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Posted by catmandoo (Member # 1284) on 06-04-2018, 08:25 PM:

C.M. Newton, whose basketball legacy includes playing for a University of Kentucky national championship team, later rescuing UK’s program from national embarrassment and repeatedly opening doors for historically marginalized black athletes and coaches, died Monday from natural causes. He was 88.

Charles Martin Newton filled many roles in more than a half-century in basketball. Among them were UK player, coach at Transylvania, Alabama and Vanderbilt, associate commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, UK director of athletics, chair of the NCAA Rules Committee, chair of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, president of USA Basketball, NIT Committee chair, USA Basketball representative at FIBA and inductee in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

“In anything to do with basketball, he was an ambassador,” Kentucky Coach John Calipari said in February. “He is a basketball icon.”

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[ 06-10-2018, 01:19 PM: Message edited by: catmandoo ]

Posted by catmandoo (Member # 1284) on 06-04-2018, 08:44 PM:

He was special and we were so fortunate to have him for so many years. Here is a brief synopsis of his SEC career.

Newton was a leader in integrating the SEC: He signed the first black scholarship athlete at Alabama in 1969, fielded the conference’s first all-black starting lineup there in 1973 and hired Kentucky’s first black men’s and women’s basketball coaches, Tubby Smith and Bernadette Mattox.

He was a forward-thinker in other big ways, too: Newton was chairman of the NCAA rules committee when college basketball began experimenting with the 3-point line and shot clock. He was president of USA Basketball when it was decided to allow pro players to participate and the “Dream Team” was built.

To those who knew him well, however, Newton’s legacy will be much larger than any single achievement in sports.

“We can talk all day about all that he did [at Kentucky] and what he had to do to get the program back on point, but I always come back to how he treated people,” wrote Calipari, who first met him as an assistant at Pittsburgh when Newton’s Vanderbilt team knocked him out of the NCAA Tournament. “I asked him how he was able to have the courage to go against the grain in Alabama at that time. He told me, ‘I saw people as people. And I wanted to win. I was trying to bring in the best players. I didn’t care if they were black, white, green or gold. I wanted to win.’

“What is popular isn’t always right and what is right isn’t always popular. That is something we can all learn from C.M.”

Calipari learned another important lesson from Newton in 1992, when Calipari’s Massachusetts team lost to Kentucky in the Sweet 16 — a result aided by a late technical foul call on Calipari for being out of the coach’s box.

After the game, “C.M. looked at me and said, ‘Cal, make sure you handle this the right way.’ In other words, I needed to take responsibility for what happened,” Calipari wrote. “That taught me that it’s important to take responsibility when you’re wrong and even when you are not.”

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[ 06-10-2018, 01:19 PM: Message edited by: catmandoo ]

Posted by m hamilton (Member # 127) on 06-05-2018, 06:10 AM:

Funny story, my brother and I met CM at the '97 final four. We were standing in line for the open practice on Friday morning. when they finally opened the doors around 10 am we were anxious to get down, front and center court. We almost ran over CM who was standing in the arena entryway leading down to the floor in the old RCA dome.
He asked us if we were excited and of course our replay was absolutely sir!

Posted by boomdaddy (Member # 2644) on 06-05-2018, 10:31 AM:

I have not been a fan of the AD's in my lifetime as a UK fan and alum.

Being AD is a tough job. You bring a coach you think will be great and its a crap shoot. For every star hire, there is a loser or a drunk that made you hire them in the first place.

Not naming names, but I remember a past UK player who was AD ( not CM ) that looked drunk off his ass, in half time interviews on tv. Maybe I was off base in interpreting what I saw, but the guy couldn't stand there without swaying.

Barnhart is the best of the bunch, in my opinion. With all of the mistakes that he has made, he finally got some money spent on the football program. Yes, he gave us Billy G. But, the football program is not the red headed step child it once was. If we could get in a time machine and show the UK administration how big football would grow to be, I wonder if they would have been smart enough to keep Bear Bryant? Had they been able to keep Bryant around, I think Kentucky would have a storied winning tradition in both sports.

For the record, I could care less about the rest of the programs. I only care about football and men's basketball.

[ 06-05-2018, 10:54 AM: Message edited by: boomdaddy ]