Joe Beasman Hall (November 30, 1928 – January 15, 2022) was an American

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

coach. He was the head coach at the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

from 1972 to 1985, leading the Wildcats to a national championship in 1978.

Biography

Hall played one year of varsity basketball at Kentucky before transferring to the Sewanee: The University of the South, where he completed his basketball playing eligibility but did not graduate. After Sewanee, Hall toured with the

Harlem Globetrotters The Harlem Globetrotters are an American exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, and comedy in their style of play. Created in 1926 by Tommy Brookins in Chicago, Illinois, the team adopted the name ''Harlem'' because of ...

and later returned to Kentucky to complete his undergraduate studies. Hall graduated from Kentucky in 1955. Hall previously coached at the Central Missouri State College (now the

University of Central Missouri The University of Central Missouri (UCM) is a public university in Warrensburg, Missouri. In 2019, enrollment was 11,229 students from 49 states and 59 countries on its 1,561-acre campus. UCM offers 150 programs of study, including 10 pre-profes ...

) and

Regis University Regis University is a private Jesuit university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1877 by the Society of Jesus, the university offers more than 120 degrees through 5 colleges in a variety of subjects, including education, liberal arts, business, nu ...

before returning to Kentucky in 1965 to serve as an assistant coach under

Adolph Rupp Adolph Frederick Rupp (September 2, 1901 – December 10, 1977) was an American college basketball coach. He is ranked seventh in total victories by a men's NCAA Division I college coach, winning 876 games in 41 years of coaching at the Un ...

. When Rupp reached mandatory retirement age of 70, Hall was selected as the new coach on April 1, 1972. In his initial statements upon taking the job he made it clear that he would recruit black players to the team (previously there had only been three in the program's history). In the 1978 NCAA tournament, he coached the Wildcats to their fifth

NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball In Unite ...

. He was named National Coach of the Year in 1978 and

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

Coach of the Year on four occasions. His record at UK was 297–100, and 373–156 over his career. Along with the 1978 title, Hall also guided Kentucky to a runner-up finish to

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

in the 1975 NCAA tournament, a Final Four appearance in the 1984 NCAA tournament (losing to eventual champion Georgetown), and an NIT championship in 1976. He won eight

regular season championships and one

tournament championship. On September 18, 2012, the

unveiled a statue of Hall outside of the Wildcat Coal Lodge to commemorate his accomplishments at UK and his contributions toward the Wildcat Coal Lodge. The university said that the

bronze sculpture Bronze is the most popular metal for Casting (metalworking), cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply "a bronze". It can be used for statues, singly or in groups, reliefs, and small statuettes and figurines, as w ...

was produced over a period of eight months, beginning as a clay sculpture, then was cast in bronze. It was created by sculptor J. Brett Grill of Columbia, Missouri. Hall co-hosted a radio sports talk show with former

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

head coach

Denny Crum Denzel Edwin "Denny" Crum (born March 2, 1937) is an American former men's college basketball coach at the University of Louisville from 1971 to 2001, compiling a record. He guided the Cardinals to two NCAA championships (1980, 1986) and six Fi ...

from March 2004 to October 2014. ''The Joe B. and Denny Show'' ended on October 30, 2014, after

WVLK-FM WVLK-FM (92.9 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station broadcasting a country music radio format. Licensed to Lexington, Kentucky, and owned by Cumulus Media, the station serves Central Kentucky's Bluegrass region. The station's studios and offic ...

, the Lexington station from which Hall did his portion of the show, announced a change in format.

Personal life and death

Hall died at his residence in Lexington, Kentucky, on January 15, 2022, at the age of 93. He was buried at The Lexington Cemetery in

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County. By population, it is the second-largest city in Kentucky and 57th-largest city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 28th-largest ...

Head coaching record

References

External links

University of Kentucky Coaching Record
at BigBlueHistory.net {{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Joe B. 1928 births 2022 deaths American men's basketball coaches Basketball coaches from Kentucky Basketball players from Lexington, Kentucky Central Missouri Mules basketball coaches College men's basketball head coaches in the United States High school basketball coaches in the United States Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball coaches Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball players People from Cynthiana, Kentucky Regis Rangers men's basketball coaches Sewanee Tigers men's basketball players

Biography

Personal life and death

Head coaching record

See also

References

External links