Kyle Macy - From The Rafters of Rupp

from the rafters of Rupp is brought to you by buds gun shop Don Franklin's Auto Mall double dogs Friends of coal Hunt Brothers Pizza Kentucky Farm Bureau [Music] [Music] the multiple championship banners in the 42 jerseys permanently hanging from the rafters in Rupp Arena are there to honor the remarkable history of the University of Kentucky storied basketball program hello everybody I'm Kyle Macy and welcome to this year's final episode of season four of from the rafters of rub throughout this series we continue to highlight the select group of individuals who have all enjoyed legendary careers wearing the Kentucky blue and white I've been getting asked quite often lately when are you gonna do an episode on you well it does seem a little awkward to be on both sides of the interview session but my Jersey is up there so here we go he breaks into the circle pumps goes up from 15 good I [Music] was born April 9th 1957 in Kendallville Indiana we actually lived just outside of kin oval in Albion but Albion was so small it didn't have a hospital I was the youngest of three children born to Bob and Evelyn Macy I certainly learned a lot from my brother Kevin and my sister Terry my sister was six years older my brother for my brother probably developed my toughness because he was always beating me up or being rough on me and my sister was one of them helped me survive so she kind of looked out for me but I remember we were young and that's one thing you know even though my father was a high school coach at the time we never lacked for anything I wouldn't like we were rich but we didn't know any different and my parents were very involved with the kids we backyard wiffle ball games take us you know to a gym and shoot around or those type things when I turned three our family moved to Fort Wayne my father took a college coaching job at Indiana Institute of Technology that's where I really began to fall in love with the game of basketball but also to anytime I wanted to go to the gym and I was kind of a gym rat that it was amazing as I look back later as I got older and even when I was coaching that any time I asked to go to the gym or go shoot or go workout heal I said yes I mean because I'm sure there were days he'd had long day work practice had gone out scouting or recruiting and come home late and Here I am bounce around want to go to the gym he'd pitch baseball batting practice with the rubberized balls we'd play tennis on the wood floor and so it was just a great childhood Fort Wayne was and still is a great sports town while growing up there I played with a lot of great players in many different sports I was involved in baseball cross-country tennis and of course basketball I just love to play and and but really all sports I love to compete and it was always a changing I wanted to be better than my brother I remember the first time I beat him in tennis and I think this last time he played tennis and you know I was kind of shy as a little kid didn't really talk much but that was kind of my release my outlet was playing sports and be involved and for making friends through that before my sophomore year in high school our family moved to Peru Indiana my father had always wanted to coach me and the opportunity opened up at Peru high school crew was actually where my grandparents lived I'll admit being the new kid in town was a little scary at first it was funny the first few days you know I'd ride my bike once we moved in I'd ride my bike over to the park for the pickup games in the evening and I didn't know anybody and you know to hear stories made you hear about that new the coach's son coming to town and you know that someone thought I was sick 7 or whatever nights like oh man but my first game I think I had 27 points 9 rebounds and some assists so I think people the fans realized that I was playing because I could play not because I was the coach's son so that kind of took all that pressure off my high school career in Indiana was great we won our sectional tournament in both my sophomore and senior seasons and although my father and I didn't reach our goal of playing in a state championship game we did play in front of a packed house every night and built lasting relationships my high school career also prepared me for the next step in my basketball career don't go away we'll be right back after these words from our sponsors huntin burglars Pizza has been proudly serving communities across America for over 25 years download the hunt burgers pizza app to find one of our 7500 locations inside a convenience store near you are you a sporting shooter hunter or looking for the best concealed carry option Bud's gun shop and range as Kentucky's largest selection of firearms ammunition and fire our accessories locator 9 industry Road in Lexington after my senior year at Peru I was fortunate to receive a number of awards all state parade all-american named a McDonald's all-american but perhaps the most meaningful award to me was being named Indiana's mr. basketball to be associated to be chosen as mr. basketball it's a great honor I mean just something you're very proud of but I also realized that I didn't do it myself I mean I had some great teammates that were giving the ball up you know just all things kind of came together and it was real fortunate but very honored to receive that award my father handled everything when it came to the recruiting process until I reached the end of my senior year I just concentrated on playing basketball but when my senior year came to an end I was faced with making a decision on choosing a school that was right for me I did make some visits and basically it was Cincinnati who was a very good team at that time UCLA John Wooden had just retired my senior year in 75 when they beat Kentucky so they were gonna have a new coach gene Bartow I made a visit there probably knew I wasn't gonna go there because it was pretty far away from Peru and again I mean approves a small town and I hadn't traveled much in Kentucky even seemed like a long way away at that time so it basically came down to Kentucky which I'd visited and Purdue so coach Hall finally came to him he said hey we want to sign one more guard and we would like to sign you but if you're not ready we've got another guard that will sign and we're gonna do that but we need to know and I may have been feeling some pressure to stay and stay stay close to home and Purdue has a good basketball tradition as well so I said well coach I'm still not 100% sure and so they went ahead and signed Truman claytor Purdue University was close to home and I initially like the roll coach Fred Shouse envisioned for my future there yeah Frege House had coached with the Lakers been maybe a general manager involved in pro basketball and the one thing he did tell me was that as a freshman I would get an opportunity to play which was very important about it's you know one of the reasons I said I didn't want to go to Indiana because I wanted to play before I was a junior and so the season starts in the first three or four games I'm not getting a sniff at time I'm you know maybe a minute or two here and there so didn't start off real well Bruce Parkinson whose father played here at Kentucky broke his wrist so he was out for the season so because of that injury now I moved into the starting lineup and the first game against West Virginia Bob Huggins was a player for West Virginia on the road not I think he had 21 points or something like that my first game my first Big Ten game at 38 so I mean things were going well and and then all of a sudden it just kind of stopped it there was no real team play and it was just a mess and in college I I'm a firm believer you need to have some good discipline and that just wasn't happening and I didn't see it changing I transferred to Kentucky before the 7677 season and had to sit out a year under NCAA guidelines before being eligible the next fall yeah the year I set out was one of the toughest years probably definitely basketball to not be able to play now fortunately I could practice with the team and so that gave me some outlet and it was a great learning experience because I was playing every day in practice against Larry Johnson who was a little bit bigger than me height wise a lot stronger than me physically faster than me and just a real tough guard and so I got to go against him every day which is great practice so it was while it was a tough year not being able to play and sitting there on the bench watching games and at times feeling like ah man I could help by doing this or that too now being able to when when that team lost in the East Regional of North Carolina it was kind of bittersweet in the fact that I was sad that the team lost and you know sad for him but at the same time was I'm eligible with the experience of seniors Rick Robey Jack Gibbons James Lee and Mike Phillips returning for the 7778 season our Kentucky team had one thing and one thing only on our mind but this team was unique in the fact that they had the four seniors that had just about accomplished everything except winning a national championship and I think that was really our motivation from those seniors to make sure we stayed focused on achieving the ultimate goal that's what everybody knew what the goal was that of that season it wasn't to get you know to the East Regional Finals or the Mideast or what it was doing the championship Kentucky Farm Bureau Insurance big on commitment we never set out to be the largest auto dealer in Kentucky he just set out to provide people reliable vehicles and great customer service and for the last 50 years that's what we've done the 7778 Kentucky team was truly the most unselfish group of guys I ever played with it really didn't matter to us who scored the points on any particular night we were just interested in doing whatever it took to get the victory during the regular season we posted big wins at Kansas at Freedom Hall over number four Notre Dame and tough road wins at Tennessee Vanderbilt and at Mississippi State with a stellar twenty five and two regular season mark this Kentucky squad headed into NCAA postseason play ranked number one in the country yeah we played Florida State first-round and we got behind and so at halftime we weren't playing very well enough Florida State was a good team they're very quick and got up and down the floor real fast so we got behind and coach hall was not real happy as you might expect and so he sat down three of the starters and but it was just kind of a shock treatment the fact that for the three that didn't start you know if you're not gonna play you can sit over here with me it's kind of what he was saying but you look at that move that Coach Hall made I mean by taking out three starters start second half if that doesn't go right and we lose that game you know his job may have been on the line so it was a gutsy move and gutsy call on his part and fortunately for us it worked out we went on to beat Florida State 85 76 then Mike Phillips scored 24 and Truman claytor tossed in 13 as we took care of business in a 91 69 win over Miami of Ohio in the second-round matchup next up was number four ranked Michigan State with a trip to the Final Four on the line Michigan State in their that final game of the region they they played a matchup zone and it was a real good matchup zone and it gave his problems for the first half the way I remember it we came out to warm up for the second half and coach Hamilton had talked to Coach Hall about what to do on offense against the matchup zone basically they said okay Rick we're gonna swing the ball you come up set a high pick I'll come off the pick and when you do that Michael be in the low post as one option jack will be swinging running to the corner the other option or you may have a shot there or Rick will be you know to kick back and so I got into that gap by coming off that pick against the zone and it just worked the Michigan State game went down to the wire we turned in a great defensive effort against Magic Johnson holding the future college and pro Hall of Famer to only six points on the night with the thrilling 52-49 win over Michigan State we were on our way to st. Louis and the Final Four when we got to st. Louis you know the those seniors we had Rick Mike James and Jack they had been at the Final Four as freshmen in st. in San Diego and at that time they did a lot of sightseeing in the zoo and all those different things well this time it was completely different we weren't there to sightsee and see the arch or whatever a case might be we were there to play basketball and Arkansas was a real good team it probably was our toughest game of the tournament the Arkansas game was a battle from beginning to end we led most of the game but those Razorbacks just kept coming at us the game came down to the final minute clinging to a 2-point lead we had the ball out of bounds on the Arkansas baseline and we had an out-of-bounds play that we called Rick Rick Rick and basically Rick would come over to set a pick for Jack this is against their folklore pressure and Jack would act like he was coming off the pick but he'd slip it and just take off down court and we'd bring our big guys up towards me so everybody was coming forward and then we throw it over the top and my baseball days kicked in so I was able to throw it you know like a touchdown pass to Jack he caught it and laid it in I think that put us up with by four maybe with very little time and now that was kind of what sealed the game Jack's run out the Arkansas game ended with us on top 64 59 the wind set up the championship game match up with the number five ranked Duke Blue Devils Dukes game plan was to zone us take away our inside game and keep pressure on our outside shooters their strategy left the middle of the defense wide open we made the adjustment when Jack got the hot hand you know when he banked the one in from the corner off the side you kind of knew this was his night and so we just basically stopped running our set offenses and just kind of started looking for Jack wherever he was and tried to ride that as long as he could and he never cooled down Jack Givens scored 41 and Rick Robey had 20 points and 11 rebounds the 94-88 victory over Duke gave the Kentucky program our fifth NCAA national title it was a dream come true the the first thing that happened after the game I shook hands with Jim super not remember that but then I immediately looked up to the crowd to find my parents so you know I didn't ever get a piece of the net got caught in the crowd and could never get down there to cut a piece the net but just knowing everything that I'd gone through who they'd gone through it was pretty cool to win coach Hall made the decision to fly back to Lexington after the game that night the reception we received from the Big Blue Nation that the Blue Grass Airport is one of the most memorable experiences of my life we finally got back now it's 2:00 in the morning and the airport is crazy I mean people wall to wall and they tore up the x-ray machines and all kind of the fans did but they'd been there since probably 11 o'clock and cars parked all the way the entrance to the airport all along Versailles Road they'd bring us in from the walkway off the airplane and one by one they'd send us down the stairs and into this room well every time a player came down the entire crowd would just push so you're like almost pinned up against the wall and then you'd get in the room and the crowd would go back here comes the next player it was Bush so but it was just the craziest thing and I don't know if they were burning couches back then but town even at 2:00 in the morning it was just just wild : streets had a big impact on my life a grandfather was a coal miner my father was a coal miner coal is the largest driving force and our local economy that's why I'm a friend of cool double dogs is a great place to eat in a single word delicious as you can imagine nothing compares to the thrill of winning a national championship like we did in 1978 however and moving on we did have some exciting moments during my junior and senior seasons at Kentucky there was the Kansas comeback with Kentucky down six and less than 30 seconds on the clock a heroic effort led by freshman flash Dwight Anderson resolved in one of UK's most improbable comeback victories of all time in Rupp Arena we secured big wins over top ranked Indiana and top five rated Notre Dame we beat nationally ranked Kansas by one this time at Kansas I also experienced what it was like to play for legendary coach Bob Knight while participating in the pan-american games in Puerto Rico during the summer of 1979 then in my last game as a wildcat we lost a 5554 heartbreaker to Duke in the semifinals of the Mideast regional even though we'd like to say we were twenty four and six that that was just a strange year and I was a senior and you know as a senior you want to go out on top and you kind of feel like you've been through the battles and things could kind of be turned over to you or whatever but I don't know it was just a weird year trying to figure out pieces of the puzzle all these new freshmen coming in that were very talented and where I fit in where they fit in and how we were gonna play and I don't know it just it was a disappointing finale to the senior year I was actually drafted by the Phoenix Suns after my junior year the boycott implemented by Jimmy Carter altered my plans for the 1980 Olympics so after my senior year at Kentucky I went ahead and signed a contract with the Suns I played in Phoenix for five years with the Suns had a great time out there weather was beautiful my first year I didn't start we had Walter Davis and Dennis Johnson two guard spots and so I was reserved played every game and we that's probably the year we should have made the NBA Finals the summer after I graduated from UK I started the Kyle Macy basketball camp with Nolan Barger of Tates Creek High School here in Lexington it was fantastic I continued to hold camp during every offseason and had a successful run for 27 years I moved on from Phoenix in 1985 and landed in Chicago to play for the Bulls Michael Jordan was a that was the second year in the league unfortunately he hurt his ankle and only played 15 games in the tournament and we played the Boston Celtics first round and I think it was well it was at their place the old Boston Garden and I joke and I tell everybody yeah we combined for 70 points so yeah Michael had 63 and at 7 after Chicago I played one year with the Indiana Pacers before heading overseas to play professionally in Italy from 1987 to 1990 so I wanted to play more and I had an opportunity to go over to Italy and played three years over in Italy and had a great time and their fish so I got 10 years professionally I returned to Lexington after playing in Italy for three seasons I worked at Central Bank and spent time as the color analyst on the UK radio network broadcast before taking the head coaching job at Morehead State University so the president hired me and I got to spend nine great years there I love this the opportunity I had it Morehead and and the people in town were outstanding very supportive and they they realized that we were trying to get this thing going like it was maybe back in the days of Wayne Martin and build that program when I look back I realize how fortunate I've been to have great mentors in my life the three most influential people in my life as far as basketball have been my father coach Hall and coach John McLeod at Phoenix my father taught me the fundamentals of basketball and how to play the game those lessons led me to success on all levels from Coach Hall I learned discipline and how hard you have to work if you want to achieve your goals both on or off the court and John McLeod taught me how to be a professional and how to treat basketball as a job because pro ball is a business my boys felt that I could never sit down and write a better script for my career born in a small town in Indiana in high school I was able to play for my father who's always been my hero I transferred to a college program where I played an integral part of an NCAA national championship team and played in front of the greatest college fans in the country I've enjoyed a wonderful career in basketball with some awards and recognitions and yet my memories at the University of Kentucky are most special to me and to have my jersey retired and hanging in Rupp Arena there's something I could have never dreamed of accomplishing it's a great honor to have your names in the rafters of rub because you not just look at your Jersey when you see it up there but you look down the row both ways and on the other side and you see some of the names that are up there and knowing the history of Kentucky basketball it's just such an honor to know that you're up there hanging with those guys but that's one of the reasons that I started the TV show from the rafters at Rupp because I wanted fans to know firsthand of a lot of the stories and what made Kentucky basketball tradition and to hear from the people that actually wanted it over time Thank You Big Blue Nation for your constant and loyal support it truly has been an honor and thanks again everyone for joining us for another full season of from the rafters of Rob from the rafters of Rock was brought to you by gunshot Don Franklin's automo double dogs friends of coal hunt brothers pizza Kentucky Farm Bureau and by Rafferty's [Music]

Channel: From The Rafters of Rupp

Views: 1,569

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Id: f-SPpwn_CD0

Length: 23min 13sec (1393 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 21 2020