been unkind to those implicated in insider gambling -- from Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Black Sox to Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds. But one thing is for certain: Ralph Beard could play the game of basketball as well as anyone of his era, and will always be one of the greatest players ever at the University of Kentucky.

[Ed.'s note: Thank you once again to Jon Scott's indispensible web site for help with this post.]