For the first time in a hundred years the University of Kentucky and Transylvania University will square off in a basketball game. There were only 77 million people in the US, President McKinley was shot, Queen Victoria had just died, and federal spending had just topped the $500 million mark. Sportswise the first World Series was yet to be played, Harvard was the best football team in the land, and His Eminence won the Kentucky Derby. Technologically Marconi had just sent the first radio signal across the Atlantic, and this new idea of a horseless carriage was all the rage. That was some of what was going on the last time Kentucky and Transylvania met in scheduled basketball game.
How does this happen and why is it happening now? I know that these two universities play on a completely different level when it comes to college basketball. I know that the economics are not the driving force behind this athletic contest and even pride seems to have little to do with it. There has never been a ground swell from the fans or the media for this game to take place, so for a century it just never happened.
I must confess that the idea of Kentucky playing a game against a neighbor like Transy never occurred to me, but now that it is happening, I am excited. You might say I am looking forward to it, not for the expected outcome or the rivalry aspect, but for the idea that this just might be a really good time. When you stop and think about it that's what college sports is supposed to be about.
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