With all-time greats Jack Givens, Rick Robey and Kyle Macy in the starting lineup, Coach Joe B. Hall’s 1978 Kentucky Wildcats will forever be loved by Blue Blue Nation after winning the school’s fifth NCAA championship.
But what Kentucky fans may not know is just how close basketball legend Larry Bird came to being on the roster that year as he reportedly dreamed of being a Wildcat.
Coming out of Springs Valley High School in French Lick, Indiana, Bird averaged 31 points, 21 rebounds, and 4 assists per game as a senior and originally signed with Bob Knight’s Indiana Hoosiers before transferring to Indiana State University where he was named the Naismith Player of the Year in 1979.