I had the chance to attend the memorial for Bill “Mr. Wildcat” Keightley last night at 6 PM in Rupp Arena. There was a good show of fans and supporters, but the most amazing aspect was the amount of coaches and players there to pay their respects. Among the players were this past year’s team, as well as Kenny Walker, Jeff Sheppard, Jay Shidler, Kyle Macy, Dwayne Casey, Cameron Mills, Scott Pagent, and Walter McCarty as well as many many more. Beyond the players, there were many coaches who were good friends with Keightley that were present. Three of the five coaches and Keightley served under were there (Joe B. Hall, Rick Pitino, Billy Gillispie, with Tubby Smith’s flight being delayed on his way to the service), as well as John Pelphrey (former player and current head coach of Arkansas), Billy Donovan (former assistant coach and current head coach of Florida), Rick Stansbury (native Kentuckian and current head coach of Mississippi State), and Jeff Morrow (head coach of a Kentucky high school basketball team). there were some great speeches given, but my favorite by far came from an unlikely source, Rick Pitino. Here is a video of the great speech Rick gave last night.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqTv8PA0Bd0]

It is easy to say that Bill Keightley impacted many people’s lives. He turned boys into leaders, nervous and youthful coaches into experienced veterans, and anyone he met into a friend. One of the overlooked things he did was not only prepare college athletes for pro sports, but people for whatever life they lead. There are doctors, real estate agents, firemen and more than all dawned a jersey during school.

To see all the speeches as well as the tribute video, you can CLICK HERE and view sections of the memorial that someone captured from TV last night and put up on Youtube. You can also stop by the news page on ESPN and on WKYT to view all the kind and thoughtful comments at both places.

If you look at the post below this one, I was seeing if anyone could guess who just announced that they are coming to Rupp Arena. There were some decent guesses, and others that were creative to say the least. As you can see from the image above, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss are the artists that just announced that they are coming this summer to Rupp Arena. Alison Krauss is extremely well known as being an incredibly talented singer and violinist. Robert Plant is somewhat known as well. He is only a part of one of the greatest Rock Bands of all time, Led Zeppelin (although Matt, our webmaster sees no competition). In fact, he was more than a part of it, he was the all-too-familiar vocalist. Plant is the one you hear daily on the radio serenading you with songs about love, Valhalla, The Lord of the Rings, and a stairway that leads to heaven. Plant’s set of pipes and Alison’s graceful bow strokes will be captivating the audience at Rupp Arena on Friday, July 18.

For more information on the show, keep checking the page dedicated to the concert on Rupp Arena’s Website. You can also read the press release on the news section on the Rupp Arena Website.

There will be a public memorial held for “Mr. Wildcat” Bill Keightley this Thursday, April 3rd. Starting at 10 o’clock AM and going to 4 o’clock PM, there will be a viewing in the Rupp Arena lobby at the High Street entrance. The memorial service will take place at 6 o’clock PM in Rupp Arena. For more details about the service, please visit the memorial page on Rupp Arena’s website.

The Rupp Arena Blog gives its best wishes to the Keightley family.

This past Saturday, the Lexington Horsemen had their opening game for the season against the Thunder Birds of Daytona Beach. Not only was it opening night, but it was Student night. Student tickets were only $5, beers were discounted, and even the Fillies were supporting their schools by wearing shirts from their respective universities. The Horsemen had some new players, a new coach, a new field, in a new league and were ready to set the bar high.

Right off the bat, or should I say the stitching on the ball, they managed to score two touchdowns in the first quarter while holding the Thunder Birds to no scores. While Daytona Beach did manage to score a touchdown in the second quarter (but missed the extra point), the Horsemen extended their lead by another touchdown by racking up another 13 points. The third quarter played much like the second. There were a lot of nice plays by both teams and some exceptional tackles. Daytona Beach scored another 6 points, but the Horsemen yet again extended their lead by getting 14 more points, now leading the game 41 to 12. As a nice dollop of icing on top of the cake, the Horsemen defense held Daytona Beach to no scores in the last quarter, while the offense grabbed another touchdown, closing the game with a 48 to 12 Horseman victory. Since I attended the game, so did my camera (although it didn’t eat nearly as many pretzels as I did). I was able to snap some photos from my seat that captured some of the atmosphere of the game. Here are some below. Enjoy!

For the next home game (this Saturday versus the Peoria Pirates) I plan to snap some shots from the floor which will allow for me to get a lot more action photos. Stay tuned for more Horsemen coverage here on the blog, and stop by our team page on the Rupp Arena website to view the schedule and ticket prices. Great start Horsemen! Good luck in the next home game this Saturday.