There are many great sports dynasties, such as the New York Yankees and their 24 World Series Championships, most in Major League Baseball history. You have the Boston Celtics and their 17 NBA Titles. Baseball Hall of Fame Shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. and his record breaking 2,137 streak of games played in Major League Baseball, UCLA winning 10 national titles under Coach John Wooden, the Pittsburgh Steelers and their six Super Bowl titles.You could go on and on.
but perhaps the most incredible milestone in all of sports may be Kentucky Men's Basketball reaching the 2,000 win mark. They did it last night in an 88-44 drubbing of Drexel. The Wildcats now have 2,000 wins as a program, the most of any college basketball team in history. There were so many great legendary players: Jack "Goose" Givens, who scored 41 points en route to winning the 1978 National Championship. His teammate, Kyle Macy, who went on to have a stellar career in the NBA. Players like Dan Issel, Kenny "Sky" Walker, Derek Anderson, Jamal Mashburn, and more recently, Rajon Rondo and Jody Meeks. Meeks, of course, broke the all time Kentucky single game scoring record last year by putting up 54 points against Tennessee. All of these players were part of the march to 2,000 wins.
Some of these former players were asked to reflect on what 2,000 wins meant to them personally. Kyle Macy, the point guard on the 1978 national title team, had this to say: "From a player's perspective, I think it gives you some pride in the fact that you know you were a part of that total number of wins", Kacy said. "Obviously, it being your alma mater, you want it to be first in every category. When you can say you have the most wins of any school playing college basketball and the highest winning percentage, those are things to be very proud of."
Kenny "Sky" Walker was an All-American at Kentucky in the early 80s. Here's what he had to say when asked what 2,000 wins meant to him as a former player: "It means a lot because we take a lot of pride in being the best college basketball program. One of the ways that we can really boast that is by having the all-time wins", Walker said. " I think it means a lot to the former players because we all felt like we were a part of something special. For the young guys to carry that into the new millennium makes us all really happy. Two-thousand wins is a lot of wins and that means that you've been good for a long, long time."
With Head Coach John Calipari's track record as an outstanding recruiter and coach, the Wildcats don't really have to worry about any other program, whether it be North Carolina, Duke or Kansas catching them any time soon. They may have not won the most national championships, but they have won the most games of any other college basketball program in the history of the game, and nothing can take that away. For more information on this story, the reader can go to www.ukathletics.com.
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