First there was Ray Mears, the Tennessee basketball coach and master showman, with players on unicycles, spinning orange-and-white basketballs during warm-ups. Mears so irritated Big Blue Nation that UK students were known to throw oranges on the floor whenever the Volunteers came to Memorial Coliseum.
Mears’ biggest sin: Tennessee started winning.
Then there was Dale Brown, the LSU basketball coach and master showman who once took off his sport coat and hurled it across the floor at Memorial Coliseum covering the outline of the state at midcourt. Brown so irritated Big Blue Nation that whenever he brought his team to Lexington you thought just about anything might happen.