My hometown paper, the Louisville Courier-Journal, just polled readers on which four figures belong on Kentucky’s sports “Rushmore.” Not surprisingly, Muhammad Ali, Secretariat, Adolph Rupp and Denny Crum led voting.
Ali and Secretariat were the greatest in their sports, with transcendent achievements and notoriety. As for Rupp and Crum, Kentucky and Louisville basketball drive the sports engine in Kentucky.
In Alabama, the same could be said for Alabama and Auburn football, but whoa. Let’s not be so quick to pencil Bear Bryant, Nick Saban, Shug Jordan and Pat Dye into the four “Rushmore” slots.
Or, for that matter, any four of the five Heisman Trophy winners to play for Alabama or Auburn.